The 2025 Film Festival

The Footcandle Film Festival is designed to bring unique, challenging and entertaining films to Western North Carolina every September.

The Footcandle FilmLab

The Footcandle FilmLAB is an exhilarating 60-hour filmmaking competition held from September 20th to 23rd, where creative minds unite in dynamic teams to craft unique short films under intense time constraints. This event pushes collaboration and innovation to the limit, culminating in a public screening where the winning film earns a cash prize, celebrating the art of storytelling and cinematic excellence.

In-Person & Online Screenings

In-Person & Online Screenings

Films in competition for the Footcandle Film Festival, selected from hundreds of submissions received throughout the year, will be shown over a three-day period. There will be between 25-35 films shown over this weekend, with the weekend culminating in an Awards Ceremony on Saturday evening recognizing the best of the films shown throughout the festival.

Scriptwriting Competition

Scriptwriting Competition

The Screenwriting Award event recognizes the best unproduced screenplay submitted throughout the year. The winning writer will attend this event to share their work with an audience, discuss their experiences in writing screenplays, and have some selected scenes from their winning work presented through a table read with local actors.

Youth International Film Showcase

Youth International Film Showcase

Through a partnership with the Greater Hickory International Council, curated short films from international filmmakers will be shown at a special free event. The event is designed for a younger audience (ages 8-14) and their families, and provides an opportunity to learn about other countries and cultures through short films.

Outdoor Stage & Screen Event

Outdoor Stage & Screen Event

Music and movies combine at an outdoor special event at the HUM near Downtown Hickory. A concert by an all-star band playing your favorite hits of the 50s & 60s will be followed by a special film screening of AMERICAN GRAFFITI under the stars.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Footcandle Film Festival

The Footcandle Film Festival is designed to bring unique, challenging and entertaining films to Western North Carolina every September. The festival is being held by the founders and members of the Footcandle Film Society, a 600-member group dedicated to screening and discussing films on a monthly basis.  The society was formed in late 2007 by Alan Jackson & Chris Frye.  The inaugural film festival was held in September of 2015.

The festival film selections and schedule will be announced in late July.  You will then be able to see the full festival schedule and buy tickets or festival passes.

Both feature-length and short films will be screened at this year’s festival. At the award ceremony that ends the festival weekend, the following awards will be announced: “Best Narrative Feature”, “Best Narrative Short”, “Best Documentary Feature”, “Best Documentary Short”, and “Best Youth International Short Film”, which are all selected by a jury, and then the “Audience Favorite Narrative Feature”, “Audience Favorite Documentary Feature”, “Audience Favorite Narrative Short Film”, “Audience Favorite Documentary Short Film” and the “Audience Favorite Youth International Short Film” which are all voted on and selected by those in attendance.

The festival schedule and films have not yet been announced.  Once they are you can visit the link to purchase tickets or passes for this year’s festival!

This project has been supported in past years by the United Arts Council of Catawba County through the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, with funding from the State of North Carolina from the National Endowment for the Arts.