Home | Champaign Movie Makers

CMM Monthly Mixer, March 2026

Monday, March 16, 2026 - 7:00 PM

Monthly mixer for filmmakers to meet up, talk movies, and find crew for their projects

Location (Building)

Esquire Lounge 106 N Walnut St, Champaign, IL 61820

CMM at Market at the Square

Saturday, August 22, 2026 - 7:00 AM

Champaign Movie Makers will have a booth at Urbana's Market at the Square in Downtown Urbana. Come say hi and help spread the word to recruit new filmmakers and film audiences.

Location (Building)

Urbana's Market at the Square, 250 E Illinois St., Urbana, IL

CMM at Market at the Square

Saturday, August 08, 2026 - 7:00 AM

Champaign Movie Makers will have a booth at Urbana's Market at the Square in Downtown Urbana. Come say hi and help spread the word to recruit new filmmakers and film audiences.

Location (Building)

Urbana's Market at the Square, 250 E Illinois St., Urbana, IL

CMM at Market at the Square

Saturday, July 25, 2026 - 7:00 AM

Champaign Movie Makers will have a booth at Urbana's Market at the Square in Downtown Urbana. Come say hi and help spread the word to recruit new filmmakers and film audiences.

Location (Building)

Urbana's Market at the Square, 250 E Illinois St., Urbana, IL

CMM at Market at the Square

Saturday, July 11, 2026 - 7:00 AM

Champaign Movie Makers will have a booth at Urbana's Market at the Square in Downtown Urbana. Come say hi and help spread the word to recruit new filmmakers and film audiences.

Location (Building)

Urbana's Market at the Square, 250 E Illinois St., Urbana, IL

Pens to Lens Student Screenwriting Workshop, Feb. 14, 2026

Saturday, February 14, 2026 - 1:00 PM

Students in grades K-12, join 40 North and Champaign Movie Makers for a FREE Pens to Lens Youth Screenwriting Workshop at the Champaign Park District's Martens Center! Bring your ideas to the fun and engaging workshop where you will learn how to turn your stories into a successful script for the Pens to Lens Youth Screenwriting Competition. By the time the workshop is over, each student will have a finished screenplay submitted to the 10th edition of Pens to Lens.

This free workshop only has space for 12 screenwriters or screenwriting teams. Registration is required, but don't worry. We will be hosting other workshops throughout the fall/winter until the end of February. Stay tuned for more date announcements.

To register, fill out this form: https://forms.gle/cyMqR1Mh1QavS2CDA

Pens to Lens is a Champaign-based K-12 student screenwriting competition for East Central Illinois run 2013-2019 by the Champaign Urbana Film Society and returned in 2024 under 40 North; kids write scripts which are then submitted to Champaign area filmmakers and designers. Designers select scripts to create posters for, and filmmakers pick their favorites to produce as actual short films. The posters and films are presented to the community in a red-carpet event to honor the young writers. Students may also submit their own films to be considered for screening at the event.

Location (Building)

Martens Center 1515 N Market St., Champaign, IL 61820

Innovation Room

Pens to Lens Student Screenwriting Workshop, Feb. 28, 2026

Saturday, February 28, 2026 - 1:00 PM

Students in grades K-12, join 40 North and Champaign Movie Makers for a FREE Pens to Lens Youth Screenwriting Workshop at the Urbana Health and Wellness Center! Bring your ideas to the fun and engaging workshop where you will learn how to turn your stories into a successful script for the Pens to Lens Youth Screenwriting Competition. By the time the workshop is over, each student will have a finished screenplay submitted to the 10th edition of Pens to Lens.

To register, fill out this form: https://forms.gle/Gg4cxA2zn914SUQw6

Location (Building)

Urbana Health and Wellness Center, 2002 E Washington St, Urbana, IL 61802

Community Room

The Greatest Inventor wins the 2026 48-Hour Film Competition

The winning film of the 2026 48-Hour FIlm Competition was The Greatest Inventor directed by Thomas Nicol and Lyndon Booth and written by Lyndon Booth. The prompt was:

prop: hearing protector earmuffs
line of dialogue: "That's not supposed to happen."
Theme: ambition

2026 48-Hour Film Competition Screening has sold out!

This Sunday's 48-Hour Film Competition screening has officially sold out again! We already had to move to a larger screen, and you have once again reserved all the tickets.

What about people who didn't get a ticket? We anticipate some of the people who reserved tickets to miss the screening. So, we will have a line on site to let people into the theater at 12:30 to fill the remaining unclaimed seats. If you come to the screening, there is still a good chance you will be able to get in.

There are still tickets available for the screening of Moses the Black, though. So, support another locally made movie that afternoon at 3 PM: https://booking.phoenixtheatres.com/tickets/1302/138067

CMM 48-Hour Film Competition Screening 2026

Sunday, February 01, 2026 - 12:30 PM

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Due to inclement weather, we are rescheduling this screening to Sunday, February 1 at 12:30 PM.

A screening of the shorts made during the 2026 Champaign Movie Makers 48-Hour Film Competition.

In the competition, teams will be given a prompt, and they will have 48-hours to write, film, and edit a movie based on that prompt. During the screening, a panel of judges will pick the film that utilized the prompt best. While the judges deliberate, we will also screen a selection of shorts "from the vault".

This screening will be part of the Chambana Film Society's Savoy Arhouse screening series. Admission is free, but we still encourage you to reserve a ticket ahead of time.

Location (Building)

Savoy 16 + IMAX, 232 Burwash Ave, Savoy, IL 61874

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