Texas Forever! ATX TV Festival Celebrates 20 Year Anniversary of Friday Night Lights with Reunion Panel and “Texas Made Award” presented with Media for Texas, and more

Texas Forever!
ATX TV Festival Celebrates 20 Year Anniversary of
Friday Night Lights with Reunion Panel and
“Texas Made Award” presented with Media for Texas

The Festival’s 2026 line-up will also feature Retrospectives for
Homicide: Life on the Street and Sweet/Vicious,
a Conversation with Non-Writing TV Producers,
the return of A Late Night Show with Greg Iwinski,
and the Festival’s First-Ever “Indie TV Pilot Competition & Showcase”


December 11, 2025 – ATX TV Festival will mark 15 years of “TV Camp for Grown Ups” by going back to its Texan roots with the show that helped kick off the festival’s very first year: Friday Night Lights.

The series will receive the Festival’s 2026 “Texas Made” Award presented with Media for Texas, which celebrates productions and talent that have created opportunities for TV & film professionals within the state; bolsters Texas as a creative & cultural center; and exemplifies the unique spirit and storytelling opportunities throughout Texas. For the second consecutive year, the Award is presented in partnership with Media For Texas, the state’s leading media advocacy nonprofit. The organization strengthens Texas entertainment by providing production support, developing the workforce, and advancing statewide policies that create jobs and keep projects filming in Texas.

As part of the award presentation, the event will feature a marquee reunion panel with the cast & creatives who helped build and shape the fictional town of Dillon, marking 20 years since the beloved, Emmy-winning series’ premiere in 2006. Confirmed participants include cast members Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, and Adrianne Palicki, and showrunner/executive producer Jason Katims, executive producer/writer David Hudgins, executive producer/director Jeffrey Reiner, co-executive producer/writer Liz Heldens, and consulting producer/writer Kerry Ehrin, with more cast and events to be announced.

“There is nothing we’re more passionate about than celebrating great television within our community. When setting out to program our 15th Season, we are starting with a show that has not only become part of the story of the Festival, but has left an indelible mark on television itself. There was no question which series most embodies both sentiments – Friday Night Lights has been at the heart of ATX TV Festival since year one, and honoring FNL’s 20th Anniversary with our Texas Made award couldn’t be a more perfect fit. This series serves as a beacon to what great production in our state can look like, and as Texas sets out to grow film and TV production through the newly passed historic film and TV incentives, there is no better time to honor this series with some of the greatest cast and creatives we know,” said Caitlin McFarland, Co-President and Co-Founder of ATX TV.

“The Friday Night Lights family is delighted to return to the ATX TV Festival, and to Austin where the show was filmed. We are honored to be receiving the Texas Made award,” said showrunner and executive producer Jason Katims.

Cast member Adrianne Palicki added: “I’m beyond grateful for Friday Night Lights. To say it changed my life is an understatement. Thank you to ATX TV Festival for ‘getting the team back together’ for our 20th anniversary in Austin!”

The festival’s 2026 line-up will also include:

The festival will host a retrospective screening for Homicide: Life on the Street featuring the Emmy-winning episode “Three Men and Adena,” written by showrunner/executive producer Tom Fontana. Following the screening, Fontana, executive producer/writer David Simon, and cast member Kyle Secor will join for a conversation about the ground-breaking episode, in which Detectives Tim Bayliss (Secor) and Frank Pembleton (Andre Braugher) have 12 hours to elicit a confession from the suspected murdered of 11-year-old Adena Watson.

Based on Simon’s book “Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets,” Homicide chronicled the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Police Department’s Homicide Unit, and garnered 17 Emmy-nominations and 4 wins throughout its six-year run.

The cast & creatives of Sweet/Vicious will reunite at ATX TV Festival to mark 10 years since the series premiere.

Sweet/Vicious, which originally debuted on MTV in 2016, follows college students Jules (Eliza Bennet) and Ophelia (Taylor Dearden) as they seek revenge on sexual assaulters and rapists on campus. The festival will feature a look back at the series with creator/executive producer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, showrunner/executive producer Amanda Lasher, executive producer Stacey Sher, and producer Emily Levitan, and stars Eliza Bennett and Taylor Dearden, including behind-the-scenes stories from the making of the unlikely vigilante justice dramedy, the show’s cult hit legacy, and its continued relevance and impact a decade later.

The festival will provide an inside look at the essential role of non-writing producers – from guiding a series through development to final cut, to navigating the creative and business sides of a project, to establishing their own creative voice and collaborating at all levels of the TV-making process. Confirmed panelists include Melissa Bernstein (House of the Dragon), Stacey Sher (Mrs. America), Sarah Timberman (Justified: City Primeval), Kathleen McCaffrey (Industry), and Karen Wacker (Lanterns).

A Late Night Show with Greg Iwinski, the late night show hosted by Emmy-winning writer Greg Iwinski (Last Week Tonight, The Late Show), will return for a second, completely original “episode” performed live in front of the festival audience.

Returning along with Iwinski will be announcer/sidekick Jim Fagan (The Tonight Show) and the Late Night Invisible Orchestra, who - along with a team of veteran late night writer-performers - will dive into the headlines, interview special guests, perform original songs, and more.

For the first time, the festival will feature an Indie TV Pilot Competition & Showcase, allowing TV makers to submit independently-produced pilots without distribution for an opportunity to be screened at the 2026 festival and win Best Indie TV Pilot.

Creators may submit completed Pilot episodes between 20 - 65 minutes in length, across all genres. From the submitted Pilot episodes, a minimum of three (3) will be selected by the festival’s Programming team to be screened as part of an Indie TV Pilot Showcase, where a judging panel of industry creatives & executives will select one (1) winner.

The Indie TV Pilot Competition & Showcase is the newest addition to ATX TV’s open submission opportunities, alongside the annual Pitch Competition & Mentorship Program, which aims to give burgeoning TV writers the community, support, and tools needed to take the next steps in their careers.

The Showcase will expand on the festival’s ongoing Indie TV programming, which has previously featured screenings and conversations for The Long Long Night (Duplass Brothers Productions), You Belong Here (Macaroni Art), Bollywood Dance U (Meralta Films & Amplify Pictures), and Everyone Is Doing Great from multi-hyphenates James Lafferty & Stephen Colletti, among others.

Submissions for both the Indie TV Pilot Competition & Showcase and the Pitch Competition & Mentorship Program are open now. More details will be announced shortly.

All Programming and Panelists are subject to change.

LIMITED TIME OFFER – 15% OFF BADGES & PASSES FOR 48 HOURS ONLY

Buy now: atxfestival.com/attend

Offer expires Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 12:00pm CT.
Discount automatically applied at checkout; no code needed.

ABOUT ATX TV FESTIVAL

ATX TV Festival is an annual event produced by ATX TV, kicking off each summer in Austin, TX. As the leading television festival, it brings together fans and industry to celebrate the television medium by looking at its history, where it is now, and where it is headed. The festival consists of screenings followed by Q&As, panel conversations, and events (parties, live music, happy hours, hosted receptions, etc) and is known for reunions of classic series and cult hits. Screenings include never-aired pilots, canceled-too-soon series, current favorites, and world premieres. Panels conversations range from industry deep-dives to fan-focused conversations, along with discussions on representation (in front of and behind the camera) and responsibility in storytelling. The ATX TV audience is comprised equally of consumers and industry professionals, and ATX TV Festival is the only place they come together as one community to discuss and celebrate all aspects of #TVTogether.

Subscribe to our Newsletters HERE for Festival updates, Event alerts, Weekend Watch recommendations, and more.

Follow us: Facebook | Threads | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube

PRESS CONTACT:

Lauren Kelcher Stevenson // atxtv@ssmandl.com