{"id":2158,"date":"2026-04-08T17:58:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T17:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/?p=2158"},"modified":"2026-04-08T17:58:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T17:58:33","slug":"travel-companion-alex-mallis-travis-wood-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/travel-companion-alex-mallis-travis-wood-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"No Roadblock Too Big: How Alex Mallis and Travis Wood Flew Their Feature to Tribeca"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Getting your first feature into Tribeca on your very first submission is the kind of thing that doesn\u2019t happen\u2026 until it does. For filmmaking duo Alex Mallis and Travis Wood, that stroke of luck was the beginning of a longer grind: a dozen festivals, DIY publicity, and what Mallis calls a \u201ctough\u201d path filled with \u201ca lot of roadblocks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After each director had built a body of short films independently, they connected through the New York City filmmaking cooperative Meerkat Media<\/a>, hit it off, and began collaborating. \u201cIt\u2019s rare when you find a creative person who doesn\u2019t stress you out and actually makes the process better,\u201d Mallis says. \u201cWe were at this similar spot in our career where we were like, \u2018Let\u2019s take a bigger swing. Let\u2019s make a feature.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The payoff is \u201cThe Travel Companion\u201d (2025), a comedy about a struggling documentary filmmaker whose access to free standby flights\u2014courtesy of his airline-employee roommate\u2014is suddenly threatened by a new girlfriend. The film premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, was acquired by Oscilloscope Laboratories in February, and opens at BAM Cinemas in Brooklyn on April 10, followed by a limited national release on April 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Longtime users of FilmFreeway<\/a>, Mallis and Wood turned back to the platform when it came time to showcase their feature. To their delight, they were selected by their first submission: Tribeca. Here, the duo discuss how FilmFreeway helped them along the way and why young filmmakers just need to keep going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you find the transition from short films to a feature?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Alex Mallis:<\/strong> Making a feature is not necessarily a hugely additional amount of work from a short film; it takes up a similar space in your head. Maybe the shoot is more days, but you\u2019re still putting together a jigsaw puzzle while juggling a thousand balls. And I think it kind of just demystified it a lot.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feature filmmaking has always felt like this thing where I\u2019m like, I\u2019m not ready for that because that needs to be my masterpiece. All the wisdom that I\u2019ve gained in my entire life needs to be distilled and reflected in this piece, or else it\u2019s not worth making. And I think making this feature burst that, like, oh, no, this is just what you have to say right now, and it\u2019s not the beginning, and it\u2019s not the end. It made it feel a lot less precious and a lot more achievable, and I\u2019m trying to really hold that thought as we start to think about the next one.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Co-directors Alex Mallis & Travis Wood THE TRAVEL COMPANION. Photo credit Todd Midler<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

What impact did FilmFreeway have on you throughout your push to get the film screened and eventually sold?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Travis Wood:<\/strong> I\u2019ve been on FilmFreeway since the conception of it. And we got lucky that our first submission got into Tribeca, and that\u2019s literally never happened to me. It\u2019s a tool for the job, and it\u2019s telling you what\u2019s coming up. There\u2019s so many festivals in our brains\u2014it\u2019s even good to remind us, like, oh, we\u2019re alumni at the New Hampshire Film Festival, so let\u2019s email and ask for the waiver code that they will give us to submit on FilmFreeway. But, without seeing that in the upcoming deadline section, those things might slip through the cracks. I wish there was a FilmFreeway for booking theaters, for booking critics. If I could just go on and search in one spot, it would be so convenient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AM:<\/strong> It acts as this archive, especially for us, having made tons of short films. I\u2019ll click on past projects and see where I\u2019ve played, and the film festivals have profiles, and you can see reviews and where people are hyped, and that just helps me feel more organized. It just streamlines that process so much. FilmFreeway is how it should have always been, rather than feeling like you have to go through this lengthy grant-writing process where you\u2019re like, \u201cWhat is the color profile of my film?\u201d It\u2019s plug and play: You hit submit, it goes out, it\u2019s easy, it\u2019s fun. And I\u2019m so grateful that it exists, because the process used to be such a pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has it been like taking \u201cThe Travel Companion\u201d out on the festival circuit?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

AM:<\/strong> Short filmmaking is something I love and will continue to do, but when you\u2019re a feature, it\u2019s your film, it\u2019s your slot, it\u2019s your Q&A\u2014people are essentially coming to see your film and your film only, and that\u2019s exciting. And with filmmaking now, I\u2019m spending 90% of the time sending emails in a dark home office, and the festivals are your time to go out and celebrate, meet other filmmakers, build and increase your community, see other films, and get motivated and inspired for the next one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has been a true DIY process, down to doing your own publicity. What have you learned?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

TW:<\/strong> It\u2019s been empowering. For many years I\u2019ve had this idea that somebody needs to come along and they\u2019ll have the secret keys and open some door and do the thing for you. And with this film, the method of making it was so DIY that at every step now I\u2019m kind of like, we can figure this out. Like, we can send the emails, we can do the research, and yes, it\u2019s a lot of work, but it\u2019s nice to not feel that just because I don\u2019t have the money or resources that I can\u2019t access that thing. You can get out, you can do it, the tools are there\u2014you just gotta be diligent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What advice would you give to filmmakers who are just starting out?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

AM:<\/strong> Just finish something. There can be a frustration that stops you because you\u2019re trying to be this perfectionist, and I think the antidote to that is just to keep making more stuff. And a lot of it is gonna suck, but eventually some of it will be kind of good. There\u2019s not really a shortcut\u2014you just have to start, make, and, most importantly, complete. And then do it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TW:<\/strong> Just always keep doing it. A lot of times we would hear, \u201cWell, that\u2019s not the way it typically goes,\u201d or, \u201cYou\u2019re not gonna get to film in an airport,\u201d and once we embodied [this idea of] \u201cwell, we\u2019re not stopping,\u201d it made all those roadblocks just feel like fun, like, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna do it.\u201d So just find a way to believe and keep pushing. You can learn that in shorts, but a feature presents a mountain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AM:<\/strong> Sometimes people thought that they were throwing up roadblocks, but it actually felt like they were daring us, and I was like, \u201cOh yeah, that\u2019s not how it\u2019s done? Watch this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The co-directors of \u201cThe Travel Companion\u201d discuss using FilmFreeway, doing their own PR, and why every obstacle is really just a dare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":2163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow FilmFreeway Helped \u2018The Travel Companion\u2019 Land Tribeca<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Alex Mallis and Travis Wood share how they used FilmFreeway to navigate the festival circuit and sell their debut feature.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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