National Youth Filmmaker Summit

Thanks to a lead project grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, we’re excited to officially unveil the 1st National Youth Filmmaker Summit! This will be a new tentpole event for NFFTY moving forward, expanding the alumni-centered programming we've evolved over the past couple years. NFFTY alumni will come back to the youth filmmaker community to share career advice and tips with the next generation in a variety of panels, roundtables, and workshops. Starting in 2022 it will be a hybrid event, touring to a different city each fall (stay tuned!)

The 2021 Summit is entirely virtual and free to all!

The 2021 Summit takes place over five weeks (October 4 - November 6), and ends with Film Career Day 2021, produced in partnership with the City of Seattle. The Summit is divided into three tracks --- Create, Advance, and Launch --- with an average of five sessions each. Learn more about all the tracks under “Explore the Tracks” below. You can attend each session a la carte --- so you can mix-and-match your way through, attend all sessions in a track, or do the whole thing. It’s up to you, and it’s all free!

The Summit will take place on the same platforms that we used to host our 2020 festival --- Airmeet, Eventive, and Zoom. Details for each session can be found in the Guide, and on the corresponding Track page. There is no limit to how many sessions you can register for, but we do ask that you only register for sessions that you commit to attend, since space is limited for each. If you can’t make a session due to a conflict, or maybe your work or school schedule overlaps… don’t worry! We’ll put up archived recordings for most sessions from the Summit. And for sessions that fill up --- you can catch a livestream over on our YouTube! (Note: you won’t be able to submit questions to presenters via YouTube, so be sure to register early for the sessions that interest you most!)

Even if you’re no longer NFFTY eligible (under 25) --- we still encourage you to attend and participate! NFFTY alumni from the past 14 festivals will be presenting, and some familiar faces and old friends will be popping up. Show up to cheer them on, hear about what they’ve been up to, and even learn a thing or two…