Flipping the Kids’ Table: How a Student Blueprint is Reimagining the Festival Experience

Every few years, Gen Z is declared the death of something: retail, theaters, attention spans, film festivals. But what if the generation accused of dooming the independent circuit is actually the one revitalizing it?

In just two years, the University of Florida’s Orange & Blue Film Festival has grown into Florida’s largest student-run festival by treating its operations as a live R&D lab. This session goes behind the scenes with the student leaders building a university-backed, Gen Z–driven model that is testing new answers to the industry’s core challenges: sustainability, audience relevance, and talent development.

Through experimental revenue streams, Gen Z–first marketing, updated KPIs, and innovative programming and partnership strategies, this model has scaled quickly while staying both financially viable and creatively bold.

For programmers, filmmakers, and industry leaders, this conversation offers a clear blueprint for how the next generation isn’t waiting to inherit the future of festivals – they’re already reinventing it.

Speakers:

• Luis Lageyre, Founder & Executive Director of the UF Orange & Blue Film Festival
• Aiden Copeland, B.S. Media Production, Management, & Technology ‘2028
• Natalia Kassar, B.S. Media Production, Management, & Technology ‘2026
• Dahlia Harris, B.S. Media Production, Management, & Technology ‘2028