By Carol Badaracco Padgett
The brightest creators and stars in film and television attended the 28th annual SCAD Savannah Film Festival in Savannah, Georgia, Oct. 26 – Nov. 1. The fun of seeing these icons on the sidewalk or the red carpet was not the biggest bang the university’s festival had to offer. Instead, it was listening to professional insights at in-depth panel discussions and in one-on-one interviews that shone the biggest spotlight on the creation of stories for screen today.
Here are key insights Georgia Entertainment gathered while attending the final weekend of the 2025 festival.
Ownership shifts into the hands of the artist
Over recent years, the traditional cadence of filmmaking and television production has shifted from the long-running Hollywood model, where entertainment executives primarily influenced what audiences would see and experience.
Following a special advance screening of her latest television project, Peacock series All Her Fault which premieres on November 6, Conyers, Georgia-born actress and producer Dakota Fanning sat down to talk about current developments in the film and television production landscape.
In an interview with Deadline contributing writer Antonia Blyth on the festival’s final weekend, Fanning noted that a number of film industry players—longtime actors like herself— now seek creative input into their film projects.
As an example of this movement, Fanning and her sister, Elle, founded and run a production company they started in 2021 called Lewellen Pictures. Here, the pair develops stories of their choosing.
Acting, though, never strays far from Fanning’s professional picture. She reports that she and Elle are soon to appear together on-screen for the first time in an upcoming project through Lewellen Pictures.
Collaboration deepens leading into 2026
When talented minds come together and share input, the end creative product is exponentially stronger and brilliant stories materialize.
Michael Angelo Covino, co-writer and co-director of the new, rowdy rom-com Splitsville, which stars Dakota Johnson and Covino as a married couple, says collaboration can make the moment in a film. (Splitsville debuted in select theaters in late summer and is now streaming.)
When asked about the film’s early fight scene that completely upended audiences at its festival screening, Covino reported utilizing improv rehearsals where his vision (and that of co-writer, co-director, and co-actor Kyle Marvin) was augmented with the ideas of others. “Everyone brought their ideas,” he noted.
The soon-to-be-famous fight scene also displays a technique fellow filmmakers are using on indie projects, especially—the use of one long take to capture a scene. Where it works, the technique can save time and money and add an immediacy that’s riveting and uproarious for audiences.
Likewise, when Fanning received SCAD Savannah Film Festival’s Outstanding Achievement in Television Award at the screening of All Her Fault, she noted that collaboration and fresh thinking are key in creating the strongest stories.
Cultivating a headspace that helps bring stories to life
Passion for the calling is what keeps the film and entertainment industry vibrant and viable.
As long as creatives feel the intense pull to create stories to share onscreen—no matter how difficult or discouraging transitions in the industry may seem—the artform will move forward and flourish.
“Deep, deep down, there is nowhere else I’d rather be,” Fanning said when asked why she has devoted 25 years of her 31-year-old life to the film and television industry. And while acting based on the direction of others made sense for part of that journey, she noted that eventually she felt the pull to lend creative direction to certain projects and help bring them to life.
When asked for words of wisdom for filmmakers and aspiring filmmakers when the going gets tough, Fanning pondered for only a short time.
“Whatever [area of film]you’re in, ask yourself the question, ‘When it’s really hard, would you rather be somewhere else or would you rather be where you are?’” she says.
Beyond that, she adds, “As a person I always focus on doing the right thing. Most of the time [it’s] not the easy thing, not the quick thing, but focusing on doing the right thing by yourself and by other people. I think [then]the rewards really move beyond our dreams.”
