The CREDO 23 Film Festival

Why I founded a non-AI film festival. And why we’re giving all the money to the filmmakers. Come join us.

In June of 2024, the Tribeca Film Festival announced that they had partnered with OpenAI in order to showcase their generative AI (GAI) software program, Sora. Special attention would be paid to five shorts that had been made using only this program. Tens of thousands filmmaker’s hearts were broken; one of the premier film festivals was openly honoring GAI over blood-and-sweat filmmaking.

A year prior, in the summer of 2023, GAI use was a main contention in the Hollywood labor disputes and the driver for the ensuing WGA and SAG strikes. The concern was that that film production was to give way to algorithmic computer programs. Considering the nature of GAI, in that it is completely dependent on the stolen work of all the filmmakers past and present, the idea that our past work was going to replace future employment was too much to tolerate.

The unions settled with the studios and streamers some time after. It was then a sad confirmation of their suspicion to hear not six months later that streamers and studios had indeed embraced GAI. The announcements began to roll out about deals long before negotiated. CEO of Sony Pictures, Tony Vinciquerra, revealed that going forward, Sony would be using “AI primarily” in their film production, Lionsgate divulged their partnership with the GAI company Runway, and Netflix’s CEO proclaimed bright enthusiasm for GAI.

For independent filmmakers looking to transcend the already banal “Content Era” and eschewing the use of GAI, they felt they at least still had film festivals by which to get their work to the public. And so, the discovery that Tribeca and other film festivals had embraced GAI, just like the streamers and studios, effectively narrowed their hope of getting attention for their work.

Founded in 2023, CREDO 23 is a kind of “organics stamp” for films and series, letting the audience know that no GAI was used in the project. It was a natural fit for CREDO 23 to then establish a film festival in order to give those non-AI, boundary-pushing filmmakers a way to get their work to the audience.

The CREDO 23 Film Festival was founded as a tunnel for these filmmakers to travel through during the GAI inferno, to get to that other side to the fully-bloomed new genre. It’s for the filmmakers, who need a means to get The New out, and it’s for the audience who deserve far more than regurgitated GAI-prompted, Frankenstein spoonfuls of films they’ve already seen. Additionally, all festival proceeds will be granted to the accepted filmmakers, after costs. This way, these filmmakers can afford to continue to make the new films we need.

So, I hope you’ll join us. We have a really great line-up to announce soon of hand-picked films and insightful panels, all at the historical American Legion, Post 43 in Hollywood. We’ll hang out in their beautiful theater, lounge, pool room, and bar. We’ll watch and talk about films for a couple of days, and we’ll be able to say we were there, when The New started busting through the soil and taking root.

It’s 3/28/25-3/30/25 in L.A., CA. Tickets are on sale now. If you can’t make it, but want to support the festival, you can donate or have your company sponsor. Come join us! The CREDO 23 Council consists of myself, director and cinematographer Reed Morano, writer and showrunner Matt Weiner, actress Juliette Lewis, and costume designer Arianne Phillips.

CREDO23FilmFest.com