It’s crazy to think that 2026 marks the FIFTH annual Star Trek Fan Film SHOWRUNNER AWARD contest. Originally conceived at nearly the same moment as GLEN WOLFE’s and DAN REYNOLD’s DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS back in early 2022, the Showrunner Awards were intended to replace the time-honored BJO AWARDS for Star Trek fan films, which had been presented for over half a decade during the annual Treklanta convention.
The tradition was established during the first Showrunner Awards to announce the winners during the anniversary of the first airing of Star Trek on NBC back in 1966. So happy 60th birthday, Star Trek, and happy 5th birthday, Showrunner Awards!
This year, we had 23 entries combining for a total of just under 10 hours of viewing for our 12 showrunner judges. For comparison, last year we had 24 entries and the year before there were 27 entires, each with a combined runtime of just under 9 hours. So we decreased by one submission but increased by an entire hour??? If you’re curious as to why, one of our submissions has a run time of 2 hours and 15 minutes just by itself!)
Speaking of our judges, each is himself a showrunner on a Star Trek fan film or series, so they know what’s involved in producing a successful project. This year, our panel consisted of these fine gentlemen…
- THOMAS ARGANTE – USS CASSANDRA
- JOSE CEPEDA – NATURE’S HUNGER
- NICK COOK – INTREPID
- SAMUEL COCKINGS – TREK SHORTS and TEMPORAL ANOMALY
- JOSHUA IRWIN – THE AVALON UNIVERSE and other productions
- JONATHAN LANE – INTERLUDE and AN ABSENT FRIEND
- MARK LARGENT – STALLED TREK
- VANCE MAJOR – CONSTAR
- BRIAN W. PETERSON – THE LOST STARSHIP
- BENJAMIN SCHULZ – LORELEY
- GLEN L WOLFE – THE FEDERATION FILES
- RANDY WRENN – DREADNOUGHT DOMINION and other series
Thomas Argante and Nick Cook were newly added to our judging panel this year, although neither is “rookie” when it comes to Star Trek fan films. Thomas has made multiple guest appearances over the past half-decade in fan series productions from DREADNOUGHT DOMINION and PROJECT: RUNABOUT to THE CONSTAR CHRONICLES before launching the new USS CASSANDRA fan series in the Netherlands last year. As for Nick, well, he’s been one of the most recognizable faces in Star Trek fan films dating back twenty years with appearances in the Scotland-based INTREPID fan series, the America-based STAR TREK: HIDDEN FRONTIER series, as well as numerous England-based TREK SHORTS from prolific showrunner Sam Cockings.
Every judge ranked their top five selections in each of 22 categories, with their top choice earning 10 points, second choice earning 7 points, then 5, 3, and 1 points for choices three through five. A judge was not allowed to vote for a fan film they themselves submitted as any of their top three selections.
A huge thank you to each of our judges for putting in their time and consideration to making the Showrunner Awards possible for a half-decade now. You guys are awesome!
As you’ll see from this year’s results, we had a couple of 500-pound mugatos to contend with. In fact, one of these two juggernauts took awards in all but four categories—despite ther dialog being completely in German!
It’s possible that these two powerhouses are the reason that, this year, we had surprisingly few two-way ties compared to previous years—although there were still some—and no three-way ties. Or maybe it was just a coincidence. That said, I’m still pleased to report that 17 of our 23 entries eared at least one award. Scroll to the bottom of this page for a final tally of how many awards each film received. And you can view the majority of the submitted fan films on this YouTube playlist.
And with that, my friends, let’s get to the results of the 2026 Showrunner Awards for Star Trek Fan Films released between January 2023 and December 2025. Links to the winning fan films in each category are provided under that category’s winners. Have a watch and see if you agree with our judges’ choices…
BEST ORIGINAL CHARACTER
Click here to watch FARRAGUT 2024
Click here to watch MIND LEECH
Click here to watch SECOND STAR TO THE LEFT
Click here to watch LORELEY – PART III: ERSTKONTAKT
BEST HAIR & MAKE-UP
Click here to watch FARRAGUT 2024
Click here to watch LORELEY – PART III: ERSTKONTAKT
Click here to watch CAPTAIN SIMIAN’S FIRST COMMAND
Click here to watch FARRAGUT 2024
Click here to watch LORELEY – PART III: ERSTKONTAKT
Click here to watch FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE
Click here to watch SLIPSTREAM
Click here to watch LORELEY – PART III: ERSTKONTAKT
Click here to watch THE ROAD NOT TAKEN – PRODIGY RECKONING (EPISODE 4)
Click here to watch FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE
Click here to watch FARRAGUT 2024
Click here to watch LORELEY – PART III: ERSTKONTAKT
Click here to watch THE HIVE
Click here to watch FARRAGUT 2024
Click here to watch WHAT’S NEXT
Click here to watch THE CASSANDRA EFFECT
Click here to watch THE ICARUS MANEUVER
Click here to watch FARRAGUT 2024
Click here to watch LORELEY – PART III: ERSTKONTAKT
Click here to watch FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE
Click here to watch THE DUMBSDAY MACHINE
Click here to watch THE HIVE
Click here to watch LORELEY – PART III: ERSTKONTAKT
BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS (non-CGI)
Click here to watch FARRAGUT 2024
Click here to watch THE HIVE
Click here to watch SLIPSTREAM
Click here to watch CAPTAIN SIMIAN’S FIRST COMMAND
Click here to watch LORELEY – PART III: ERSTKONTAKT
Click here to watch FARRAGUT 2024
Click here to watch THE GREAT EXPERIMENT
Click here to watch FARRAGUT 2024
Click here to watch THE ICARUS MANEUVER
Click here to watch LORELEY – PART III: ERSTKONTAKT
Click here to watch FARRAGUT 2024
Click here to watch LORELEY – PART III: ERSTKONTAKT
Click here to watch THE ICARUS MANEUVER
Click here to watch THE DUMBSDAY MACHINE
Click here to watch LORELEY – PART III: ERSTKONTAKT
Click here to watch THE HIVE
Click here to watch FARRAGUT 2024
Click here to watch LORELEY – PART III: ERSTKONTAKT
Click here to watch THE HIVE
Click here to watch THE ICARUS MANEUVER
Click here to watch LORELEY – PART III: ERSTKONTAKT
Click here to watch FARRAGUT 2024
Click here to watch FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE
Click here to watch LORELEY – PART III: ERSTKONTAKT
Click here to watch FARRAGUT 2024
Click here to watch SLIPSTREAM
Click here to watch BROKEN MIRROR
Click here to watch THE HIVE
Click here to watch LORELEY – PART III: ERSTKONTAKT
Click here to watch FARRAGUT 2024
Click here to watch SECOND STAR TO THE LEFT
Click here to watch LORELEY – PART III: ERSTKONTAKT
Click here to watch MIND LEECH
Click here to watch FARRAGUT 2024
1:54 – An exposition/backstory scene which involved creating the TOS Sickbay, finishing DS9 Briefing room and CGI doubles for Dr McCoy and Lt’s Dax and Bashir. All in a one-camera move.
4:00 – Recreating the “mirror Universe” flag shot from the Enterprise Episode “In a Mirror, Darkly” title sequence, but now as a Khan Empire and all with future ships. Much work for a single still frame!
5:01 – A lineage of Gold Enterprises on the Admiral’s wall in chronological order: 1. First Frontier Enterprise. 2. Cage Enterprise 3. SNW Enterprise 4. TOS Enterprise 5. Phase II Enterprise
Click here to watch TO KNOW THINE ENEMY
Click here to watch THE ROAD NOT TAKEN – PRODIGY RECKONING (EPISODE 4)
Click here to watch FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE
Click here to watch THE DUMBSDAY MACHINE
Click here to watch THE CASSANDRA EFFECT
Click here to watch STARCHILD, BUT EVERYONE IS TYLER DUNIVAN
Click here to watch SECOND STAR TO THE LEFT
Click here to watch MIND LEECH
Click here to watch SLIPSTREAM
Click here to watch TO KNOW THINE ENEMY
Click here to watch LORELEY – PART III: ERSTKONTAKT
Click here to watch FARRAGUT 2024
Click here to watch THE HIVE
My congratulations to all of our winners at all levels! Each of you earned the award(s) you won according to a panel of your fellow fan filmmakers. And apologies to those who didn’t win, but my sincere thanks to everyone who submitted.
And finally, assuming that I haven’t miscounted, here are the total number of awards won by each fan film in descending order. As you can see, we had two unstoppable juggernauts, but each is definitely worth watching …
LORELEY – PART III: ERSTKONTAKT – 17 awards
FARRAGUT 2024 – 16 awards
THE HIVE – 7 awards
FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE – 5 awards
THE ICARUS MANEUVER – 4 awards
SLIPSTREAM – 4 awards
THE DUMBSDAY MACHINE – 3 awards
MIND LEECH – 3 awards
SECOND STAR TO THE LEFT – 3 awards
CAPTAIN SIMIAN’S FIRST COMMAND – 2 awards
THE CASSANDRA EFFECT – 2 awards
TO KNOW THINE ENEMY– 2 awards
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN – PRODIGY RECKONING (EPISODE 4) – 2 awards
BROKEN MIRROR – 1 award
THE GREAT EXPERIMENT – 1 award
STARCHILD, BUT EVERYONE IS TYLER DUNIVAN – 1 award
WHAT’S NEXT – 1 award