Welcome to the Austin Veteran/Military Film Festival! The film festival created to uplift veterans, military personnel and their families by giving them a platform to tell the stories they capture on film and through videography. Our film Festival, sponsored by the Veterans Suicide Prevention Channel (VSPChannel) is created to be a part of the 6th Annual AUSTIN VETERANS ARTS FESTIVAL (AVAFEST,) a month long series of shows, programs, seminars and events, that take place in the city of Austin, Texas. This year AVAFEST starts on Friday, October 11 and will run through November 12, 2024. 2024 will be the 6th Annual AVAFEST event since it began in 2018. The festival is created to encourage veterans to Use the arts for healing and we expect many of the other participants of AVAFEST will attend our film festival. event this year. Singers, dancers, comedians, poets, band members, filmmakers videographers and more, many of them people who have served in our military and or their family members. It should be very exciting. There will be an after film festival party at a nearby restaurant following the film festival where the attendees can meet each other and congratulate the filmmakers, the audience will be invite. At the after party at the end of the nights film screenings, is where the filmmakers will officially receive be presented their awards. Come and meet and greet veteran filmmakers who may be in attendance most of whom are already award winning filmmakers. Arrive at the beautiful AFS Cinema by 5PM to enjoy our Red Carpet, take pictures and hob nob with the stars in the films and their directors. We want you to have a great time in the lobby before our film festival screenings begin. Remember, the purpose of this film festival is not only to be entertained and have some fun, but like all of the other projects produced by AVAFEST this month, to encourage our veterans and all other participants to use the arts for healing purposes. "We want veterans and Military Personnel to "USE THE ART OF FILM MAKING AS A MEANS OF HEALING THEMSELVES AND OTHERS".
The films that we select for this years film festival will run the gamut from comedy, documentary, music videos , entertaining, filmed therapies, informational videos and more. There may even be a surprise feature film about or by a veteran in this years festival about or by someone that is well known. We will be striving to give you an awesome Film Festival that veterans, military personnel and their family members and the general public deserve and can remember proudly. Support the success of this film festival by submitting your work and/or attending the festival on October 17, 2024. Remember, when you support the VSPChannel and AVAFEST, you are supporting preventing their suicides and promoting wellness of veterans through their use of the arts of film making and videography.
2024 will be the very first year that the AVAFEST VETERAN/MILITARY FILM FESTIVAL will be become a reality. It will finally be up and running in the beautiful 150-seat AFS Cinema theater located in Austin, Texas. The Austin Veterans/Military Film Festival is awesome because our film festival will be working to present fabulous film and moving projects created by some of the top veteran and nonveteran filmmakers. We are also cultivating and encouraging new veteran filmmakers that love showing their concerns and talents on the big screen. Through the effort of the VSPChannel who our nonprofit 501c3 corporation has operated its own ROKU television channel since 2021. The VSPChannel is founded to "Broadcast Wellness and Entertainment to Veterans 24 hours a day , 7 days a week," at no cost to them. "We are proud to offer veterans, military personnel their families and the general public the opportunity to show their film and video creativity in our new film festival.
The theme for this year’s AVAFEST Film Festival is “Using THE ART of Film For Healing" We know that our veterans, military personnel and their family members are talented enough to create one of the most popular film festivals in America some day, and we are dedicated to working towards making and growing the AVAFEST VETERAN /MILITARY FILM FESTIVAL into one of the best in the nation.
We have created several diverse and popular categories for awards in our AVAFEST VETERAN/MILITARY FILM FESTIVAL. This year because of financial considerations there may not be cash awards. However our plan is to implement them if we can. Cash prizes will not exceed $200 per category this year should they be added. That being said "ALL" of our filmmakers who win "best film" this year in their category will receive a beautiful bronze plaque with the their name on it, the name of their film, the category in which it won BEST and the year it was awarded. The Bronze plaque award will be affixed by the VSPChannel and AVAFEST's official logos. The categories are:
BEST FEATURE FILM,
BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM SHORT,
BEST SHORT FILM,
BEST SHORT COMEDY FILM,
BEST SUPER SHORT DOCUMENTARY,
BEST THERAPY FILM
BEST MUSIC VIDEO
BEST PATRIOT DIVISION FILM
If you are a patriot who just loves and respects veterans and has a veteran- related project, your submission is important to us and we encourage you to submit your work too.
Films may also be considered and selected to play on the Veterans' Arts and Wellness Network on our ROKU television channel which is also online, with your consent. Once you have been notified that you film has been selected, and if you are a member of Film Freeway, you may also proceed to create a laurel on the Film Freeway website under SUBMISSIONS. If you are not a member of Film Freeway, we will print a laurel of acceptance into our film festival for you, however we strongly recommend that you join filmfreeway. They are the best.