FILM FEST KNOX Announces James Agee Prize and the Made in Tennessee Lineup

FILM FEST KNOX, taking place November 6–9, 2025, at the downtown Regal Riveria in Knoxville, Tennessee, announces that the first annual James Agee Prize will be presented on opening night to Sailor Bear Films, the Texas-based production company consisting of Toby Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, and David Lowery. Sailor Bear’s exemplary work in American regional cinema will be celebrated with a small retrospective and a panel discussion. Halbrooks and Johnston will be in attendance at this year’s festival.

FILM FEST KNOX also announces the lineup of the 2025 Made in Tennessee program. Two feature-length films and seventeen shorts will compete for three cash prizes—Best Film, Best Director, and a Jury Prize—along with honorary mentions. The nineteen films were selected from more than one hundred qualifying submissions, and they represent the strength and diversity of filmmaking throughout the state, with a special emphasis on films produced here in East Tennessee.

About Sailor Bear

Sailor Bear is an independent filmmaking collective founded in 2011 by Halbrooks, Johnston, and Lowery, who first collaborated as a trio on Lowery’s feature-length directorial debut, St. Nick (2009). In the years since, they have remained loyal to their Texas roots, while also setting an example for how to make personal, ambitious films within larger production systems, as seen in their collaborations with Disney and the film distributor A24.

David Lowery’s feature films include:

• Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (2013), a Neo-Western noir starring Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, Ben Foster, and Keith Carradine.
• Pete’s Dragon (2016), a remake of Disney’s family fantasy-adventure, starring Bryce Dallas Howard and Robert Redford. Co-written with Halbrooks.
• A Ghost Story (2017), a contemplative exploration of love, loss, and time, starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara.
• The Old Man & the Gun (2018), a 70s-set heist movie, starring Robert Redford, Casey Affleck, Danny Glover, Sissy Spacek, and Tom Waits.
• The Green Knight (2021), a fantasy-adventure based on the Arthurian legend, starring Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, and Joel Edgerton.
• Peter Pan & Wendy (2023), a reimagining of the Disney classic, starring Jude Law, Jim Gaffigan, and Ever Anderson. Co-written with Halbrooks.
• Mother Mary (2026), follows the relationship between a fictional musician and a famous fashion designer, starring Anne Hathaway, Michaela Cole, and Hunter Schafer.

In addition to Lowery’s films, Sailor Bear has produced a number of acclaimed features by others, including Miss Juneteenth (Channing Godfrey Peoples, 2020), Never Goin’ Back (Augustine Frizzell, 2018), Person to Person (Dustin Guy Defa, 2017), Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry, 2014), Pit Stop (Yen Tan, 2013), and Johnston’s upcoming directorial debut, Strawweight.

FILM FEST KNOX will present a small retrospective of Sailor Bear’s work, including a program of rarely seen short films directed by Lowery, Johnston, and Halbrooks. The full lineup will be announced in early October.

About the James Agee Prize

Named for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, film critic, journalist, and poet, the James Agee Prize honors those who have made significant contributions to American regional cinema.

Born in Knoxville, James Agee (1909–1954) attended Harvard before launching his storied career as a film critic, first at The Nation and then at Time. Agee wrote in an essayistic voice and modeled a new kind of criticism, advocating for realism and personal style in American filmmaking. The poet W.H. Auden said of Agee’s criticism: “In my opinion, his column is the most remarkable regular event in American journalism today.”

Agee’s collaborations with photographer Walker Evans produced Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941), a groundbreaking depiction of Depression-era tenant farmers. Agee also wrote screenplays, including The African Queen(1951) and The Night of the Hunter (1955). His autobiographical novel A Death in the Family (1957), which recounts his childhood in Fort Sanders, won the Pulitzer Prize posthumously, cementing his legacy as a profound, lyrical voice of American regionalism.

FILM FEST KNOX wishes to thank Andrea Agee (James Agee’s daughter) and the James Agee Trust for approving our use of his name.

Made in Tennessee Lineup

A Long Hard Streak
Scott Rabideau, 79 minutes
Billy Dean Anderson was a prolific criminal and outsider artist who lived in a Tennessee cave for almost five years while on the run from the FBI. After multiple imprisonments, three shootouts with the law, and three prison escapes the cave became Billy’s home, spiritual refuge, and art studio.

Attenuation
Isaiah Moncher, 10 minutes
A stubborn VCR technician quits his job at an evolving tech-solutions conglomerate to start his own business in hopes of making a final stand to stay relevant through the changing times.

Bone
Logan Robinson, 2 minutes
An artist starts a painting, but will it ever be finished?

Born Secret
Riley Fitchpatrick, 19 minutes
A filmmaker returns to his hometown that built the atomic bomb. There he meets the workers who created humanity’s greatest weapon that now wrestle with their legacy, while their grandchildren inherit a world on the brink of nuclear catastrophe.

Clocks, Time, and You!
Elle Hoytt, 11 minutes
A woman just trying to finish a major project finds her sanity unraveling after an interdimensional clock shows up on her doorstep and refuses to be ignored.

Deep Space
Evan Eslava, 5 minutes
A visually poetic animated short that follows a young explorer whose pursuit of a dream takes an unexpected turn, forcing him to choose between holding on and moving forward.

Echoes
Aaron Lusk, 12 minutes
A reticent widower’s car breaks down on the way to connect with his late wife.

Feed
Kara McLeland, 18 minutes
Rachel and Nick are desperately clinging to normalcy after a baby alien throws their life into chaos. One deadly dinner party changes everything.

Hang On, Little Tomato
Asya Hildenbrand and Shalyn Grow, 9 minutes
Two sisters attempt to get through the repast of their estranged, abusive mother.

I’m Not So Sure About This
Christy Sherrell, 7 minutes
A young woman finds the courage to make a decision that could ultimately impact her relationship.

Lavender Fields Forever
Amelia Bartlett, 12 minutes
An unexpected inheritance forces a disillusioned millennial to choose between investing in the future she’s creating or risking it all for a new one.

Loveseat
Jadyn Heinrichs, 6 minutes
Windsor must go on a journey to find Chaise, the love of his life, after the two lovers (chairs) get tragically separated at a garage sale.

Monumental
Caitlin Nitschke and Johnny Mansueto, 12 minutes
Join the studio of acclaimed Nashville sculptor Alan LeQuire, where creative process and down-to-earth collective passion lead to monumental works of art in preparation for his largest exhibition yet.

People, People, People!
Emily Steele, 8 minutes
Three Appalachian women are visited by a mysterious, ever-growing cult.

Take and Drink
Wesley Reagan, 6 minutes
After forgetting her fake ID when trying to buy alcohol for a party, a high schooler sneaks into a church to steal a bottle of communion wine.

The Easy Kind
Katy Chevigny, 98 minutes
A rollicking journey inspired by and starring Nashville singer Elizabeth Cook as she breaks through the constraints of country music to become the artist that she’s meant to be.

The Great STAR Caper
Riley Housden, 6 minutes
In a retro-futuristic world, brothers Jack and Ollie take on their latest high-stakes heist: stealing from greedy CEO, Bon Keiser. Their target is the “STAR,” a mysterious and powerful energy source housed in Keiser’s skyscraper. Can they pull it off before the night ends?

The Recluse
Matt Webb, 13 minutes
In early 2025, a breach at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory puts residents of Oak Ridge and surrounding counties at risk. During a mandatory curfew imposed by local officials, a man reluctantly allows strangers who show up at his doorstep to spend the night waiting inside.

Two Months
Emily Pope, 10 minutes
Ruth, a temporal physicist, tries to use her research to her own advantage, but ends up somewhere unexpected. Again.

FILM FEST KNOX is pleased to welcome an accomplished, three-person jury for the Made in Tennessee Competition.

Vera Brunner-Sung
Vera Brunner-Sung makes films exploring the intersections of identity and place. Her work has been presented at festivals, museums, and galleries internationally, including Sundance, the Torino Film Festival, CPH:DOX, Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, MoMA PS1, San Francisco International Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Images, and the San Diego Asian Film Festival. Her first feature, Bella Vista, premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2014 (Bright Future); her award-winning sophomore feature Bitterroot, premiered in the US Narrative Competition at the 2024 Tribeca Festival and screened at the 2024 FILM FEST KNOX, winning the Jury Prize in the American Regional Cinema Competition. She is on the faculty in the Department of Radio/Television/Film at Northwestern University. 

Ashton Campbell
Ashton Campbell is an Emmy Award-winning documentary director. He’s been in the industry for over 25 years and loves telling stories visually. So much so that he is now the Festival Director of the Oak Cliff Film Festival in addition to being a Partner at the historic Texas Theatre. His passion for improving the film and media community in Dallas has led him to become the Treasurer of the Dallas Producers Association and he occasionally teaches a documentary class at the Mediatech Institute.  Recently, he joined the advisory committee for Screen Dallas.

Kelsey Taylor
Kelsey left her rural Washington to attend Loyola Marymount University, earning a degree in Film Production and minors in Film Studies and Music. Kelsey’s career began as a cinematographer and camera assistant before transitioning into directing. Her breakthrough sci-fi short, Alien: Specimin, was created through an initiative with 20th Century. Kelsey’s debut feature, To Kill a Wolf, is a modern reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood. The film premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival, and won Best Film in the American Regional Cinema Competition at the 2024 FILM FEST KNOX, and was theatrically released in 2025. Kelsey is a DGA member and 2024 Film Independent Fellow.

VIP and Full Festival Passes for 2025 FILM FEST KNOX are on sale now, with additional ticket options available closer to the festival. Follow FILM FEST KNOX on Facebook and Instagram.