Thursday, September 25, 2025
Get Your Passes
9:30AM
Meet, greet, and welcome!
10:30AM
Special Guest Speaker Michael W. Gray
Charting the Creative Journey: From Indie Roots to Industry Collaborations
Michael W. Gray is a film producer & writer/director working under his Relentless Filmz banner. Michael broke onto the scene with the acclaimed mixed martial arts documentary, FIGHTVILLE. FIGHTVILLE premiered at the 2011 South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Competition and immediately secured distribution in the U.S. and around the world. Anchored with a well-publicized SHOWTIME NETWORKS deal, it was the #1 independent film on iTunes for a run, and has played on Netflix and Hulu. Michael has followed this success with the 2013 TriBeCa Film Festival premiere of A BIRDERS GUIDE TO EVERYTHING starring Oscar Winning actor Sir Ben Kingsley. Birders was an audience favorite, with a successful theatrical run, and a robust streaming release that included STARZ and global sales and distribution. Other festival notables for Michael include 2014 Sundance Film Festival competition film JAMIE MARKS IS DEAD with Liv Tyler, Judy Greer and Cameron Monaghan. Also, 2015 Slamdance Competition film BODY, acquired by Oscilloscope Labs and Archstone, 2016 South by Southwest (SXSW) competition film LONG NIGHTS SHORT MORNINGS was acquired by Sony’s The Orchard for a US and multiple country release. Other notable releases include HERE ALONE (TriBeCa Film Festival then Vertical), LIGHT OF THE MOON n (SXSW then Imagination). Also recently released is WHAT BREAKS THE ICE a coming of age thriller featuring mega-star Madelyn Cline, sensation Lukas Gage and Ozark’s Sophia Hublitz.
12:20PM
Screenings and Talkbacks begin! View Screening Schedule.
8:00PM
Opening day after-party
Friday, September 26, 2025
Get Your Passes
9:30AM
Ned Donovan
Maximum Impact, Minimum Budget: The Indie Creator's Guide to Project Development
11:00AM
Special Guest Speakers: Marcus Thorne Bagala & Will Melones & Samuel Thorne Bagala
Orchestrating Success: A Deep Dive on Getting The Most of Music in Your Project
Explore the art and science of effective music integration and audio production. This session provides filmmakers and audio fiction creators with actionable strategies for commissioning original compositions, utilizing licensed music, and optimizing audio quality to create immersive audience experiences.
Marcus Thorne Bagala is an Emmy Award-winning composer, audio producer and sound designer whose multidisciplinary talents have helped define the sound of numerous iconic podcasts, films and TV shows.
With over a decade of experience in the industry, Marcus has established himself as a creative force and storyteller who brings audio to life through sonic exploration. His work spans immersive scores for investigative journalism, Conviction: American Panic, terrifying monster sounds for Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw production, Quiet Part Loud, and original music for iconic characters in Harley Quinn & The Joker: Sound Mind, and most recently, Star Trek: Khan, featuring Star Trek’s greatest villain.
Other career highlights include: winning the 2021 LA Emmy for music composition (with co-composer Mark Baechle) for season four of PBS SoCal’s series Tending Nature, co-scoring the SXSW Spotlight Award-winning documentary Clemente, produced by Richard Linklater and Lebron James. Contributing to the Peabody-winning episode of legendary podcast and radio show This American Life: The Anatomy Of Doubt; the Pulitzer Prize-winning episode The Out Crowd, and co-scoring the feature documentary Fathers Of Football with indie rock legends The Flaming Lips.
Will Melones is a mixing engineer based in Kearny, NJ. His mic-placement prowess has been heard on Ray Donovan, The Affair, and Encounter Party, and his own music has garnered placements on Empire and Bel-Air. Recent credits include score mixing for the award-winning documentary film Clemente and score recording for the fiction podcast Star Trek: Khan. He is a two-time NJ WebFest award winner for The Hunted: Encore.
Samuel Thorne Bagala's Broadway/NYC credits include: Days of Wine & Roses, Hamilton, Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory. Tours: Hamilton (1st national), RENT (20th Anniversary Tour – US & Tokyo), Elf (three seasons). Regional: Fulton Theatre (most recently: The Last Five Years), Maine State Music Theatre (9 seasons), Dallas Theater Center. As a composer, Sam has written music for film, podcast, & commercials. Graduate of The Boston Conservatory with a degree in Piano Performance. Sam resides in Philadelphia where he has a music production studio.
12:30PM
Screenings and Talkbacks continue! View Screening Schedule.
7:00PM
After-Party at Just Jake's!
Saturday, September 27, 2025
Get Your Passes
9:30AM
Special Guest Speakers: Anne Baird & Wil Williams
Next-Level Networking: Making Connections & Leveraging Festival Success Into Professional Opportunities
Anne Baird is the COO of Tink Media and a Fiction Podcast Expert. They are also a co-founder and the Chief Financial & Operating Officer of Hug House Productions, a podcast collective that focuses on spotlighting stories by and about marginalized groups.
Wil Williams is a podcast critic, journalist, and producer. As the CEO of Hug House Productions, Wil is the showrunner and sound designer of VALENCE, Scoring Magic, Nevermorphed, and The Deposition, the co-host of How to Act Fereldan, host of Tuned In, Dialed Up and Empty The Queues, as well as the lead interview editor on Radio Drama Revival. Wil has previously worked as the head of communications and community for the Apollo app for audio fiction, and you can find Wil’s podcast reviews on their own website, Polygon, The AV Club’s Podmass, and Discover Pods.
Together, Anne and Wil co-authored "So You Won Some Awards at a Festival - Now What?"
10:30AM
NJ WebFest $200 Dash Pitch Competition
Exclusive for VIP Pass Holders, this pitch competition gives you the opportunity to explain your project in 75 seconds or less, for a chance to win $200 cash.
You can pitch your project that was selected by NJ WebFest, or go for an entirely different concept. The judges will be your peers. Both web series/film creators AND audio fiction creators get their own competition. Both winners will each be awarded $200 at The Gala.
11:15AM
Special Guest Speaker Bryan G. Thompson
The Business of Content Creation
"You're not just a content creator; you're an entrepreneur." This quote from Bryan Thompson reminds us all of the dreaded second word in the phrase 'show business.' Even if we do well in the creative space, many of us struggle on the business side. In this presentation, Bryan will cover insider tips on the business of professional marketing and communication to help independent creators improve their opportunities to achieve commercial success.
Bryan is an actor, producer, and director known for the action movies CLUTCH, DIRT, ROGUE CELL, and the recently released BLOWBACK, co-starring with renowned actor Clifton Powell. He has directed over a dozen feature films in multiple genres, including Action, Sci-fi, Comedy, Drama, and Fantasy. Bryan is the founder of the Miami Web Series Festival and the Virginia Black Film Festival. His work streams on several platforms.
12:30PM
Screenings and Talkbacks continue! View Screening Schedule.
Sunday, September 28, 2025
Get Your Passes
11:30AM
ARRIVAL FOR THE AUDIO FICTION GALA
12:00PM
AUDIO FICTION GALA KICKS OFF!
5:30PM
ARRIVAL FOR THE WEB SERIES/SHORTS GALA
6:00PM
WEB SERIES/SHORTS GALA KICKS OFF!