Camera Giveaway Winners!

Welcome to the AP Creative Community Newsletter!

Every other week, I share actionable tips, honest answers, and valuable insights to help you on your creative journey—no fluff, just real talk. This newsletter is here to support your journey, spark ideas, and build a community of creatives. 🗺 When I’m not sharing tips, I feature creatives from the community through the Creator Spotlight.

New issues hit your inbox every Sunday. Glad you’re here. 🤝

We asked & you showed up!

A few weeks ago I put out a simple challenge. Find a small business in your city & tell their story. What came back genuinely blew me away! 😮‍💨

143 films. 43 countries. Over 100 cities across every continent. 🗺 Bakeries and barbers. Tattoo shops and taco trucks. A pottery village in Papua, Indonesia. A blacksmith in rural Ireland. A honey farm in Bogotá. A spice mill in Addis Ababa. A record store in San Francisco. A gymnastics gym in the high desert of California.

Real people. Real businesses. Real stories told by filmmakers who actually gave a damn! This is exactly what I hoped for when I built this community. 🙌 And honestly? You all went further than I could've even imagined.

If you missed the original prompt or want to understand what this was all about, you can find the full contest details at omgadrian.com/shortfilmcontest. We're doing this again in the future. That's all I'll say for now! 👀

Now — the results.

143 total submissions, 43 countries represented, 100+ cities featured, 100 Camera Filmmaking entries, 43 Mobile Filmmaking entries

After watching every single one of these films, here are your 2026 APCC Short Film Contest winners.

Jordy is a travel filmmaker that captured the local beauty of Bali, Indonesia. He highlighted the Sungai Watch, river warriors dedicated to the cleaning up plastic from the waters of Bali. This is such a different take on travel storytelling that I can appreciate so much for the sheer honesty and truth behind it. The different kinds of shots you implemented in this like the time-lapse river clean up were so clean and really helped push this story forward. I'm excited to see more from you!

CAB (aka Dérly & ULI ) features Paleteria El Paraiso, an ice cream shop that has been open since ‘79. This story highlights culture and hardwork, and honestly hit a soft spot for me. The short film title “The Push” symbolizes pushing the paleta carts, but also the grind to keep pushing through even when times are tough. Love the interview style and your creative decisions throughout. Such an amazing video that I encourage everyone to watch. And check out Paleteria El Parais located on Florence and Holmes in South Central Los Angeles.

Jose Oh is a creator with roots in Korea and Brazil who highlighted his mom's Korean restaurant, Yun Food. This submission actually made me cry a bit, not going to lie to you. I think the way Jose told this story really brings you into their family's journey alongside them. From the cut out animations to the archived photos, I like that you got creative with telling a story so personal and heartwarming. This was a beautiful way to honor your mom's legacy and support in your life.

Zuni Isbor is a Youtuber whose creativity blew me away with her submission! This is such a different, out-of-the-box take on this prompt and it was executed so well through the multiple angles and breaking the fourth wall. She highlighted Papa Obinna's, a bodega-style store in her hometown that she frequents.

Congratulations to all of the winners for this short film contest! 🥳 Be sure to keep an eye out for an email from [email protected] with full details on how to claim your price. This is the only email I will be using to contact you.

Thank you to everyone who submitted their work! 🤝 There'll be more opportunities for all of y'all to show off your craft. I'm consistently always blown away by the amount of talent that exists in the world, especially here in our community and I can't wait to see more of what y'all have cooking up. Until then though, happy creating and I'll catch you next week. ✌️