Monday, May 19, 2025 - 7:00 PM

A monthly gather to meet other filmmakers in the area, discuss upcoming projects, find crew, or just general mingling.

Location (Building)

Esquire Lounge 106 N Walnut St, Champaign, IL 61820

Monday, April 21, 2025 - 7:00 PM

A monthly gather to meet other filmmakers in the area, discuss upcoming projects, find crew, or just general mingling.

Location (Building)

Esquire Lounge 106 N Walnut St, Champaign, IL 61820

Saturday, March 08, 2025 - 1:00 PM
Local filmmakers are hosting a free workshop for K-12 students to teach them the art of screenwriting. Students will learn the basics of storytelling and how to specifically write a story for film. The students will then come up with their own stories and turn them into a screenplay. Prompts will be available to help the students brainstorm if needed as well as guidance from filmmakers. By the time they leave, each participant will have a finished screenplay that will be submitted to the 2025 Pens to Lens Student Screenwriting Competition.
 
Students must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.
Location (Building)

The Idea Store, 125 Lincoln Square, Urbana, IL 61801

We have gotten multiple requests to push back the submission deadline for the Pens to Lens Student Screenplay Competition, and so, we've done just that. The new deadline is 11:59 PM on Sunday, March 9. This gives students two more weekends to work on their screenplays.

Now only that, but we're also adding a screenwriting workshop to the calendar on Saturday, March 8. Details will be coming soon!

Monday, March 17, 2025 - 7:00 PM

A monthly gather to meet other filmmakers in the area, discuss upcoming projects, find crew, or just general mingling.

Location (Building)

Esquire Lounge 106 N Walnut St, Champaign, IL 61820

CMM's biggest event of the year, Pens to Lens, is kicking off! The student screenwriting competition is accepting submissions now, but the form will close at 11:59 PM on February 28, 2025. There is still time for students to write a screenplay for consideration. So, if you know any students from K-12, spread the word!

Monday, February 17, 2025 - 7:00 PM

A monthly gather to meet other filmmakers in the area, discuss upcoming projects, find crew, or just general mingling.

Location (Building)

Esquire Lounge 106 N Walnut St, Champaign, IL 61820

Saturday, February 08, 2025 - 12:00 PM

As part of 40 North's PostMark Urbana series, we'll be presenting a retrospective screening of Pens to Lens shorts at the Urbana Free Library.

Location (Building)

Urbana Free Library

Lewis Auditorium

"The Blue-Ooze Brothers" wins the 2025 48-Hour Film Competition.

The prompt that this film needed to include was:

  1. Prop: Blue Liquid
  2. Line of dialogue: "Where did they go?"
  3. Character: a grump

Congratulations to this team and to everyone who made a movie this year! Making a movie is the real prize.

Tuesday, February 04, 2025 - 7:00 PM

The competition is on! Did the teams succeed in making a film in just 2 days? We'll be screening the films at the Savoy 16, as well as a few other shorts not made for the competition. This is a free screening starting at 7 PM, so come one, come all.

Location (Building)

Savoy 16