NOVEMBER 13 - 16 2025
Filmmakers, you are invited to join the Virginia filmmaking competition of the year! We’re looking for talented, diverse teams, ages high school to adult, for the 21st Annual Adrenaline Film Project
Led by award-winning filmmakers, Jeff Wadlow, Han West, and Steve Robillard, and the Light House Team.
APPLICATIONS ARE DUE BY OCTOBER 10TH - APPLY TODAY!
What Makes AFP Unique?
ESCAPE YOUR COMFORT ZONE
Mentors assign teams a genre, line of dialogue, and prop they must incorporate into a 3-5 minute original narrative film!
WIN AWARDS + CASH PRIZES
Teams can win four cash prizes for Adrenaline: Jury Selection, Audience Award, Mentor Award, and Actors Award.
LEARN FROM FILM INDUSTRY MENTORS
Mentors assist teams throughout the process, from the storyboard to cinematography to the editing chair!
2023 AFP Films
Click the dropdown arrow to see more!
Learn More Details
Teams consist of 3 people.
For High School students to Adults
High School student teams require the addition of an adult filmmaking mentor
We have a professional actor database for you to select from, and you can also use your friends and peers. There is no max to the amount of actors you have in your film, as long no one from your Adrenaline Team is an actor.
The creation process from start to finish will be at Light House Studio located at the Vinegar Hill Theatre 220 W. Market Street, Charlottesville, VA.
Past Work
See what other teams have done in previous AFP competitions!
Meet Your AFP Mentors
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Steve Robillard
Director/Writer/Emmy Award Winning Producer
Having lived on a crab boat, run the Iditarod dogsled race, and directed a film about the first person to ski down K2 — producer, writer, and director Steve Robillard has made a career serving as a bridge between fiction and non-fiction. His critically acclaimed collaborations include IDA Award nominated The Confession Tapes (Netflix), Munchies (Vice Media), Storage Wars (A&E), and PGA nominated Deadliest Catch (Discovery) for which he won an EMMY and PGA award in 2012. A Philadelphia native and University of Virginia alumnus, Robillard has developed and showran projects for Discovery, History, A&E, Animal Planet, Facebook, Netflix, MTV, Syfy, BBC, Channel 4, and NBC — collaborating with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way and world renowned auto brand Hoonigan. After serving as development executive at Fremantle UK’s Boundless and SVP of programming and development at Original Productions, Robillard ventured into feature films — producing Summer Qamp (Tiff 2023), Miramax’s Kaos at the Palms, IFC FIlms’s Ottolenghi And the Cakes of Versailles (Tribeca 2020, Hotdocs 2020) and co-directing the feature film The Impossible Descent (Banff 2020) for Red Bull Media House. Robillard is currently producing a feature documentary about the History of Anime in the US as well as prepping two unannounced feature films.
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Han West
Producer and Partner at Washington Square Films
Han West is a Producer and Partner at Washington Square Films who primarily works across independent feature films and commercials. His feature film credits include EP of The Room Next Door, written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, starring Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, and John Turturro, winner of the Golden Lion at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. He is also a lead producer on Marc Maron’s forthcoming directorial debut, No One Left Coming to Look For You, set in the early-90’s punk scene of the Lower East Side, and Steve Robillard’s forthcoming directorial debut, The Up & Up starring Holly Hunter. His other notable past producing credits include Lemon (dir: Janicza Bravo), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was released by Magnolia Pictures. He also produced Oh Lucy! (dir: Atsuko Hirayanagi), premiering at Cannes Critics Week, nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards, and executive produced by Adam McKay and Will Ferrell. In the studio space, Han produced the Universal Pictures production / Netflix acquisition of Good On Paper (dir: Kimmy Gatewood), written by and starring Iliza Shlesinger. As a commercial EP and producer, his client list includes Pepsi, Mercedes-Benz, and L’Oreal and talent list includes David Beckham, Lionel Messi, Steve Carrell, and Rihanna to name a few.
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Rachel Lane
Program Director at Light House Studio
As Program Director at Light House Studio, Rachel Lane supports emerging filmmakers in the Charlottesville community. Her background in studio art, film production and teaching has provided her opportunities to connect and grow with others through storytelling. Lane earned her BA in studio art from the University of Virginia, where she concentrated her art practice in cinematography and new media. She received her MFA in film, video, animation and new genres from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Lane had the opportunity to teach film production courses at UW-Milwaukee and the University of Virginia before joining the Light House Studio team.
Meet AFP Founder
Jeff Wadlow
DGA award nominee Jeff Wadlow just wrapped photography on his 9th feature film, The Devil’s Mouth, which he directed, produced, and co-wrote for Thunder Road (John Wick), Lionsgate, and Amazon. His previous theatrical film, Imaginary, marked his third collaboration with Jason Blum under a first look deal that launched Jeff’s production company, Tower of Babble Entertainment. The year before, he was the director and executive producer of The Curse of Bridge Hollow, starring Marlon Wayans (Scary Movie), which debuted at number one on Netflix. This followed the two feature films he had in theaters at the same time: Bloodshot, the big screen adaptation of the critically acclaimed comic book that Jeff developed and wrote for Sony/Columbia Pictures staring Vin Diesel; and Fantasy Island, the re-imagining of the classic TV show that Jeff directed, produced, and co-wrote for Blumhouse. His first collaboration with Blum, the original theatrical feature, Truth or Dare (Universal Studios), grossed approximately 100 million in theaters from a budget of just 3.5. Before that, Jeff wrote and directed True Memoirs of an International Assassin, staring Kevin James and Andy Garcia, a movie that was at the forefront of Netflix’s expansion into original features, while his preceding writing/directing effort, Kick Ass 2, was named one of the ten best films of the year by Quentin Tarantino, who stated it demonstrated a “real auteur approach.”
A graduate of Dartmouth College, Jeff received his Masters degree from the prestigious Peter Stark Producing Program at USC where he conceived and directed his thesis film, tHE tOWeR oF BabBLe, winning more than a dozen awards before taking the top prize in the Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival. Jeff used the million-dollar grant to make his first feature, Cry_Wolf, which was released by Universal Studios, making fifteen times its budget at the box office. His next feature, the action/drama Never Back Down, starring two-time Academy Award nominee Djimon Hounsou, beat out big-budget competition to win “Best Fight” at the MTV Movie Awards, kicking-off an MMA franchise with three sequels and counting. Jeff also developed and executive produced the worldwide hit, Non-Stop, starring Liam Neeson, as well as selling multiple pitches to CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox for original TV shows, with two of them going to pilot. Jeff collaborated with Cartlon Cuse (Lost) and Kerry Ehrin (The Morning Show) to help launch the Emmy-nominated series, Bates Motel, and then re-teamed with Cuse as a writer and Co-EP on the final season of The Strain, co-created by Guillermo Del Toro. In addition to directing/executive producing the star-studded second season of the action-comedy, Ryan Hansen Solves Crime on Television, (Jane Lynch, Stephen Merchant, Rob Cordry, and more), Jeff also directed such beloved actors as Vanessa Williams, Danny DeVito, and Meryl Streep in award-winning short subjects. For his work as the director/executive producer of the re-boot of the classic 90’s TV show, Are You Afraid of the Dark? for Paramount/Nickelodeon, Jeff received a DGA award nomination. Currently Jeff is creating a new action franchise for Netflix based on his original idea, with Chernin producing, as well as adapting the YA novel, Zombie Season, for Paramount Pictures and Scholastic Entertainment.
For the last two decades, Jeff has returned to his hometown every fall to lead The Adrenaline Film Project, a program he founded to help filmmakers of all ages, write, shoot, and screen a short film in just 72 hours. Through the Adrenaline Film Project, Jeff has helped produce more than two hundred short films, personally mentoring over six hundred aspiring filmmakers.
Sponsorship
How To Support Filmmakers?
With your support, we’re able to grow not only as a competition, but as an experience for new skills to flourish! In 2025, we’re ecstatic to take on more talented filmmakers and mentors with a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives, and bring forward awards and cash prizes to help jump start filmmaking careers.
We have six levels of Sponsorship, with each one being unique to how you can support local artists!
BIG THANK YOU
TO OUR 2024 CORPORATE SPONSORS
THE JOSEPH AND ROBERT CORNELL MEMORIAL FOUNDATION
The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation is a charitable trust created by the will of acclaimed 20th-century artist Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) that honors the memory of the artist and his disabled younger brother. The trust supports a variety of nonprofit beneficiaries, with an emphasis on the arts.
Joseph Cornell was an American artist renowned for his achievements in collage and assemblage art, particularly shadow boxes featuring found objects juxtaposed for a poetic, dreamlike effect. He was also an experimental filmmaker and is considered a pioneer in the art of collage film.
Washington Square Films
Founded by Joshua Blum, Washington Square Films is a production and management company with offices in New York and Los Angeles.
WSF produces feature films, TV, live theater, commercials, and branded content. Films produced by the company have played at every major film festival including Cannes, Berlin, New York, and ten at Sundance. They have been nominated for four Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards (winning one), nine Independent Spirit Awards (winning one), and two Peabody Awards (winning both).
Virginia Film Office
The Virginia Film Office (VFO) is dedicated to the art and business of filmmaking. They connect clients with amazing locations, resources and creative solutions for projects of all types and sizes. From the infancy of an idea, to the emotional goodbye at the wrap party—they are your production partner throughout the entire process. The VFO is proud to be recognized as one of the most knowledgeable, effective and helpful film commissions, worldwide.
VIrginia Film Office’s filmography is vast and incredible. The background photo is a behind-the-scenes take from the film Captain Phillips, which was created in Virginia.