FilmStack Friday

The One that Almost Didn't Happen...

I am definitely on spoonie brain because I spent way too much of today saying “Today is Friday, October 24…” without realizing that today is, in fact, Friday, which means FilmStack Friday!

So chaos is the name of the game today, folks.

Now that I have learned how to schedule posts (thank you FilmStack Daily Digest!), I really gotta start writing these as I can and scheduling them ahead of time…but anyway.

I was hoping to do FilmStack Recommends Redux, but my brain is too fried for that, so it’s getting pushed another week. (Thank you to those of you who commented on the first one! I swear we will get there eventually!)

We are spoonie-ing in real time people, so thank you for hanging with me! :)

Alright, enough of the preamble, there are a million things happening, so let’s get to it!

There were no original odds or ends this week, so this week it’s just…

The FilmStack Roundup

I don’t care that I’m months late, I absolutely love this piece from Swabreen Bakr. This piece and I had more of a rom com meet cute than Materialists ever had and more of a relationship than Lucy and [spoiler] ever will. Swabreen astutely breaks down both the movie itself and the marketing campaign that went along with it. I have mixed feelings on the movie, but my feelings on her piece are crystal clear: must read.

New York FilmStack has a Sub/FilmStack! Adam Kritzer, the man behind the New York FilmStack Meetups, has given us a FilmStack for all things FilmStack NYC! Subscribe now to IRL Filmstack NYC —

GUYS! AS I TYPED THE ABOVE, IRL Filmstack UK popped up!! Is this a thing?!?!?!?! I was gonna shout out the UK FilmStack Discord next, but do we also have an IRL FilmStack UK?! *brb gonna go look*

It says it was launched 7 hours ago?!?!¹ (I feel very breaking news rn lol)

Alex Bhat, care to comment??²

Damn…I gotta get on one for DC…where’re my DC FilmStackers at??

(I warned y’all—chaos. But I did not expect quite this level of chaos, so I will now return to the regularly scheduled Roundup 😅)

—as I was saying, subscribe now to IRL Filmstack NYC to get all the latest updates and make sure to message Adam to RSVP for the November New York FilmStack Meetup!

UK FilmStack had its very first Zoom meeting earlier this week! They are organizing over on the FilmStack Discord, so make sure to get in on that! Make sure to follow ZTennyson, Su Tais, Poppy, and Alex Bhat for everything FilmStack UK! (And congratulate Poppy and Nick O'Hagan on selling out their film’s world premiere screening! Congratulations, guys!!)

The first ever (?) FilmStack screening on the FilmStack Discord is tomorrow (Saturday, October 25)! Mark Hensley will be screening his feature, Clown N Out, at 10 AM Pacific and then again at 12 pm (noon) Pacific.

The very first ever (?) NonDē filmmaking panel is happening Thursday, November 6, 2025 at 3 pm Pacific, and FilmStackers get in free! Amanda Sweikow is producing Reimagining Cinema: The NonDē Movement, Audience Power & A New Path for Independent Filmmakers as part of Cinemix in Pasadena, CA. The panel will feature noted FilmStackers Ted Hope, Ellis J. Sutton, Jon Stahl, and Courtney Daniels, and hopefully Taylor Lewis, too! The event will hopefully be livestreamed, so keep an eye out for more details on that. Check out Amanda’s note on it here and then use code FAVIP get your free tickets here

Lots of firsts this post! It is wild to be in on something at almost the very beginning.

FilmStack Cinemix Bonus: FilmStack’s own Ami Vora, of Kinema fame, will be on a different Cinemix panel. Her panel is called Distribution Now and will be at 5 pm Pacific. Check out Amanda’s note on that panel here and then use code FAVIP (same code as above) to get your free tickets here

jake S. weisman gives us a (very literal!) look at what filmjourn Micro is doing in downtown LA, which is great, because honestly, I was wondering. I’m planning on reaching out directly to find out more, but this post is a great place to start! It breaks down filmjourn’s programming and I cannot tell you how jealous I was reading every single thing they do over there. It is now on my non-bucket bucket list. Absolutely check it out, and screen your projects there!!

Of particular note: November 2nd is the deadline to submit for this cycle of programming for filmjourn. (Not sure what a cycle means in this case, but maybe Jake can clarify?) Check out their FilmFreeway and submit your stuff!!

Also, their Open Screening program is kicking off/beta testing this Sunday, October 26th, so make sure to check that out, too! Read this ASAP so you don’t miss out!

(I guess sometimes being late pays off…)

FilmStack Events:

LA FilmStack Meetup #5 is on Sunday, November 2 at 4 pm in Highland Park! RSVP here. Reach out to Jon Stahl with questions.

The second ever New York FilmStack Meetup is November 15 from 2 - 5 pm. Make sure to RSVP by November 1 by messaging Adam Kritzer. And remember to subscribe to IRL Filmstack NYC for all the latest and greatest!

FilmStack (and therefore all of you reading this!) was invited to First Features’s online international meeting of filmmakers that happens every Sunday! They “hold an Internet meeting on Sunday’s at 1pm in Hollywood, 4pm in New York, 9pm in London, 10pm in most of Europe and 7am in Tasmania.” If you’d like to join the meeting, you can reach out to Eugene via email at firstfeatures@mail.com or message him on Substack First Features

Ted Hope and Vanessa Hope are screening their film Invisible Nation now through Sunday, October 26, with a live panel discussion on the 26th at 7pm Eastern/4 pm Pacific. Stacey Abrams and Jasmine Crockett (!!) will also be on the panel! More info here

Reminders:

Courtney Romano is 8 filmmakers away from 50 filmmakers for 2026!! And she did it in just over a week! Absolutely incredible! Go get on her list now, if you haven’t yet. This is a list you absolutely want to be on. And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this now, and then congratulate her because holy fucking shit dude!

The first two episodes of Sean King O’Grady and Agoric Media’s new NonDē series Suspicious Minds have dropped. Episode 1 and Episode 2. It deals with AI delusions, so please take care of yourself and do not watch if you cannot.

Tell Jon Stahl you want a FilmStack Screening Series here

Avi Setton has passed the curator baton to Donny Broussard for Days 101-200 of the FilmStack Daily Inspiration Posts, so make sure to check the schedule here and then sign up with Donny for a day!

Joshua Caldwell is still offering to mentor a couple of FilmStackers. Check out his offer here

Follow/subscribe to Angelica Marciano for a calendar on all things film NYC. (Her calendar includes crew calls and crowdfunding campaigns! You don’t want to miss it!)

Follow/subscribe to Optic Nerve for screenings in New York!

Subscribe to FilmStack Daily Digest! I’m biased, obviously, since I’m currently co-curating it, but I think it’s a pretty great resource for all of us FilmStackers! It also has a calendar! If you can afford to, consider paying for a subscription, because 100% of all revenue collected will go to a Filmmakers’ Emergency Relief Fund administered by Ted Hope. If you cannot afford to subscribe, though, use this link to upgrade to a free 1 year “paid” subscription. Offer only valid through October 31, so act now!

Whew, okay, guys, we did it 😅 Much like my homework used to be, it is in under the wire, but we got it in before 11:59 pm, so it counts! I’m sure I missed a million and one things because FilmStack is moving at breakneck speed these days, so feel free to shout stuff out in the comments!

Have a great weekend! :)

1. When I wrote that it said “Launched 7 hours ago”, now it says “Launched 12 hours ago” 😭

2. also, lmao to the url—I’m so tired right now, I misread it as “Fuckstack” and was very confused for a second. For anyone else who probably needs a nap, like me, it’s actually “f stck uk irl” which makes way more sense 😅