SCAD Savannah Film Festival TV Sidebar to Spotlight Films in partnership with Deadline
Dakota Fanning to Receive Outstanding Achievement in Television Award
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA (Oct. 3, 2025) — The SCAD Savannah Film Festival has announced programming for its annual TV Sidebar, presented in partnership with Deadline. Continuing its celebration of bold episodic storytelling, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival will present exclusive screenings of three highly anticipated series — All Her Fault, where Dakota Fanning will be presented with the Outstanding Achievement in Television Award, I Love LA, and It: Welcome to Derry — followed by conversations with creators and cast. Antonia Blyth, Deadline’s executive editor for Awardsline, will moderate Q&As with participants at each event.
The festival will host the special premiere screening of I Love LA on Friday, Oct. 31. The HBO Original comedy series, debuting at 10:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2, on HBO and HBO Max, follows an ambitious friend group navigating life and love in Los Angeles. Created and executive produced by Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby, Bottoms), the series is also executive produced by Emma Barrie, Aida Rodgers, Max Silvestri, and Lorene Scafaria. Following the screening, a Q&A will feature creator, executive producer, director, and actor Rachel Sennott, along with actors Odessa A’zion, Josh Hutcherson, and True Whitaker. The series is directed by Sennott, Lorene Scafaria, Bill Benz, and Kevin Bray. The cast also includes Jordan Firstman.
The festival will also screen an episode of It: Welcome to Derry on Friday, Oct. 31, the chilling new HBO Original series set in Stephen King’s It universe. Expanding on the vision established by filmmaker Andy Muschietti in the hit films It and It: Chapter Two, the series debuts at 9 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26, on HBO and HBO Max, with new episodes airing weekly. A Q&A will follow the screening with director and executive producer Andy Muschietti and executive producer Barbara Muschietti, as well as cast members. The HBO Original series, from Warner Bros. Television, is developed for television by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs, and is executive produced by the Muschiettis, Fuchs, Brad Caleb Kane, David Coatsworth, Bill Skarsgård, Shelley Meals, Roy Lee, and Dan Lin.
Dakota Fanning will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Television Award on Saturday, Nov. 1, at a screening of the new Peacock series All Her Fault. Created, written, and executive produced by Megan Gallagher (Wolf, Suspicion), the eight-episode mystery thriller — which is based on the bestselling 2021 novel by Andrea Mara — begins when a mother’s (Sarah Snook) young son suddenly disappears, promising a compelling, twist-filled adventure as the search for her son (and the truth) unfolds. The first four episodes of All Her Fault will premiere on Thursday, Nov. 6, exclusively on Peacock. The cast includes Sarah Snook, Jake Lacy, Dakota Fanning, Michael Peña, Sophia Lillis, Abby Elliott, Daniel Monks, Jay Ellis, Thomas Cocquerel, Duke McCloud, and Kartiah Vergara.
Fanning garnered her first Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Critics’ Choice Award for her magnetic performance as Marge Sherwood in Steven Zaillian’s critically acclaimed Netflix adaptation of Ripley opposite Andrew Scott. Her most recent performance, starring alongside Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, and Eve Hewson in Netflix’s adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s bestselling novel The Perfect Couple, also earned her rave reviews.
"We’re thrilled to continue our partnership with Deadline for the TV Sidebar, which has quickly become a highlight of the SCAD Savannah Film Festival,” said Christina Routhier, executive director of the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. “This TV Sidebar brings a defining caliber of fall premieres and talent directly to Savannah, an extraordinary opportunity for our students to engage with the storytellers shaping today’s most talked-about series without leaving the Savannah area.”
Additional programming includes the Opening Night screening of Eternity, where actor Miles Teller will receive the Distinguished Performance Award and co-star and festival honored guest Da’Vine Joy Randolph will join him onstage. Song Sung Blue is the festival’s Centerpiece Gala screening, with director Craig Brewer to receive the Spotlight Director Award. The festival will close with director Rian Johnson receiving the Outstanding Achievement in Directing Award at a screening of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.
They will join previously announced festival honorees: Luminary Award recipients Will Arnett (Is This Thing On?) and Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You); Rising Star Award recipient Miles Caton (Sinners); Vanguard Director Award recipient Jon M. Chu (Wicked: For Good); Breakthrough Performance Award recipient Zoey Deutch (Nouvelle Vague); Vanguard Award recipient Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams); Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Mark Hamill (The Life of Chuck); Icon Award recipient Oscar Isaac (Frankenstein); Virtuoso Award recipient Jennifer Lopez (Kiss of the Spider Woman); Lumiere Award recipient Dylan O’Brien (Twinless); Maverick Director Award recipient Benny Safdie (The Smashing Machine); and Distinguished Performance Award recipient Tessa Thompson (Hedda).
The festival will also spotlight composers in the panel Below the Line: Scoring for the Screen with the Alliance for Women Film Composers. In this illuminating conversation, members of the Alliance for Women Film Composers will discuss their creative process, the challenges and triumphs of the industry, and the vital role composers play in bringing depth and resonance to film and television. Panelists include Chanda Dancy (composer, Swiped, Blink Twice, Devotion), Florencia di Concilio (composer, The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo, Maestro(s)), Laura Karpman (composer, Captain America: Brave New World, American Fiction), and moderator Allyson Newman, co-president, Alliance for Women Film Composers.
Presented by the Savannah College of Art and Design, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival is filled with cinematic creativity from award-winning professionals and emerging student filmmakers. Each year, more than 75,000 people attend the eight-day festival. A distinguished stop on the road to the Academy Awards, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival take places at SCAD’s historic theaters and industry-leading studio spaces throughout the historic city of Savannah.
Festival tickets for 2025 are available now online at filmfest.scad.edu, by phone at 912.525.5050, or in person at the SCAD Box Office (scadboxoffice.com) at 216 E. Broughton St. in Savannah.
About the SCAD Savannah Film Festival
Presented by the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), the SCAD Savannah Film Festival is filled with cinematic creativity from award-winning professionals and emerging student filmmakers. Each year, more than 75,000 people attend the eight-day festival. The festival has become a distinguished stop on the road to the Academy Awards, hosting exclusive screenings, competition films, feature films, documentaries, shorts, animated films, panel discussions, and workshops at SCAD's historic theaters and industry-leading studio spaces. Presented in Savannah, a premier film hub in the Southeast, the festival promotes quality movies produced by independent and studio filmmakers.
Follow the festival on Facebook, Instagram, Letterboxd, and TikTok @savfilmfest. For additional information and tickets, visit filmfest.scad.edu.
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SCAD is a private, nonprofit, accredited university, offering 100 graduate and undergraduate degree programs across locations in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia; Lacoste, France; and online via SCADnow. SCAD enrolls approximately 18,500 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 100 countries. The future-minded SCAD curriculum engages professional-level technology and myriad advanced learning resources, affording students opportunities for internships, professional certifications, and real-world assignments with corporate partners through SCADpro, the university’s renowned research lab and prototype generator. SCAD has earned top rankings for degree programs in interior design, architecture, film, fashion, digital media, and more. Career success is woven into every fiber of the university, resulting in a superior alumni employment rate. A 2025 study found that 99% of recent SCAD graduates were employed, pursuing further education, or both within 12 months of graduation. SCAD provides students and alumni with ongoing career support through personal coaching, alumni programs, a professional presentation studio, and more.
About the SCAD School of Film and Acting
With resources that rival Hollywood studios — including stunning locations, two professionally run casting offices, stellar film and television festivals, and award-winning faculty from film, television, Broadway, and beyond — the SCAD School of Film and Acting is the ideal place for students to launch into the multibillion-dollar film and television industry. The SCAD acting, cinematography, editing, film and television, production design, and sound design programs prepare students to collaborate and command roles on stage, screen, and behind the scenes through unparalleled instruction and real-world experience on productions for short films, live performances, TV sitcoms, dramatic series, music videos, commercials, and more.
SCAD students pursuing careers in film, entertainment, and media find a home base at SCAD Film Studios in Savannah, the largest and most comprehensive university film studio complex in higher education. This 11-acre studio complex includes a Hollywood-style backlot with more than 40 street facades and 8,000 square feet of dressed interiors, a magnificent 17,000-square-foot facility with a production scene shop and costume sewing labs, and a next-generation LED volume stage for virtual productions. The complex is complemented by SCAD Film Studios in Atlanta, the site of the university's second LED volume stage, as well as three stories of editing suites and broadcast studios. At SCAD, every set, stage, and studio is a classroom.
During the 2025 festival, SCAD will debut new backlot sets in Savannah: 18th-century New England-style facades, a 1950s-era police station, a house of worship, and a mansion. In 2026, two industry-ready soundstages totaling nearly 9,000 square feet will open, along with 11 classrooms and additional backlot facades and interiors.
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