Support Nerd Association's Film Festival Journey

Hello everyone!

The cast and crew of Nerd Association are raising money to help us submit the film to film festivals! Written by Elle Pugh, Directed by Ella McKenzie, and Produced by Maggie Granata, Nerd Association is a 35-minute short film about a striving social climber who tries to get back at her popular ex-boyfriend by joining the Dungeons and Dragons club and dating his twin brother.

Nerd Association is one of two films produced this year through FTVM 423, an elective course at the University of Michigan that brings together advanced screenwriting and production students from FTVM, actors from SMTD, and students with special design, sound, composing, and producing skills from other schools and colleges across the university. These students spend the semester producing two 30-minute, newly written, stand-alone scripts based on two feature-length screenplays selected from students in the advanced screenwriting seminar.

The cast and crew of Nerd Association have been working on the film since the beginning of January and the film was finally completed at the beginning of June. We had the opportunity to screen the film at the Lightworks Student Film Festival back in April where it won 'Best In Festival,' and it was also screened to enthusiastic audiences at The Michigan and State Theaters in Ann Arbor and The Garden Theater in Frankfort. Now that we've been able to share the film with our local community, family, and friends, our next step is to showcase our work to the broader film community through film festivals.

Film festivals allow our hard work to be recognized by other film industry members, be shown on a larger scale, and make us eligible to receive awards. If accepted, the cast & crew would have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend the festivals in person, gaining access to career-making networking events.

The submission process, however, can be quite costly. Festivals charge an unavoidable submission fee (ranging anywhere from $15-70 per festival) which not only compensates those who review submissions, but in many cases actually funds the festival itself. We would appreciate any donations to help us reach our goal and all money raised will go directly towards the fees required to submit the film to festivals!

Thank you so much for supporting our film! You can read more about it and see BTS photos on our Film Freeway Page, as well as follow our Instagram @nerdassociationfilm.

Many thanks,

The Nerd Association Cast & Crew