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.

Alyson Croft wrote, produced and starred in “Jesus Loves Me,” a fantastic film that had its World Premiere at Film Invasion Los Angeles 2025, taking home the Programmer’s Prize for Exceptional Filmmaking AND THEN returned later that year to the Sherman Oaks Film Festival with “Tweens,” a thrilling dramatic short that she co-wrote and performs in and took home the Programmer’s Prize for Exceptional Filmmaking.

I obviously had to get deep with such an impressive and ambitious filmmaker and follow up with the 4 Questions.

Follow Alyson’s Actors Cartel Academy on Instagram at @actors_cartel_academy

Follow Alyson on Instagram at @croftalyson

Check out Alyson’s book “Speaking Actor: A Guide to Speaking The Language of Actors” at Amazon.com

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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

Happy Monday!

When introducing Alyson Croft on this podcast, it sounds like I am joking when I say, “2025 was the year of Alyson Croft.” It’s not a joke! Alyson wrote, produced and starred in “Jesus Loves Me,” a fantastic film that had its World Premiere at Film Invasion Los Angeles 2025, taking home the Programmer’s Prize for Exceptional Filmmaking.
Alyson returned later that year to the Sherman Oaks Film Festival with “Tweens,” a thrilling dramatic short that she co-wrote and performs in. No surprise that “Tweens” also took home the Programmer’s Prize for Exceptional Filmmaking.

On top of that, we did a little additional screening between the two festivals that included “Jesus Loves Me,” officially the last in-theater Q&A’s that I may ever personally moderate. Hey, this is a big deal for me! I moderated every Q&A at two festivals for nearly a decade, but now that the festivals have grown to multiple screens I am needed elsewhere.
I’ve still got the podcast to interview filmmakers, but Alyson will always be one of my last in-theater Q&A’s.

Follow Alyson’s Actors Cartel Academy on Instagram at @actors_cartel_academy

Follow Alyson on Instagram at @croftalyson

Check out Alyson’s book “Speaking Actor: A Guide to Speaking The Language of Actors” at Amazon.com

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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

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.

Sam Gasch’s fantastic screenplay “My Dog Loves Broccoli” was an Official Selection at the Sherman Oaks Film Festival in 2025.

On top of being a very talented writer, he is an all around lovely person so I was thrilled to dig deeper after our chat and get some of his inspos with the 4 Questions.

Follow Sam at @samgasch on BlueSky

Follow Sam’s podcast Ideal Remake at @idealremake on Instagram

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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

A have a great interview for you Lovely Listeners today!

I first met Sam Gasch at FIlm Invasion Los Angeles in 2023, when his feature length screenplay “The Blanket” was an Official Selection. Both Film Invasion L.A. and Sherman Oaks Film Festival have categories for unproduced screenplays and they get a LOT of submissions. In other words, when a screenplay is an Official Selection that means it is very, very good. This makes it all the more impressive that last year Sam returned, this time with the Official Selection screenplay “My Dog Loves Broccoli” at the Sherman Oaks Film Festival in 2025.

Smart, humorous and personable, Sam is one the people I end up chatting with the most at a festival event. I was delighted to see his name pop up on my calendar for a podcast recording.
I hope you enjoy listening to this conversation as much as I enjoyed being a part of it!

Follow Sam at @samgasch on BlueSky

Follow Sam’s podcast Ideal Remake at @idealremake on Instagram

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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

I hope everyone is having a great start to their week!

I know I am because Nickolas Gilbert has returned! Nick was on the Discover Indie Film podcast to discuss his film “Nailed” back in March 2022 on episodes 239.
Nick is back to talk about his follow-up project, “La Petite Mortimer,” an Official Selection at Sherman Oaks Film Festival in 2025 where it took home the Filmmakers Award for Outstanding Originality, Short Film – Comedy.

We’ve only had these two conversations, but I can sincerely say that Nick is one my favorites.
His films are always a breath of fresh air and he’s always been a welcome presence when he comes to a film festival party or screening.

You can learn more about Nick’s work both at Distortion Field and on
Instagram at @nickolasgilbert

Although, like yours truly Nick generally shuns social media!

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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

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.

Robb Padgett brought his feature film “Merry Heistmas” to the Sherman Oaks Film Festival in 2025 and brought home the Grand Jury Awards for Best Feature Film- Comedy and Best Performance by a Cast in a Feature Film.

I’m a bit of a self-proclaimed Scrooge when it comes to Christmas so I knew I had to chat to anyone who could make me love a Christmas Movie and do the follow up 4 Questions to see what types of film influenced them!

Learn more about Merry Heistmas on Instagram at @heistmas
Follow Robb at @robbpadgett or at robbpadgett.com

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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

Welcome back for another great filmmaker chat!

Robb Padgett brought his feature film “Merry Heistmas” to the Sherman Oaks Film Festival in 2025 and brought home the Grand Jury Awards for Best Feature Film- Comedy and Best Performance by a Cast in a Feature Film.
Robb’s film is an audience favorite and poor Robb has had to listen to me share not once but twice that, personally, I just do not like Christmas and that for me to thoroughly enjoy a film that features not just a Christmas-time setting but actual Christmas caroling is a gigantic accomplishment.

It was a ton of fun to meet Robb at Sherman Oaks Film Festival and even more fun to have him on the podcast. You can watch “Merry Heistmas” right now and I recommend using Just Watch to watch it. Enjoy!

Or… I’ll all-caps this… SUPPORT INDIE FILM AND CATCH ROBB’S FILM AT A FILM FESTIVAL ON April 23. If I knew more I’d give you a link, I swear!

Learn more about Merry Heistmas on Instagram at @heistmas
Follow Robb at @robbpadgett or at robbpadgett.com

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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

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.

Kathy Meng wrote and directed the short film “Willow and Wu,” a fantastic drama that had its Los Angeles Premiere at the Sherman Oaks Film Festival in 2025. “Willow and Wu” earned Kathy and her co-writer Harry Bacon the Filmmakers Award for Outstanding Screenplay -Drama, as well as the Grand Jury Award for Best Cinematography – Short Film.

Kathy lives in Berlin and was not able to attend SOFF 2025, so I extra excited to chat with her and find out what types of films inspire her with the 4 Questions.

Follow the film on Instagram at @willowandwu_film

Follow Kathy on Instagram at @kathy_meng

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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