There are 61 days to go until The 2025 Trekzone Fan Film Awards are here and today being May 10 it is the day that eligibility closes for the awards.

There should be just over 30 fan films up for contention hopefully some haven’t been forgotten, there is always the possibility of error, leaving a fan film out when tallying the final list, apologies in advance if that does happen.

There’s all sort of fan films and fan made videos these days from scene recreations to small fan films lasting less than the time to read the first half of this post, animated fan films and more.

From Starfleet Legends Act III to Recess to The Third Option, fan films from around the world are in with a shot of success in The 2025 Trekzone Fan Film Awards.

Now comes the hard part, whittling the fan films down into four selections per category, not an easy task but we’ve got a month to think about it and think about it some more and then it is the stage of picking the winner and then announcing it.

The Farragut team is currently making a trilogy of films, and their fundraiser for film #2 has hardly moved in recent weeks, a variety of reasons can be the cause of the fan film not making any bank in a hurry, it will probably surge in the last few days, they usually do though a downtrend in donations has been noticed across the board (unless you’re Axanar and have the Modern Mystery School throwing cash at them).

Meanwhile Axanar has a message for people who question the length of time it takes to make Axanar.

And if you are going to whine about how long it is taking, YOU didn’t get sued into bankruptcy by Paramount and CBS. YOU didn’t have to move the studio across the country. YOU didn’t get shut down for a year and a half over COVID. YOU didn’t have a grifter director file a fraudulent copyright, and YOU didn’t have to pay $50,000 a year to keep the studio open so you could shoot Axanar. So frankly, lighten up Francis, we are all sick of you whining about how long Axanar has taken. If you bothered to pay attention, you would appreciate all we have had to endure to get this project done. And to those of you who don’t whine about it being 11 years since Prelude to Axanar, THANK YOU! We love you all and appreciate you being positive, loyal fans who understand how Paramount and CBS have tried to screw us every step of the way.’

Axanar tried making an Independent Star Trek Film that was filled with professionals from almost the top to the very bottom and it was a film that was going to be a launchpad into the film industry, fan films were straying from amateur and homage to professional and money making and they got sued.

Axanar chose to fight so they weren’t made bankrupt (did they even file for bankruptcy? Sometimes they say almost bankrupt) and then they settled when offered mercy and they got given a better deal in their settlement than anybody else when the guidelines came as they got to use their professional actors compared to everybody else but they continued to break the settlement, they paid the price for it and now they continue to poke the bear hoping for something, maybe a second helping of the sweet nectar of controversy, the big bad corporation trying to squish the little guy in the minds of people who don’t know the full story.

But the Fan Film landscape has changed so much since Prelude to Axanar, fan films filled a big gap in the Star Trek market when all we had were the Chris Pine as Captain Kirk movies and now Strange New Worlds etc. largely fills that market and fan films are now occupying a smaller space than it once did.

Viewing totals have dropped, you’ll be hard pressed to find a fan film from the last five years to crack a million views, the subscriber list of Axanar may help it be one that cracks seven figures, people make fan films for enjoyment (not going to say for their love of Star Trek) not popularity or stardom.

Fan Film Studio creators these days have to know that they are not going to be making any money with Star Trek sets, and they have to either have the money to cover everything themselves or they are going to be frequently asking for donations and assistance from family and friends and eventually that well will run dry.

Axanar keeping a studio open for years at a cost of $50,000 a year was not CBS’ fault or Paramount’s fault or Paul Jenkins fault or COVID’s fault (restrictions were loosened in April 2021), the Axanar team have released three spinoff films in the time between Prelude to Axanar and Axanar, those three spinoffs were done without any major issues, the studio could have easily found plenty of work in the last few years, nothing was stopping them.

While some are doubtful of Axanar being released, it will happen, don’t know when the Summer 2025 plan seems to have changed to ‘this year’ so it could be before summer, during summer or after summer.

That’s the news and views for this week, MTM is probably playing with fire saying something regarding Axanar but the blame game has been played for far too long and with three spinoffs, it just makes things ridiculous.

Until next time, be good to each other.