Tag: Dan Reynolds

Announcing the WINNERS of the 5th annual DIRECTORS CHOICE fan film awards for 2025!

The annual DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS have returned for a fifth year to announce their winners for fan films released during calendar year 2025. If you’re a fan filmmaker and want your production judged by a jury of your peers, there are currently two options. One is the Directors Choice Awards, and the other show, the SHOWRUNNER AWARDS, is limited exclusively to Star Trek fan films.

However, the Directors Choice Awards, hosted and organized by GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS, co-owners of WARP 66 STUDIOS in northern Arkansas, are open to fan films from all genres of sci-fi, fantasy, superhero, and horror. And that makes for a pretty extensive list of entries.

This year, the competition had 40 fan film submissions from around the world, a slight drop from last year’s 55 entries. As usual, the judges for the Directors Choice Awards were the directors of the fan films that were entered. All judges were expected to watch each of the submitted fan films before voting, which—I can tell you from personal experience as a judge myself last year—can be a commitment of many, many hours of viewing!

Genres this year included the old familiar standards like Star Trek, Star Wars, superhero, horror, Indiana Jones, Alien, and the original Battlestar Galactica…plus some newcomers we haven’t seen before like Logan’s Run, Blade Runner, Transformers, Max Payne, Jaws, and The Hunger Games. For a list of all the fan films that were entered, all of the nominees in each category, and all the winners, you can watch their presentation video.

Below is a list that was announced yesterday of all the winners and runners up in each of the categories, along with YouTube links to those specific fan films…

Continue reading “Announcing the WINNERS of the 5th annual DIRECTORS CHOICE fan film awards for 2025!”

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.

Announcing the WINNERS of the 4th annual DIRECTORS CHOICE fan film awards for 2024!

They’re baaaaa-aaaaack! The annual DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS have returned for a fourth year to announce their winners for fan films released during calendar year 2024. If you’re a fan filmmaker and want your production judged by a jury of your peers, there are currently two options. One is the Directors Choice Awards, and the other show, the SHOWRUNNER AWARDS, is limited exclusively to Star Trek fan films.

However, the Directors Choice Awards, hosted and organized by GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS, co-owners of WARP 66 STUDIOS in northern Arkansas, are open to fan films from all genres of sci-fi, fantasy, superhero, and horror. And that makes for a pretty extensive list of entries.

Glen shared this with me…

I am happy to say that this year’s Fan Film Director’s Choice Awards have been a success. How do I gauge success? I gauge success in a few ways: growth, diversity, and continuity. This year we had a record number of different film franchises represented (27 different film/television franchises from around the world). This fact satisfies both our growth and diversity expectations.

I am continually amazed at the number of franchises inspiring fan films, some notable newcomers this year where films from The Last of Us, Highlander, Power Rangers and Gravity Falls. We also had a record number of returning franchises and directors. These returning “veterans” fulfill our continuity goals. Having returning directors and franchises lets us know that our format is well received.

I do like having this many judges because, even as the completed ballots come in, I never really know where it’s going to end up. Most of the categories were decided on the last day or two of voting.

We added two new categories this year—Best Poster and Best Trailer—both attracted several entries, thus also seen as a success. We will continue to add categories in an effort to give our behind-the-scenes creators an opportunity for recognition. I thank all of this year’s participants and look forward to next year.

This year, I am not only blogging about the awards show, I was also a judge…and a contestant! My animated movie-era Star Trek fan film, AN ABSENT FRIEND, came out in 2024 and was entered (you can see if it won anything in the list of winners and runners up below). The judges are each the director of the fan film that they enter (hence, the name of the contest). All judges were expected to watch each of the 55 entries before voting, and while I can’t vouch for all 55 judges, I will say that I myself did watch every minute of each film—despite some entries being over an hour long (and one was two full hours)! It was quite a time commitment, and I will admit to occasionally accelerating playback speed (slightly) on some of the longer films…shhhh, don’t tell anyone.

Continue reading “Announcing the WINNERS of the 4th annual DIRECTORS CHOICE fan film awards for 2024!”

THE FEDERATION FILES’ “SLIPSTREAM” tells the story of the ill-fated U.S.S. INTREPID…and more! (video interview with GLEN L. WOLFE)

Well, folks, this makes it fourteen…fourteen fan films from THE FEDERATION FILES fanthology series, run by GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS, the co-owners of WARP 66 STUDIOS in northern Arkansas. Beginning in 2016, they have used their TOS set recreations plus other custom-built sets to tell stories in the Prime Star Trek Universe spanning the 20th century all the way through to the 24th.

Here’s a complete list of their previous thirteen releases and the blogs that spotlighted each of them…

As I only just discovered in the video interview with Glen Wolfe that appears below, the initial intention for The Federation Files was to have each episode focus on a different one of the twelve (or was it fifteen?) original Constitution-class heavy cruiser starships. However, this plan has strayed a bit from the expected path, as multiple storylines haven’t included any starships (since they took place in the distant past…at least from a 23rd century perspective). Nevertheless, Glen would still like to eventually complete the full set of starships with at least one story for each.

And that brings us to the latest release: “SLIPSTREAM.” It was time to bring the U.S.S. Intrepid into The Federation Files‘ spotlight. Fans of TOS will recall that the Intrepid was manned by a crew made up entirely of Vulcans, and it was destroyed off-camera by a giant space amoeba during the teaser to the second season episode “The Immunity Syndrome.” Spock senses the mass extinguishment of the crew, even though we viewers never see it with our own eyes.

Glen felt that the natural tale to tell for the ill-fated Intrepid was her final mission, this time ON-camera. And that’s how we got the latest release from The Federation Files. Take a look…

While I normally ask showrunners about production and/or insights from behind-the-scenes, this time I decided to go in a somewhat different and unique direction. You see, not only is Glen the showrunner and director of this particular fan film, he also wrote the script.

I’m certain that many fan film script-writers (and aspiring script-writers) would be curious how someone comes up with their story and puts it all together in script form. How long does it take to write a fan film script? How many pages should it be…and how detailed in stage direction? What software do they use? Is formatting important? How many iterations does a script go through, and who is consulted for feedback and potential changes? How “locked” is a script once filming begins, and who decides which changes, if any, get made on the fly?

Glen answers these questions and many more in this enlightening video interview…

There’s only ONE WEEK LEFT to enter the fourth annual DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS!

Back on November 1, GLEN WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS announced that entries were now open for the fourth annual DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS. The deadline to submit an entry is January 11, 2025…as in next Saturday!! If you made a fan film (of any genre, not limited to just Star Trek) that was released during calendar year 2024 and you haven’t entered it yet, here is the link to do so…

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

Winners will be announced on First Contact Day: April 5, 2025.

There is a $10 entry fee that 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 Use of Improvised Sets
Best Choreography
Best Trailer
Best Poster

The last two categories are brand new for this year’s awards. Glen clarified that the poster must be for a fan film that premiered in calendar year 2024. 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 2024.

As with the three 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.

Glen reports that submissions have been robust this year, with a late push of Star Trek genre fan film entries. Typically, those are one of the most prolific types of fan films submitted, but until late December, Trek fan films were actually in the minority of submissions. Also notable (at least for me personally, as I’ve entered my own fan film, AN ABSENT FRIEND, since it was released last April and was eligible), is that a record number of animated fan films from various genres have been submitted this year.

So things are looking pretty exciting for this fourth installment of the Directors Choice Awards!

The Fan Film DIRECTORS CHOICE Awards are back for a FOURTH year…with TWO new categories!

Is this really the FOURTH year for the DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS???? You bet your warp core it is! GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS, co-owners of WARP 66 STUDIOS in northern Arkansas, are once again hosting one of the two annual fan film competitions where the judges are a panel of fan filmmakers themselves. (The other contest is the SHOWRUNNER AWARDS, but they don’t happen for another six months.)

The call for entries begins today (November 1, 2024) and continues through January 11, 2025. Fan filmmakers can submit their film(s)—a maximum of three fan films per director—for a cost of $10 per film entered. Here’s the entry form link:

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

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 2024. 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 Use of Improvised Sets
Best Choreography
Best Trailer
Best Poster

The last two categories are brand new for this year’s awards. Glen asked me to clarify that the poster must be for a fan film that premiered in calendar year 2024. 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 2024.

As with the three 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, 2024…

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

Winners will be announced on First Contact Day: April 5, 2025.

Announcing the WINNERS of the 3rd annual DIRECTORS CHOICE fan film awards for 2023!

There are currently two annual contests open to any fan filmmaker where their production(s) can be judged exclusively by a group of their peers. One of these is the SHOWRUNNER AWARDS, which is dedicated exclusively to Star Trek fan films and judged by a panel of fan film showrunners. And the other is the DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS, where the judges are the directors of the submitted films. Unlike the Showrunner Awards (which begin taking submissions later on this month), The Directors Choice Awards are open to fan films in any genre, not just Star Trek.

Created and administered by GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS of WARP 66 STUDIOS in Arkansas, the showrunners behind THE FEDERATION FILES “fanthology” series, the cost to enter was $10 per film, which included consideration in up to six categories (chosen by the submitter at the time they filled out the entry form). Each director of a submitted film was required to cast a ballot in order for that director’s film(s) not to be disqualified. Also, a director was not allowed to vote for their own fan film(s).

As happened last year, this year’s winner for “Best in Fest”—determined by which fan film received the most total votes across all categories—received a $250 grand prize.

Glen Wolfe was very pleased with the depth and variety of applicants for the awards that covered fan film releases in calendar year 2023…

This year we had entries from 25 different film franchises and 12 different countries. Each year we have also had more entries than the previous year. We are happy to see the growth of the only film festival open to all fan films. The diversity of winners also is a testament to the process of having numerous judges (we had over 50 judges this year) from all backgrounds.

In total, 29 separate films either won or were runner up. We had our first tie vote this year, as well. Overall, I feel that the growth of the fest combined with the wide variety of winners is proving to be a successful formula. We added several categories this year, and they were well-received. And because this festival is for the directors and by the directors, we are always open to suggestions for even more categories. We had a lot of great films this year and hope to see even more next year.

The idea behind contests like these, in addition to honoring the fan filmmakers and their work, is to provide more exposure for these productions. So hopefully, you’ll check out at least a few of these fan films to see something you might like a lot. I did and was pleasantly surprised by more than a few of them.

For a list of all the fan films that were entered, all of the nominees in each category, and all the winners, you can watch their presentation video. Below is a list of the winners and runners up in all the categories, along with YouTube links to those specific fan films.

Continue reading “Announcing the WINNERS of the 3rd annual DIRECTORS CHOICE fan film awards for 2023!”

THE FEDERATION FILES: “MOTHER” is based on STAR TREK screenwriter LARRY BRODY’s unsold story idea for VOYAGER! (video interview with DAN and KELLY REYNOLDS)

This is pretty cool! Back in 1968, with a newly-sold novel under his belt, LARRY BRODY (and his wife) moved to Los Angeles to see if he could break into Hollywood as a writer. A science fiction fan, Larry was soon pitching stories for the third season of Star Trek. Although none of his ideas was optioned, in 1972, legendary story editor DOROTHY “D.C.” FONTANA bought Larry in to pitch directly to GENE RODDENBERRY for the upcoming Star Trek animated series.

One of Larry’s stories—which ultimately became “The Magicks of Megas-Tu,” the eighth episode of the animated series that aired in 1973—intrigued Gene, who had wanted to do an episode about the Enterprise encountering God. Ultimately, the network wasn’t comfortable with featuring God in a children’s cartoon, and so the main omnipotent alien became the devil instead.

By that point, Larry’s notoriety as a Hollywood screenwriter was flourishing, and by the end of the 1970s, he was also a producer on the TV series Police Story. Over a multi-decade career, Larry would produce for eight other television series as well as writing dozens of scripts for shows like The Six Million Dollar Man, The Streets of San Francisco, Police Woman, The Fall Guy, The New Mike Hammer, Automan, Walker: Texas Ranger, Diagnosis Murder, Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Silver Surfer, and Spawn (to name a small few!). And in 1995, Star Trek: Voyager was added to that list with a second season episode about Chakotay titled “Tatoo.”

Larry Brody isn’t the first Star Trek scriptwriter to also work on a Star Trek fan film. That list also includes the aforementioned Ms. Fontana along with tribbles-creator DAVID GERROLD and TNG and DS9 episode writer MARC ZICREE. But since the fan film guidelines came out in 2016, no Trek writer has been associated with a Star Trek fan film…until now, that is.

THE FEDERATION FILES is a “fanthology” Star Trek fan series created by DAN REYNOLDS and GLEN L. WOLFE, co-owners of the TOS sets at WARP 66 STUDIOS in northern Arkansas. Since 2016, they have released thirteen fan films spanning the long history of Trek‘s prime universe from the 20th-24th centuries:

Their thriteenth release, the first since December of 2022, was an adaptation of a story that Larry Brody pitched for Voyager titled “MOTHER.” Set during the TOS-era, their latest production has a very Star Trek “flavor”…

While Larry himself was not available for an interview, I did have a chance to sit down with Dan Reynolds and his wife Kelly to discuss how “Mother” went from Voyager story idea to fleshed-out script to full TOS fan film. The following video also includes a fun rarity in our community: a fan film blooper reel. You can watch that segment starting at the 19-minute mark of this interview…

DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARD SHOW submission deadline is THIS MONDAY!

While you all were having a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (I hope!), GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS were continuing to accept submissions from year three of the annual Fan Film DIRECTORS CHOICE Awards. If you’re a fan filmmaker from any genre or franchise—NOT only Star Trek!—you have until midnight Central Time on January 15 to submit up to three films released during calendar year 2023. The cost is $10 per entry, and you can submit using the form on this web page…

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

The DIRECTORS CHOICE Awards are one of two annual fan film competitions (the other being the SHOWRUNNER AWARDS) where the judging panel is made up of actual fan filmmakers. As the name implies, the judges for the Directors Choice show will be the directors of the submitted fan films, who will each have until March 15 to submit their ballots. Each submission can be entered into a maximum of six of the following categories…

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 Use of Improvised Sets
Best Choreography

And just like last year, there will be a “Best in Fest” $250 cash award for the fan film which receives the greatest number of votes across all categories. Of the above two dozen categories, the last four were newly added as of this year.

Glen Wolfe reports healthy participation again this year…

We’re near the same number of submissions as we had last year. We have entries from 10 different countries and in 21 different franchises. And in my opinion, we have a couple really good new franchises involved that I don’t think anyone would have expected…and I personally didn’t even know fan films were being made on these topics!

The clock is ticking, folks! The submission deadline is this coming Monday. So once again, here’s the link to enter…

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

Good luck!

The Fan Film DIRECTORS CHOICE Awards are back for a THIRD year…with new categories! (interview with GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS)

The future of fan film award shows remains in good hands! And right now, those hands belong to GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS of WARP 66 STUDIOS in northern Arkansas. For the third straight year, submissions are being accepted for the annual Fan Film DIRECTORS CHOICE Awards. The call for entries begins today and continues through January 15, 2024. Fan filmmakers can submit their film(s)—a maximum of three fan films per director—for a cost of $10 per film entered. Here’s the entry form link:

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

This third running of the Fan Film Directors Choice Awards is open to any fan film of any genre (not just Star Trek) released during calendar year 2023. So it’s possible that some fan films that haven’t premiered yet could still make it in. The judges for the show will be the directors of the submitted fan films, who will each have until March 15 to submit their ballots. Each submission can be entered into a maximum of six of the following categories…

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 Use of Improvised Sets
Best Choreography

Just like last year, there will be a “Best in Fest” $250 cash award for the fan film which receives the greatest number of votes across all categories. Of the above two dozen categories, the last four were newly added as of this year. Dan Reynolds explains…

“We originally started this awards outlet so that those producing fan films could get the recognition they deserve. Going into our third year, we came up with some new categories that focus more on the unseen work and put a spotlight on more specific categories that are always overlooked in many awards offerings. It’s a way to spotlight the many great moments in fan films that are more based on recognizing their accomplishments rather than making it a competition.”

While Best On-Location Scene and Best Plot Twist seem fairly straightforward, I was curious to learn more about Best Use of Improvised Sets and Best Choreography. Dan tackled the former…

Continue reading “The Fan Film DIRECTORS CHOICE Awards are back for a THIRD year…with new categories! (interview with GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS)”