Laurens Film Festival extends submission deadline to Oct. 9
October 6, 2026
Filmmakers who missed the original cutoff for the inaugural Laurens Film Festival have a few more days to get their work in. Citing strong interest, the City of Laurens has pushed the submission deadline from Oct. 7 to Friday, Oct. 9.
Entry is free, and the festival is open to filmmakers of every experience level, from middle school students to seasoned community creators.
The festival will be held Thursday, Oct. 23, at 6:30 p.m. at the historic Capitol Theatre, 104 E. Main St. in Laurens. Selected films will be screened during Film Festival Night at the Capitol.
Entries compete in five categories: Student Film for middle school students in grades six through eight, Student Film for high school students in grades nine through 12, Emerging Filmmaker for college students and entrants under age 25, Community Film for all ages, and the Laurens Stories Award, which honors films that spotlight local history, culture or landmarks.
Films may run no longer than 10 minutes, and student entries are capped at five minutes. All work must be original and appropriate for a general audience. Films that have already been entered in, screened at or recognized by other festivals are still eligible.
The festival is the newest addition to programming at the Capitol Theatre, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in June. The theater opened in 1925 and stood empty for years before Presbyterian College bought it in 2021 and turned it over to the city in 2023. The city now runs the 10,000-square-foot venue, which offers free movie nights on the second and fourth Friday of each month.
City leaders have described the theater as a home for film, music and the performing arts, with a particular focus on giving young people a place to create and share their work close to home.
