Happy Friday, Friends!

Aaron Bennett brought his film “Jokers Wild” to the Sherman Oaks Film Festival in December, 2025 and took home the Filmmakers Award for Outstanding Director of a Horror Short as well as the Grand Jury Award for Best Sound Design, Short Film for his sound designer Matt Broadfoot.

I’m happy to say that this is Aaron’s second appearance on the Discover Indie Film podcast, though this time he flew solo. Back in 2023 Aaron was part of the podcast for “Good Counsel,” a short film that he wrote for producer & actor Chandra Bond that was directed by David J. Levine and starred Chandra along with Janelle Jones and Matthew Keefe.                                                                                                                        Amusingly I had no idea that Aaron had been on before!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               I’m going to guess that my poor memory is not just due to my advancing age but also that it was a five person Zoom.                                                                                                                                                                 If Aaron had been on the mic in person back in 2023 as he did for this podcast, I swear that I would have remembered.

Follow Aaron on Instagram at @aaronwritesstuff
Follow Jokers Wild on Instagram at @jokerswildmovie
Follow Jokers Wild on TikTok at @jokerswildmovie

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Discover Indie Film Links
DIF Podcast Website – DIF Instagram – DIF BlueSky
Discover Indie Film Foundation (nonprofit for the arts) Website
Sherman Oaks Film Festival
Film Invasion Los Angeles

Source: Discover Film

What are the 4Qs? (1) Three favorite films. (2) An underrated film. (3) An overrated film. (4) A lesser-known film people should seek out.

John Schlag brought his film “Panes Taking” to Sherman Oaks Film Festival in 2025 and took home the Grand Jury Award for Best Short Film – Dance.

If you listened to our chat on Monday you learned John has had a long, distinguished career in visual effects that began with Terminator 2: Judgment Day and continued through films like Forrest Gump, The Matrix Reloaded and Watchmen AND has a deep love and study of dance under his belt.                                                                                                                                                                                                                          I had even more respect and admiration for the unique perspective John has cultivated after our conversation and couldn’t wait to hear what types of film he was going to mention in the 4 Questions.

Infinovation Film Instagram @infinovationFilm
Infinovation Film Website
John Schlag on IMDB
John Schlag on Instagram @johnschlag
Panes Taking on IMDB
Panes Taking Trailer

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Discover Indie Film Links
DIF Podcast Website – DIF Instagram – DIF BlueSky
Discover Indie Film Foundation (nonprofit for the arts) Website
Sherman Oaks Film Festival
Film Invasion Los Angeles

Source: Discover Film