Film Fights With Friends Companion Shortfilm Festival Punches In With Submissions Ahead Of Fall 2027 Event!
Credit: Stephen Bodi (@wolfboynyc)
Two years after launching the Film Fights With Friends podcast, hosts Stephen Koepfer (“Ray Donovan,” “Feud”) and Paul Varacchi (“Marvel’s The Punisher,” “The Good Fight”) are now launching its own companion shortfilm festival in honor of practical action filmmaking. The inaugural event is set to begin accepting submissions on January 1, 2027 exclusively via FilmFreeway through July, and will be held at the Stuart Cinema and Café in New York City on September 19, 2027.
The organization in its first-year has listed twelve categories for its competition, including Best Action Design, Best Story, Hardest Hit, Best In Show, and The Celluloid Cinema Award, as well as an Audience Choice Award. Criteria includes that entries must be self-contained films with a run-time of five minutes or less with credits, and must not include the use of Generative AI or motion capture, nor “animation or live action films with AI characters, portions of larger films or episodes from episodic series.”
The two podcast hosts and stuntmen are also among the jurors for the festival which also lists stunt professional Becca GT (Poker Face, Russian Doll, The Gilded Age); actor, writer and 87North head grappling instructor Hugh Fitzgerald (Hell Hath No Fury, The Unit, Red Belt); Canada’s Lauro “Lash” Chartrand-Del Valle (Shogun, Protectors of the Land, Tracker, Midnight Mass); director and cinematographer David Tuttman (The Night Agent, Wu Tang: An American Saga, The Following, Damages); actor Sunny Pang (Havoc, The Night Comes for Us, Headshot), and screenwriter Joshua Todd James (Take Cover, Pound of Flesh), with more names to follow.
Koepfer and Varacchi are currently in their third season of the Film Fights With Friends Podcast which they broadcast exclusively out of Breakfall Studios in New York City. The duo have also hosted several event screenings for other filmmakers at events, including Dr. Paul Heinzelmann’s stunt documentary, “Safe Sets: Dying To Work In The Film Industry” also at Stuart Cinema and Café, and Preston Thomas’ doc, “Film Jitsu,” which profiles screenfighting in stunt work; Koepfer also shares directing credits with co-helmer Matthew Kaplowitz on 2018 New York City stunt documentary, “Concrete And Crashpads: Stunts In New York.”
An earlier version of this article was corrected to present the appropriate date for submissions to the festival.
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