The 2025 Pens to Lens program will be screened at the Lake County Film Festival. See all the shorts again with a whole new crowd!

Tickets available here: https://checkout.square.site/merchant/WP51KZ4F499P3/checkout/MH4S6LTV5RZHGCOYKABX7KCU

The 2025 Pens to Lens program will be screened at the Lake County Film Festival. See all the shorts again with a whole new crowd!

Tickets available here: https://checkout.square.site/merchant/WP51KZ4F499P3/checkout/MH4S6LTV5RZHGCOYKABX7KCU

A monthly mixer to meet up with other local filmmakers to discuss projects, screenings, and other movie related topics. This mixer will specifically be a de-brief of Pens to Lens

The annual red carpet gala for the Pens to Lens Student Screenwriting Competition. See locally produced shorts written by area K-12 students! See movie posters designed by local artists! Get your picture taken on the red carpet! Celebrate the creativity of our students and future filmmakers!

Champaign Movie Makers is hosting a crash course on everything you wanted to know about camera lenses. We'll go over how they work and more importantly, how they affect the image you're capturing. There will be a presentation following by Q&A session and experimentation with a few different cameras and lens options. If you have an interesting lens, bring it to show the group!

A monthly mixer to meet up with other local filmmakers to discuss projects, screenings, and other movie related topics

A monthly mixer to meet other filmmakers and discuss current projects

Free screening event hosted by the Chambana Film Society

When Will Miller came up to me after the screening of Oscar-Nominated documentary short films and told me he was a documentary filmmaker in the area, I didn't expect that he had Sundance-selected feature, and had sold ALL of his films to major shorts buyers (The Guardian, The New Yorker, The New York Times, PBS, etc.)

Will Miller holds a variety of jobs on these films, including Producer, Editor, Cinematographer, and Director. When I saw what a busy and successful filmmaker he was, I was excited about the prospect of showing his future work at various events, but almost immediately he told me that he had been in town for four years, and was leaving after graduation in May!

I hastily threw together this little event, to share a little of Will's work with a local audience, and hopefully have Will share some of his industry experience and wisdom with the local filmmaking community.

Schedule:

7pm: Doors open. Meet & Greet. 
7:30pm: Screening of Will's movies, as well as some current fundraising videos for his upcoming films. This should run about 40 minutes. 
8:10pm: Q&A with Will.

I hope to see you there!

The Illinois Student Film Festival is a festival featuring 15 short films made by students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. There will be free concessions and refreshments, trivia, door prizes, and a filmmaker panel.

This collection of short films features both filmmakers from the Champaign-Urbana region, and filmmakers from the Chicago region.

Tickets

Chambana

High Standards
Narrative • Comedy • USA • 2024 • 12 Minutes
Director: Katie Weston, Christina Giorgi
Writers: Katie Weston, Christina Giorgi
Producers: Katie Weston, Thomas Quinn, Rick Lunn
Cast: Hanna Hagerty, Grace Lumpkin, Halle Berghoff, Megan Christoferson, Jacob Nuti
Four single best friends navigate life together—until one of them falls for a guy. Suddenly, he’s under scrutiny as the friends put him through hilarious tests to see if he can handle their “high standards.”

An Affair At The End Of Time
Narrative • Comedy • USA • 2025 • 15 Minutes
Director: Chase Todd
Writer: Chase Todd, Phillip Hazen
Producer: Chase Todd, Phillip Hazen
Cast: Katherine Bokenkamp, Myles Valentine, Mercedes DeSilva
A man has second thoughts about the affair he’s been having on the day the world ends.

Kal-Haven
Narrative • Horror • USA • 2025 • 12 Minutes
Director: Kal Kociss
Writer: Andrew Bailes
Producer: Kyle Clark
Cast: Noah Smith, Courtney Mazeika, Andrew Bailes
A young man named Hunter is in search of food in a post-apocalyptic world. During his travels, he meets another scavenger with ambiguous intentions.

Chicagoland

Anhedonia
Narrative • Horror • USA • 2025 • 8 Minutes
Director: Aaron Hill
Writer: Aaron Hill
Producer: Tj Hill
Cast: Elle Laesch, Shelby Hill, Ryan Pickerill
Kiera is haunted by the memory of her sister, and the shame of causing her death.

Fragments Of A Crime
Narrative • Horror • USA • 2025 • 8 Minutes
Directors: Damon Rios, Dexter Blanchard, Jacob Goldberg
Writers: Damon Rios, Dexter Blanchard
Producers: Damon Rios, Dexter Blanchard
Cast: Joshua Klein, Richard Pike, Jacob Coggshall, Joaquin Carrig, Jacob Meyerson
A disgruntled detective recounts multiple versions of the same crime to a stranger in hopes of finding an answer to his mystery.

The Cancer Card
Narrative • Drama/Comedy • USA • 2025 • 14 Minutes
Director: Jimmy Rancich
Writer: Jimmy Rancich
Producer: Tanja Meyer
Cast: Dekin Walter, Evlis Garcia, Michael Oilar, Diana Simonzadeh, France Jean-Baptiste
A young cancer fighter seeks advice on managing his disease from a survivor, who shows him the only benefit of getting the disease.

Captain Of Industry
Narrative • Comedy • USA • 2020 • 18 Minutes
Director: Andrew Laudone
Writer: Andrew Laudone
Producer: David Ryzner, Sarah Sharp, Rob Stern
Cast: Buzz Leer, Simon Hedger, Ronny Stein, Charles W. Rhodes
A maniacal business tycoon devises a campaign of terror, and hopes to make a little money along the way.

Hair
Narrative • Comedy/Drama • USA • 2024 • 6 Minutes
Directors: Wendy Mateo, Lorena Diaz
Writers: Wendy Mateo, Lorena Diaz
Producer: Eugene Sun Park, Jason Matsumoto, Erica Duffy, Amy E. Powell
Cast: Miranda Gonzalez, Jessi Realzola, Claudia Quesada, Gwen La Roka
In Mari’s salon, it’s just another day where they spill the tea about life. But today Christina comes in late and through her hair mishaps they rally around her when the truth is revealed.