2020 Competition Update

With a heavy heart, we must announce that Project Twenty1’s Competition has been canceled for 2020 due to safety concerns and funding challenges due to COVID-19. This was a decision made by not just the founders, but also the entire board of directors.

We still welcome creatives to share information and resources with one another. We’d love to see people share projects that they’ve created in the past, foster productive conversations about creativity, and come together virtually while we’re all apart. Please join us on Facebook to keep informed on our upcoming programs in 2020 and beyond.

2019 Competition: October 20-November 10

Think you can make a great short in 21 Days? We do, too.

Project Twenty1 challenges you to create an original short video, animation, or VR project in 21 Days. All projects must contain a secret element, Passage, chosen by this year’s host, Felicia Day (The Guild, MST3K). Participants from all over the world are invited to join. Project Twenty1 provides the motivation, deadline, and access to working entertainment industry judges, as well as unconventional screening opportunities.  You just have to provide the short.

Top shorts will be judged by executives from Amazon Studios, A Better Tomorrow Films (John Woo’s production company), Atomic Cartoons (Hilda, The Last Kids on Earth), and more. Official Selections will be streamed online via Project Twenty1’s social channels. In addition, top projects will receive awards certificates, as well as move on to theatrical and broadcast exhibition consideration through our 2020 screening partners.

“If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right.”
– Wedge Wegman, Project Twenty1 Alumna

Your Project Must:

…be seven minutes or less.
…be created within the 21 days.
…include the Secret Element.

Additional Rules & Guidelines>>
Team Signup Walk-Through>>
Host a Project Twenty1 Launch in Your Town>>

Past Secret Elements

21 – LIGHT – KEY – BETWEEN THE LINES
START WITH A CRASH – JUMP – CELL – DISCONNECT

Watch Past Project Twenty1 Winners>>

Awards

Best Short (Grand Prize)
Best Live-Action
Best Animation
Best V/R
Best Director
Best Acting
Best Cinematography
Best Editing
Best Music
Online Audience Award
Best Marketing
EPIC Award*

More Info>>

2019 Host

Selecting Our Secret Element This Year:

Felicia Day

Actress, NYT Best-Selling Author, Producer, and New Media Geek

Felicia Day is the creator, star, writer, and producer of the original web series, The Guild and the creator of funded Youtube Channel and production company Geek & Sundry. She is the author of the New York Times Best-Selling memoir You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) and Embrace Your Weird. She has played Vi in the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dr. Holly Marten in Eureka, and had a recurring role on Supernatural (CW) and The Magicians (SyFy). She also wrote and starred in Dragon Age: Redemption. She has also acted in movies such as Bring It On Again, as well as the Emmy-Award winning musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. She plays Kinga Forrester in Mystery Science Theater 3000 (Netflix) and is currently is working on her own creative projects for television and the web.

Timeline

Day 0:
Today - Nov 9

Assemble your team & signup! Create a New Project on FilmFreeway.com. Title it (Your Team Name). Skip the project details – you’ll make that later! Just fill out the contact info and Submit it to Project Twenty1.

For the first time this year, Teams may still sign up DURING the 21 days!

Day 1:
Oct 20

Learn the Element! Join us online when we reveal the “Secret Element” you will be incorporating into your short. Then it’s off to the races!

Days 1-21:
Oct 20-Nov 10

Create! Make a short project that you’ve been dying to make forever. Comedy, horror, sci-fi, mob drama, it doesn’t matter! It can even be a book trailer, a proof-of-concept, a documentary about your latest immersive project. As long as it follows the requirements above.

Don’t forget to keep building your FilmFreeway page as you go, so when the deadline creeps up, all you have to do is push SUBMIT.

Day 21:
Nov 10

Upload your final file to your existing FilmFreeway page before the deadline!

2019 Judges

Click for bios of entertainment industry professionals evaluating the top Project Twenty1 projects. More judges TBA!

Animation Executive, Amazon Studios

Mitchell Foster
Head of Production, A Better Tomorrow Films

Lori Tilkin deFelice
VP, Originals at Atomic Cartoons

Kristin Cummings
Founder/Festival Director, Thriller! Chiller! International Film Festival

Anthony Griffin
President/Festival Director, Thriller! Chiller! International Film Festival

Shirley Clemens Griffin
Writer/Producer, Cinevore Studios

Stephanie Yuhas
Animation Executive, Amazon Studios

Mitchell Foster

Mitchell is an animation executive for Amazon Studios where he has worked on many properties including Little Big Awesome, Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny, and Costume Quest. He is currently focusing on animation for primetime/adult audiences.

Prior to Amazon he was working in development at Nickelodeon and creative executive on the Nickelodeon Animated Shorts Program.

Head of Production, A Better Tomorrow Films

Lori Tilkin deFelice

Lori Tilkin deFelice has worked with John Woo since BROKEN ARROW.  She currently runs his LA office and is producing both film and TV for his newly named production company, A Better Tomorrow Films.

VP, Originals at Atomic Cartoons

Kristin Cummings

Prior to joining Atomic, Kristin was most recently Director of Development at NBCUniversal/DreamWorks Animation TV where she developed kids and family content. Kristin started in animation as an assistant at Nickelodeon. Throughout her career there, she worked on several projects in series development, including the recent hit show The Loud House and was the Creative Executive on the 2014 animated shorts program. In 2016, she moved over to NBCUniversal/DreamWorks Animation TV to help build out their slate with original ideas, book adaptations, and Universal IP for both the preschool and older kid demographics. In partnership with their UK office, she developed Rhyme Time Town, a new DreamWorks preschool show coming to Netflix. She also helped develop and sell DreamWorks’ animated show Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous among other unannounced series.

Founder/Festival Director, Thriller! Chiller! International Film Festival

Anthony Griffin

Anthony E. Griffin is a multiple award winning filmmaker and film festival director based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 2010, he was named Michigan Filmmaker of the Year by the Muskegon Film Festival.

Griffin is currently an MFA candidate in Screenwriting and teaches classes in a variety of fields within the cinematic arts including screenwriting, directing, cinematography, acting for the camera, and film history as well as how to promote your film festival and how to market your movie to an audience. He has served on film festival competition juries and speaker panels as well as the boards of directors for both the West Michigan Film Video Alliance and the Grand Rapids Community Media Center.

President/Festival Director, Thriller! Chiller! International Film Festival

Shirley Clemens Griffin

Shirley Griffin is an award-winning indie actor, film festival director, and certified digital marketer based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. She enjoys participating on film talk panels of all kinds especially through hyper-local cinema and screen clubs that benefit media literacy in her community. She has served on the board of directors for both the West Michigan Film and Video Alliance, and the Grand Rapids Community Media Center. She also helps women in film to build personal brands, grow their audiences and become more marketable at actlikeabrand.com.

Writer/Producer, Cinevore Studios

Stephanie Yuhas

Stephanie Yuhas is an award-winning screenwriter in Studio City, CA. She is most well-known for her work on the reboot of Mystery Science Theater 3000, as well as Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie. She recently completed staffing at Immersive Artistry, where she wrote on a fantasy family augmented reality theme park. She is currently in development on a kids’ sci-fi action-adventure comedy with Big Jump Productions/Nickelodeon International. She’s a published author and accomplished creative whose independent work has screened at over 100 film festivals, as well as on the front pages of YouTube, Kotaku, and UpWorthy.

2019-2020 Screening Partners

Top films will be submitted to Project Twenty1 screening partners around the world, saving Project Twenty1 participants on entry fees and bringing your work to more audiences than any single festival could.

Do you run a festival, screening, venue, or broadcast, and want to be a Screening Partner with Project Twenty1? Contact us.

Since 2006, the following film festivals and screening partners have exhibited work and/or reviewed Project Twenty1 Films for screening consideration:

Alaska Film Festival
American Conservation Film Festival
Asbury Park Film Festival
Austin Underground Film Festival
Backseat Film Festival
Bare Bones SCRIPT-2-SCREEN FILM FESTIVAL
BENDFILM FESTIVAL
Big Bang Film Festival
BOSNIAN-HERZEGOVINIAN FILM FESTIVAL (BHFF)
Bronzeville Film Festival (part of Bronzeville Cultural Festival)
Cinema Undercover*
Comic Book Sunday
Connecticut Film Festival
Crossroads Film Festival
Crown Point Film Festival
Cupcake Bandit Film Festival
Delray Beach Film Festival
Estes Park Film Festival
Everett Women’s Film Festival
Florida Film Festival
Gloucester City Minifest
Holly Shorts
Hollywood Shorts
Indie Hall (Blame Drew’s Cancer)

International House Philadelphia: Independent Screen Series
M.A.L.I. WOMEN’S FILM & PERFORMANCE ARTS FESTIVAL
Media Arts Council (MAC) Film Festival
Marbar/Marathon Grill* (Shorts & Shots featured short series)
Member Movie Nights*
Movies on the Hill*
No Festival Required
Norristown Film Festival* (a part of the Norristown Arts Hill Annual Festival)*
Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival
Philadelphia Filmathon*
Philadelphia Film Society/Philadelphia Film Festival (with Cinema Undercover Program)
Philadelphia Independent Film Festival
Rembrandt’s “Night Watch” Series
Slamdance Film Festival
SPE Women’s Film Festival
Temecula Valley International Film & Music Festival
Terror Film Festival
Thriller! Chiller! International Film Festival
The Archaeology Channel International Film & Video Festival
The Bridge Cinemadelux, Philadelphia (Content Screened 24/7 in lobby 2006-2009 before closing of venue)
Thriller! Chiller!
Zombie Love Film Festival

*Festival, program, or screening series administered by or sponsored by Project Twenty1

2019 Participating Teams

Check back as this list is being updated regularly. Signups are open until Nov. 10th. (Discounted) Regular Signups end October 19th!

Team Sickening Belfy – Wedge Wegman

To: Many Cooks – Bryan Donoghue

Rusty Eveland – Rusty Eveland

Team Philagape – Chris Pierdomenico

Team Malicious Intent – Shannon Hall

Green Tater Productions – Ryan Crowley-Hughes

Rebel Pictures – Michael McCallum

Smarticle Productions – Andrea Hays

Justice Productions – Doug Seidel

Sadbomb Productions – Tyson Lenz

Frog Feet Films – Bryce Hallett

Drop the HAT – Jason Heffner

Ocelot InstaShort – Jessica Day

Team Omnibus – Mike Mercadante

V-Neck Hoodie Productions – Erik Schoenecker

Mad Matt Flix – Matthew Judkins

Wish My Ego Well – Hannah McDonnell

Legendary Studios – Armik Pabla

Tiny Rhino Productions – Marlene Free

I AM – Tarun Sardana

AKLE Productions – Alissa Chavez

Team Kungfudork Studios – Dieter Wagner

Bad Apple Productions – Mike Raisch

ShoChu Cat – Men Wai Peng

Yellowberri – Derrick Hunt

Magic Broom Productions – Rosie Divine

Serendipitous7 – Tara Smith

Team Turtle Power – Matthew Sundell

Team Platinum – Chris Casaburi

The Lawnmower – Tanner Menghini

Working Title – Liv Baker

Dave’s PTSD – Goren Henry

Team Shadow – Landen Belardes

The Dead Clown – James Hayden

Slumber – Jaan Larkin

Transcendence – Bianca C.P.