Fan Film Features – Fan Film Factor

First of the two AXANAR sequels has FINAL SOUND MIX session in Los Angeles!

It was nearly twelve years ago when ALEC PETERS, MARK EDWARD LEWIS, and a bunch of members of the production team of PRELUDE TO AXANAR sat together inside a the SOL 7 sound studio in Encino, CA while the sound levels of that groundbreaking fan film were mixed together and equalized.

It is now 2026, and the sequel that fans have been waiting a dozen years to see is now mere weeks from release! Oh, I know what some of yoou are thinking: We’ve heard THAT one before! “Thirty days out…yeah, right!” was the frequent taunt from detractors as the release date of the two AXANAR sequels (permitted by the 2017 legal settlement with CBS and Paramount) slipped later and later and later still—years later, in fact!

So what makes this time different? Why am I confident enough to state on this blog that I firmly believe that AXANAR: THE GATHERING STORM (the first of the two sequels) will be released to fans before the seasons change from winter to spring in 2026?

Because I’ve just watched the entire thing!!!

With the exception of a handful of shots of two of the actors that haven’t been composited yet to replace the green screen with a CGI-generated digital background (maybe a total of less than 3% of entire film), it’s done. All of the incredible VFX shots, every sound effect, all of the digital readout display animations, the opening credits, the closing credits, the voice-over narration of John Gil, and most of all, the sumptuous musical score composed by the identical twin LIVESAY brothers, JASON and NOLAN. (These guys have worked on and orchestrated multiple big-name Hollywood film, TV, and video projects—including STAR TREK: PICARD, DISCOVERY, STRANGE NEW WORLDS, THE ORVILLE, DAREDEVIL, X-MEN, and a host of others. And now they’ve given Axanar one of the greatest soundtracks in fan film history, at least in my opinion.)

I’ll be honest with you, when I first saw a rough cut of Axanar: The Gathering Storm last year, I wasn’t nearly as impressed as I’d hoped to be. The acting was certainly quite decent, and those VFX shots that had been completed looked spectacular. But it all felt kinda flat and exposition-heavy. I feared that, once the long-anticipated sequels were finally released, fans (especially the more cynical and negative ones) would complain, “We waited twelve years and donated a million and a half dollars for this????”

Oh, me of little faith!

Now that I’ve had a chance to hear the sound mix—a combination of dialog, music, and sound effects—I can truthfully say I was absolutely bowled over! This fan film now feels so ALIVE! Now, granted, I was seeing this on a big screen with 35,000 watts playing through 11 cinema-quality speakers! It felt very much like watching a movie in a theater. And indeed, Mark Lewis (who co-directed, edited, and is doing the sound design) told me he would be creating three different soundtracks for this fan film.

2025 Star Trek Fan Film YEAR IN REVIEW (part 2)

Yesterday, we began looking back at many of the major (and not-so-major) Star Trek fan films released in 2025—and there were a LOT! So many, if fact, that I felt I needed to divide this Year in Review blog into two parts. Part 1 covered January through June. Now, let’s finish out the final six months and see what Trekkie fan filmmakers had to offer us. There’s some really great stuff on this list…

2025 Star Trek Fan Film YEAR IN REVIEW (part 1)

It’s the end of another year, and I’m still here, you’re still here, and so are Star Trek fan films! Admittedly, I’ve been less prolific in 2025 than I have in past years because I’ve gotten involved with mentoring my sons Jayden’s high school robotics team, The Bagel Bytes (named after their first sponsor back in 2001, Noah’s Bagels). And I’ve kinda gone all-in, assisting the team with marketing materials and e-mail communication, finding sponsors (including RODDENBERRY ENTERTAINMENT!), filming and editing team videos, helping them set up a Patreon campaign, and a whole lot more. I’m with the team 2-3 times a week, helping out the coach, and just marveling at these amazingly talented teens! But putting in all of those free volunteer hours is leaving me with much less time and energy for this blog.

That being said, I’m still organizing the annual SHOWRUNNER AWARDS, interviewing many Star Trek fan filmmakers, and even assisting some of them with their fan films (as I did twice this past year!). And of course, my regular YEAR IN REVIEW blogs have been an annual tradition since my first one back in 2017. And each year, I remind my readers who predicted back in 2016 that CBS/Paramount’s fan film guidelines would utterly destroy Star Trek fan films that our little sub-sub-sub-genre is still very much alive and kicking.

And indeed, even nearly a decade later, Trek fan films continue to be produced and posted to YouTube—quite a lot of them! Buy, hey, don’t just take my word for it. Check it out for yourself below. In fact, there were so many to cover that I’ve split this year’s compilation blog into TWO parts!

Many of the following fan films were ones that I had intended to cover here on Fan Film Factor, but life and robotics got in the way. So instead, I’ll be spotlighting them here with short blurbs for each one. There’s probably at least a few you haven’t seen, and I strongly recommend that you check out any that intrigue you—and possibly some that don’t, as you might be pleasantly surprised. Let’s dive in…

You have until JANUARY 11th to enter the FIFTH annual Fan Film DIRECTORS CHOICE Awards!

Returning for an impressive FIFTH consecutive year, the Fan Film DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS are accepting submissions here:

https://thefederationfiles.com/?page_id=1407

Organized by DAN REYNOLDS and GLEN L, WOLFE (co-owners of WARP 66 STUDIOS in northern Arkansas), the call for entries began on November 1, 2025 and continues through January 11, 2026. Fan filmmakers can submit their film(s)—a maximum of three fan films per director—for a cost of $10 per film entered.

The Directors Choice Awards are open to any fan film from any genre (NOT limited to only Star Trek) that was released onto YouTube or any public media for the first time in calendar year 2025. The $10 entry fee includes submitting the film for consideration in up to seven of the following specialty categories in addition to being considered for Best in Fest (which carries a $250 cash prize). The categories are…

Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Director
Best Original Costuming
Best Make-up/Hairstyling
Best Cinematography
Best Original Music
Best Audio Mixing
Best Lighting
Best FX Make-Up
Best CGI FX
Best Green Screen
Best Composite Shot
Best Screenplay
Best Parody/Comedy
Best Portrayal of an Existing Character
Best Animated Fan Film
Best Editing
Most Canon Award
Best Ensemble
Best On-Location Scene
Best Plot Twist
Best Sets
Best Choreography
Best Trailer
Best Poster
Best Horror Film

The last category is brand new for this year’s awards. Also, I’ve been asked to mention that the poster must be for a fan film that premiered in calendar year 2025. However, the trailer can be for a fan film that hasn’t been released yet. The only requirement is that the trailer itself must have been publicly posted for the first time during 2025.

As with the four previous years (and in line with the name of the contest), the fan films will be judged by the directors themselves. Each director will be e-mailed a ballot for each film they submitted . A director cannot vote for any fan film they themselves directed, and all ballots will be due no later than March 15. If a judge fails to return their completed ballot in time, their film submission(s) will be disqualified.

Once again, here is the link to enter, with the final deadline for submissions being January 11, 2026…

https://thefederationfiles.com/?page_id=1407

Winners will be announced on First Contact Day: April 5, 2026.

Funny Video: “HAVE I STILL GOT THE MAGIC?” – from KHAN!!! THE MUSICAL!

Who says you can’t do Star Trek as a musical? Actually, there have been quite a few Trek musicals in addition to the recent canonical episode of STRANGE NEW WORLDS, “Subspace Rhapsody”—and frankly, fans did get there first! In fact, I previously covered the 2016 Trek parody musical BOLDLY GO! in a 2017 blog entry. And in 2019, BRENT BLACK wrote music, lyrics, and dialogue for KHAN!!! THE MUSICAL. The full cast recording of all 22 song tracks is available here. And for a visual sample of one of those hilarious songs, Brent edited this spiffy (and funny!) little music video with clips from TOS and TWOK…

TIME AND TIME AGAIN from STAR TREK FAN PRODUCTIONS INTERNATIONAL is a cosplayer’s dream come true! (interview with DAVID CHENG)

If you want to see impeccable TOS movie-era uniforms in a Star Trek fan film right now, there’s really only two places to look. The first is FARRAGUT FILMS, whose recent FARRAGUT FORWARD from last year and the upcoming FARRAGUT 2024 due out in the next few weeks feature dozens of carefully-crafted, cosplay-quality recreations of the beautiful monster maroons from the early Trek feature films.

Of course, when you’re talking cosplay-quality Starfleet, why not go right to the source…actual cosplayers! You see them walking around Star Trek conventions looking so dapper and elegant, and in the past few years, many of these same cosplayers have portrayed characters in fanthology films released by STAR TREK FAN PRODUCTIONS INTERNATIONAL and its main showrunner, Southern California-based DAVID CHENG. But David hasn’t limited himself solely to movie-era. Since 2019, his fan film releases have included The Motion Picture-era uniforms, TOS, and both 24th and 25th century styles. Here’s a list…

THE HUMAN ADVENTURE (2019)
LOOK FORWARD TO THE DAY (2020)
I AM SPOCK (2020)
UNREST (2020)
PEACE AND GOODWILL (2020)
OUTRAGED (2021)
BORG HUNTERS (2022)
SPARE THE FUTURE, SAVE THE PAST (2024)

Back in June, David and company released their latest project, TIME AND TIME AGAIN, which took the idea of using cosplayers to a whole new level. Filmed at an actual Star Trek convention in private hotel rooms, small conference rooms, and elsewhere, you can count nearly two dozen different cosplayers in the cast—many of them familiar faces to those of us who regularly attend conventions, especially here in America. Cosplayers played Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, plus Admiral Nogura and Vulcan Ambassador Soval. Take a look…

Although it’s been a few months since its release, I didn’t want Time and Time Again to pass by unblogged. So I tracked down David Cheng for a short interview…

A very special fan film: SECOND STAR TO THE LEFT from TALES FROM THE NEUTRAL ZONE… (part 2 of a 2-part blog)

Last week, I discussed how I came to be the primary editor of the newest fan film from the “fanthology” series TALES FROM THE NEUTRAL ZONE. Titled SECOND STAR TO THE LEFT, the story begins as most TOS-era fan films do, with a captain and crew on a mission and then a mystery leading to a threat. But in this very special fan film, something unexpected happens halfway through to turn the story into something completely different. And if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s worth watching first without any spoilers…

Assuming you’ve just watched the above video, I can now share that the lead actress who stars as Captain Fairchild/Cathy, SARA McCARTNEY, is herself on the autism spectrum. Indeed, Sara’s mother, RUTH McCARTNEY, wrote the story as a quasi-biographical/autobiographical remembrance of the struggles that both she and her daughter have faced during their respective lifetimes. In both cases, Star Trek became a sanctuary, as it has for numerous fans over the decades. As such, this production has a very wide appeal.

Second Star to the LEFT was one of the final fan films to be shot at the Kingsland, GA location of NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS before their amazing TOS set recreations were packed up and moved 900 miles north to a new location in a shopping mall in Sandusky, OH. You can read more about that move here. Ruth, a long-time volunteer at the Kingsland location, asked set owner RAY TESI for permission to shoot Second Star before the sets were disassembled, and Ray happily agreed.

JOSHUA IRWIN of AVALON UNIVERSE Productions, who has directed multiple episodes of Tales from the Neutral Zone, agreed to drive down to Kingsland from his home in northwestern Arkansas (a trip he has made MANY times!) to direct not only Second Star but three different fan films all being shot during the same manic three-day weekend. Later, Josh asked me to help edit my choice of one of the multiple fan films he was working on, and I decided upon Second Star, as I discussed in part of of this blog feature.

I consider this fan film to be particularly important, as Sara’s performance shows what an individual with neurodivergence can accomplish. At a time when autism is being stigmatized by divisive rhetoric and wild theories as to its causes, Second Star to the LEFT humbly reminds us that being on the spectrum isn’t a disability so much a simply a different ability.

When Second Star debuted on the Avalon Universe YouTube channel, Josh hosted a livestream discussion with several people who were involved with the production, including Ruth and Sara, myself, Ray, Tesi, KEITH HAMILTON (who did some of the VFX), and MICHAEL SEAN CARTER, who is one of the volunteers coordinating the studio move to Sandusky. With Josh’s permission, I’m including that video below to finish off this 2-part spotlight on the film.

The first segment of the video deals with the latest news from Avalon Universe. So I’ve queued up the video to begin at the 20-minute mark when the topic shifts to Second Star. Feel free to back it up to the beginning if you’re curious about other current and future Avalon projects…

How I ended up editing SECOND STAR TO THE LEFT from TALES FROM THE NEUTRAL ZONE… (part 1 of a 2-part blog)

This is going to be a different kind of blog today. Usually, I write from the perspective of being on the outside looking in. This time, however, I stepped in as film editor on a very special Star Trek fan film starring a courageous young actress who is on the autism spectrum. And therein lies a tale…a tale from NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS.

It was the spring of 2024, and my friend JOSHUA IRWIN was feeling quite overloaded…and no wonder! Ever since branching out beyond producing his series of AVALON UNIVERSE fan films, Josh has been one of the most in-demand filmmakers in the entire community. He gets asked to direct, do lighting, camera, cinematography, special FX, sound, and editing on what seems to be an endless parade of projects ranging from fan films like FARRAGUT 2024 and fan series like DREADNOUGHT DOMINION to fanthologies like THE FEDERATION FILES and TALES FROM THE NEUTRAL ZONE. And as the year began, Josh had no loess than SIX different fan films that he helped shoot, produce, wrote, and/or directed…and he needed to edit each of them.

Some of these were major projects, like the series finale of the 23rd century run of Avalon Universe, an upcoming release to be titled THE ONCE AND FUTURE CAPTAIN. Others were mid-size projects, like a story for Tales from the Neutral Zone called HISTORY NEVER FORGETS (still unreleased) about the crew of the Enterprise-C before its destruction. And then there were three “small” fan films with minimal raw footage that had each been shot in about a day or less with run times of maybe 15 minutes or so. With work life, family life, and fan film life commitments piling up, Josh asked me if I’d be willing to help him edit one of these three shorter fan films.

This request didn’t come out of left field. Josh and I had worked closely on the edit for my AXANAR Universe fan film INTERLUDE, and even though I drove him nuts (and maybe a little vice-versa), we actually worked quite effectively together—finding some compromises when we didn’t agree or else one or the other of us putting our foot down—and wound up with a very nice final cut. Josh understands that I don’t know a hundredth of what he does about the finer points of film editing like levels and color optimization, but he knows I have a good feel of which takes work the best and how to piece together a good rough edit.

“If you can just assemble the cuts in the timeline, Jonathan, I can do all of the rest,” Josh told me. “And even if you edit only one of these shorter films, it’ll really help lighten my workload.” And I was happy to do it. I actually enjoy editing a film, at least on a basic putting-the-pieces-together level. Now the only decision I had to make was which of the three fan films to tackle.

Announcing the 2025 Star Trek Fan Film SHOWRUNNER AWARD WINNERS!

It’s that magical day again, folks! Yes, it’s the 59th anniversary of the first airing of Star Trek on NBC back in 1966. AND it’s also the day we learn the winners of this year’s Star Trek Fan Film SHOWRUNNER AWARDS…our fourth consecutive year!

One of the things about the Showrunner Awards that makes me the most proud is that the results are determined by members of our community who truly understand what goes into making a successful and impressive Star Trek fan film. For lack of a better term, our judges are “experts,” experienced at the challenges involved in producing quality fan films with limited resources and funds. And it’s for this reason, I sincerely believe, that our results make sense to people.

This year, we had 24 Star Trek fan films entered with a total runtime of nearly ten and a half hours! That’s a LOT of commitment from each of our judges to watch so many fan films, and I truly appreciate their dedication to the task. Sadly, one of our twelve judges for this year, LEE GARTRELL of THE ROMULAN WARS fan series, had to regretfully step aside at the last minute due to a family health emergency. Unfortunately, it was too late to bring in a replacement judge (ballots were due in less than two weeks from the date he contacted me), but we all send our best wishes to Lee and his family for a speedy and positive resolution to this crisis.

In the meantime, here is a list of our remaining judges:

JOSE CEPEDA – NATURE’S HUNGER
SAMUEL COCKINGS – TREK SHORTS and TEMPORAL ANOMALY
JOSHUA IRWIN – THE AVALON UNIVERSE
JONATHAN LANE – INTERLUDE and AN ABSENT FRIEND
MARK LARGENT – STALLED TREK
VANCE MAJOR – CONSTAR
BRIAN W. PETERSON – THE LOST STARSHIP
IAN RAMSEY – STAR REKT PARODY MUSIC VIDEOS
DAN R. REYNOLDS – THE FEDERATION FILES
BENJAMIN SCHULZ – LORELEY
RANDY WRENN – DREADNOUGHT DOMINION and other series

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.

As often happens with this scoring system, we had a fair number of ties, both 2-way and even a few 3-way—something that I think of as more of a feature than a bug, as it just means more folks get to celebrate wins, and I love to make people happy. There have even been some years, including this one, where a single category had multiple 2-way ties. But this year’s Best Actress category featured what I can only refer to as a “full house”—both a 2-way and a 3-way tie! That’s SIX winners in one category….out of 11 nominees, so it wasn’t just a “participation trophy”).

Announcing the WINNERS of the 2nd annual TREKS IN 90 SECS contest!

The whole idea behind TREKS IN 90 SECS was to challenge the assumption that it was impossible to make a decent Star Trek fan film that was 15 minutes or less in length (a limit set by CBS and Paramount’s fan film guidelines). Not only did fans quickly prove that it was possible, fan films have thrived these past nine years despite this limit. So if fans were clever enough to cut things down to 15 minutes, could they be even more clever enough to cut things down to just 90 seconds???

Last year, nine groups of fan filmmakers took up the gauntlet to submit ultra-short films to our inaugural contest. This year, we had ten submissions (although one was previously submitted from last year…which is allowed for a short film that wasn’t in the top three previously). This year’s submissions were due at the end of July, and voting was open on Fan Film Factor from August 3rd through 24th.

Awards for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place have now been given to the top three vote-getting fan films who now get to brag and copy-paste their “certificate” graphics onto their YouTube, Facebook, and social media pages. Amusingly, this year we had a tie for second place, with the same fan filmmaker getting the same number of votes for both of his submissions.

But all of the submissions are winners in my book—for taking up the challenge in the first place and finishing their super-mini-fan films! And that’s why I’m including all ten submissions on this page, along with their final vote totals (as everyone got at least some votes), so fans can see each of the submitted films…

1st Place – THRONE OF ZEUS (28 votes)