IMI Fest 2024: Wrapped

Hi guys,

Thank you so much to all who came along to IMI Fest 2024! What an incredible time we had together, basking in the warm glow of a collection of exceptional works made by exceptional people. It's so inspiring to be surrounded by such a diverse group of independent makers from across the globe.

We hope that those of you who attended had a fruitful time here and left feeling encouraged and inspired. I sure did! (And a little sunburnt)

Congrats to the winners!

We want to give a huge congratulations to our IMI Fest 2024 award winners! Natalie, Ronald, Alan, Shane, PJ, Peter & Brandon, it was a pleasure to celebrate you and your respective works. We're continually inspired by each one of you, and you should each be so proud of what you've achieved. We're excited to see what you make next.

We were delighted to announce in person the winners of the first-ever Sloan Science Prizes for YouTube. Congratulations to Xyla Foxlin and Joe Posner on this well-deserved recognition! We're so inspired by what you're creating and very excited to share it with the world soon.

Xyla creates exceptional videos on YouTube with a particular focus on handcrafting various ambitious engineering projects with stellar results. Her prize money will be funding her upcoming documentary film; Blueprint to Flight: Building an Airplane from Scratch.

Joe Posner spent 10 years at Vox making some of their most-viewed and compelling video essays. Joe will be using his prize money to create a narrative fiction hybrid documentary: The 2084 Club. The story follows a club for 16 & 17-year-olds in NYC that reimagines the future of the city, including how society will face the challenges of climate change.

Fair Makers

Grady Hillhouse

Sabetta Matsumoto

As well as hosting video and audio screenings from the stage we hosted our first ever Maker's Fair, where we invited a variety of creators to show off the fun things they've made.

It was really special to see audiences directly interact with the creators as they gushed about the cool things they'd worked on.

Logan Smalley and Stephanie Kent

Henry Segerman

Sculptures, engineering projects, garments, puppets, an interactive-telephone project, and loads more. It was great to be able to provide a platform for artists to share their creations with a live audience, and really cool to see the wonderful, creative things that our exceptional creators are making!

Bobby Duke

Barnaby Dixon

Happy Campers

It's fair to say that Camp IMI's debut was a success!

Our campers spent the morning connecting via a stimulating improv session before spending the afternoon making movie magic together.

It was great fun to see the short films that resulted from this! Though I wouldn't hold your breath if you're hoping to see them publicly released anytime soon...

A Quick Thank You

Okay, I'm allowed to say this as I'm not technically on staff at IMI.

I just wanted to say a huge thank you on behalf of everyone who attended this year's festival to the wonderful IMI team. They did such a great job of hosting and organizing us and making sure the event ran smoothly.

Thank you Stuart & Elaine for continuing to create a platform for creators to shine. Wishing you guys all the best with baby Sevier's imminent arrival!

Looking Ahead

As IMI Fest 2024 fades into the rear-view mirror we ride off into the sunset feeling refreshed, inspired, and hopeful about the future of independent media.

...but the journey is far from over.

We're excited to announce that plans for IMI Fest 2025 are already well underway!

We're thrilled to continue to champion independent media, and more importantly, the exceptional people who make exceptional things.

Staff Picks

Amanda Media Production Barnaby Dixon Pinkman's Unforgettable 'White Christmas'	Robert Editor & Producer SciShow The Chimp War that Shocked The World	Ryan Producer detajae Janice	Andrew Newsletter Editor Japhy Riddle I Typed a Dog
Stuart Co-Founder Casey Neistat DO HARD THINGS	Elaine Co-Founder Practical Engineering Why Are Cooling Towers Shaped Like That?	Kyndal Chief of Staff Dr. Smiti Nathan What Animal Bones Tell Us About Life in the Past

See the full playlist on YouTube

Thanks for reading. See you soon! 🤠