Here Are All of the Exemplary Winners of This Year’s Austin Film Festival Script and Film Competitions

2025 Austin Film Festival Winners

The Austin Film Festival reports that this year’s recipients join an illustrious lineage of AFF alumni including Clint Bentley, Zarna Garg, Greg Kwedar, Ashley Lyle, LaToya Morgan, Megan Park, and Oren Uziel, and that films written by past winners have now gone on to earn over $5 billion at the global box office, spent more than 20 weeks at #1, and went on to write and produce for A24, Amazon, Apple TV, FX, HBO, Hulu, Netflix, and other major studios.

“For over three decades, our competitions have served to highlight emerging creatives and recognize original storytelling. At a time when the industry is in flux, we're proud to be partnering with so many industry leaders to identify the next generation of screenwriters and create real opportunities.” — Barbara Morgan, Executive Director of Austin Film Festival.

Let’s look at some of the big winners from this year’s fest.

2025 SCRIPT COMPETITION AWARD & FELLOWSHIP WINNERS

The 2025 Austin Film Festival Script Competition featured 22 categories.

• Drama Screenplay Award Presented by Writers Guild of America, East – The Other Side of 25 by Becca Hurd
• Comedy Screenplay Award – Lauren Lindsay Can Go To Hell by Kate Beacom & Lacey Jeka
• Big Indie Pictures Fellowship – Roots of Conflict by Ari Mostow
• The Donners’ Company Award – Believe/Bерим by Ryan Werner
• Enderby Entertainment Award – The Other Side of 25 by Becca Hurd
• Josephson Entertainment Screenwriting Award – Black Silk by Patrick Michael
• Horror Screenplay Award – SHIFT by Danny Salemme
• Sci-fi Screenplay Award – On the Other Side by Lanre Olabisi
• Wonder Project | Stand Together Fellowship – 27 Cows by Christopher Holt
• YMH Studios Fellowship – Follow The Money by Patrick Franklin
• Drama Teleplay Pilot – Dr. Nash by Cassidy Nash Davis
• AMC One-Hour Pilot Award – Courier Girl by Anna Zabel
• Comedy Teleplay Pilot – CRAPSHOOT by Drew McInturff
• Adult Comedy Animated Series Fellowship Presented by Starburns Industries – Time Traveling Cum Cops by Austin Schauer
• Josephson Entertainment Teleplay Award – Lady Em by Cristina Pippa
• TV Comedy Fellowship Sponsored by the Nickelodeon Writing Program – Medusa: An Animated Series by Ruby Mainieri
• Drama Teleplay Spec – Yellowjackets: Thicker than Water by Cynthia He
• Comedy Teleplay Spec – Abbott Elementary: Skip Skampi’s by Scott Olsen
• Short Screenplay – Did You Have a Good Time? by Kevin Talley
• Stage Play – Shepherd by Gregory Paul
• Scripted Digital Series – String City by Suemedha Sood
• Fiction Podcast – Dial it Up by Philip Thorne & Oystein Brager

2025 FILM COMPETITION AWARD & FELLOWSHIP WINNERS

The 2025 Austin Film Festival Film Jury Competition featured eleven categories of competition.

• Narrative Feature Presented by Big Indie Pictures – A Man Walks Down the Street; Writer/Director: Yuval Hadadi
• Documentary Feature – Winner: Searching for Satyrus; Writer/Director: Rena Effendi | Honorable mention: Bite to Bite; Director: Kelly Lipscomb
• Comedy Vanguard Feature – Theatre People; Writer/Director: Michael B. Breen
• Dark Matters Feature – Cruel Hands; Writers: Al & Matthew Kalyk; Director: Al Kalyk
• Narrative Short – Foxhole; Writer/Director: Nick Dugan
• Student Short – Recess; Writer/Director: Jan Saczek
• Documentary Short – We’re Fine; Director: Misha Karpenko
• Animated Short – Beyond Measure; Writer/Director: David Ferrier
• Produced Digital Series – Bliss Talent; Writers: Rachel Ravel & Elvira Ibragimova; Director: Elvira Ibragimova
• Enderby Entertainment Filmmaking Fellowship Award