There was no better way to kick off the inaugural Full Tilt Film Festival than with the closing night of the Friday Night Lights Roadshow. Created to celebrate the intersection of sports, film, and culture, Full Tilt brought together fans, filmmakers, athletes, and industry leaders for two days of programming that explored just how much the world of sports storytelling has grown.
In partnership with ATX TV Festival and Plex, Full Tilt was proud to host the finale of the Friday Night Lights 20th Anniversary Roadshow with a screening of the Season 1 episode “Homecoming,” followed by a talkback with stars Adrianne Palicki, Gaius Charles, Scott Porter, and Dana Wheeler-Nicholson. Moderated by Jeff Conway, the cast shared behind-the-scenes moments and memories about what made the show so iconic. Their stories were a perfect example of what Full Tilt is all about: what happens when sports become the backdrop for deeply human stories.
From there, the festival moved to Kansas City’s historic 18th & Vine District for a full Saturday of exclusive screenings, conversations, and industry-driven panels.
Full Tilt was built to look beyond the sports stories audiences already know. Throughout the day, the festival made space for perspectives and athletes that have not always received the same attention on screen, particularly as the audience for women’s sports continues to grow.
An exclusive screening of ESPN’s The Brittney Griner Story gave audiences a deeper look at the WNBA star’s experience in Russia. After the screening, veteran broadcast analyst Brenda VanLengen continued the conversation with Ben Webber, Senior Director at ESPN, taking audiences behind the scenes of what it takes to bring a story of that scale and sensitivity to the screen.
With women’s flag football headed to the Olympics in 2028, Full Tilt also hosted a special screening of The Future Is Flag. The documentary follows Diana Flores and Ashlea Klam as they share their experiences in the sport and look toward what comes next. Director Monica Medellin joined the post-screening conversation to talk about documenting a sport at a pivotal moment in its growth.
The festival also turned the spotlight toward the people deciding which sports stories make it to our screens in the first place. Allyson Holloway of Campfire Studios, Lauren Fisher of Religion of Sports, Kati Fernandez of TOGETHXR, and Rachelle Mendez of Hyphenate Media Group joined moderator Chay Carter for a conversation about what they look for in sports stories, the audiences they are trying to reach, and where they see the industry heading.
And athletes are no longer just the subjects of those stories. They are increasingly helping build the companies that tell them. Erick Peyton, CEO of Unanimous Media, joined GOAT director Tyree Dillihay for a conversation moderated by Julie Ann Crommett about the company’s move into animation and the process of bringing an artist’s vision to life on screen.
That evolution is happening at the team and league level, too. theSkimm’s Kat Klein brought together Gelsomina Picariello of Foolish Club Studios, Dani Welniak of the KC Current, and Andrew Ference of the NHL for an inside look at how professional sports organizations are becoming content creators themselves, producing and collaborating on projects that allow their stories and brands to reach far beyond the field.
Taken together, the weekend brought an unusually wide range of the sports media world into the same conversation. Studios, professional teams and leagues, filmmakers, executives, athletes, broadcasters, and fans all approached sports storytelling from different angles, but shared an interest in where the industry is headed next.
For a first-year festival, we did not quite know what to expect when it came to turnout. Seeing full screenings and panels was exciting, but some of the best signs of success happened between the scheduled events. Attendees stayed to talk with filmmakers, panelists, and special guests, struck up conversations with one another, and made their way through the neighborhoods surrounding the festival. On Friday, guests experienced Union Station and the surrounding area as part of the opening night, while Saturday brought festivalgoers into the museums, restaurants, cultural institutions, and other spaces throughout 18th & Vine. It was exactly the kind of exchange we hoped Full Tilt could create, where the festival becomes a reason to experience more of Kansas City along the way.
For all the national voices Full Tilt brought to Kansas City, it was just as important that the festival make room for stories being created right here at home. Kansas City has long been known as a sports town, but increasingly, it is also becoming a place where those sports stories are being made.
Local filmmakers Shawn Wright, director of Bring A Shovel, and Sam Findlay, director of Cornerman, had the opportunity to share two very different Kansas City stories and showcase the filmmaking talent working in our own backyard.
And there may have been no better place to screen ESPN E60’s Return of the Clowns than on the very street where so much of that history lives. Director Blake Foeman joined Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick, who is also featured in the film, for a conversation about the history behind the documentary. Bringing the film to 18th & Vine connected what audiences were seeing on screen directly to the neighborhood and history surrounding them.
That connection between Kansas City, sports, and storytelling carried through to the festival’s final event. Full Tilt closed with the world premiere of Chasing Goals, filmed in Kansas City’s Historic Northeast and co-produced by Foolish Club Studios. The documentary follows a group of high school refugees who are part of Global FC as they have just 30 days to prepare for the USA Cup. With a story rooted in Kansas City and told through the universal language of sports, Chasing Goals felt like a fitting way to close out Full Tilt’s first year. It was also another example of what can happen when local stories, filmmakers, and major sports organizations come together to create something meant for audiences far beyond our city.
For a first-year festival, Full Tilt covered a lot of ground. It celebrated the sports stories audiences already love while making room for new voices, new formats, and new ways of thinking about who gets to tell those stories. Just as importantly, it brought national industry leaders into the same rooms as Kansas City filmmakers, fans, teams, and creative professionals.
The inaugural festival was an opportunity to test an idea we believed in: that Kansas City, a city with sports woven into its identity and a growing film industry of its own, is uniquely suited to be part of the conversation about where sports storytelling is headed next.
After year one, we are even more excited about where that idea can go.