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NoBudge Launching Streaming App for Emerging Filmmakers

By Jourdan Aldredge

Published: April 21, 2021

Let’s take a look at what the NoBudge streaming app means for up-and-coming filmmakers and film fans alike.

The popular indie film Tumblr-page-turned-website has some exciting news to share. After years as serving as a de-facto home base for the curation and support of up-and-coming shorts and features, the site has now officially launched its own streaming application with the NoBudge app.

For those who might be unfamiliar with NoBudge (the self-described “discovery platform” founded by actor and filmmaker Kentucker Audley), this is big news for both film fans and filmmakers. Let’s explore this new app and how it can provide both entertainment and inspiration for your filmmaking ambitions.

Indie Filmmaking Goes NoBudge

NoBudge Founder Kentucker Audley (L) and Friend Brandon Harris — *NoBudge founder Kentucker Audley (L) and friend Brandon Harris (R) modeling various apparel that says “movies” on it.*

Kentucker Audley might be best known to some of our readers as the guy who created the viral Kickstarter for “A hat that says ‘movies’ on it.” We featured it as one of our best holiday gifts for filmmakers back in 2016. However, others know Audley as an actor in films like V/H /S, Sun Don’t Shine, and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. He’s also the collaborative writer and director of festival favorites like Open Five, Sylvio, and the recent Sundance feature Strawberry Mansion.

However, while NoBudge started from a simple desire to showcase shorts and projects of collaborators and friends, it has very much grown over the past years to become one of the best curated—and highly viewed—homes for rising indie films and filmmakers. NoBudge’s mission is “to spotlight indie filmmakers and creators working with limited resources and without major industry connections, and to be a trusted discovery platform.”

From the original NoBudge’s website, the brand is “focused on low-budget cinema, DIY visions, youth culture, and student films, we curate a wide range of narrative, experimental, animation, documentary, sketch, web series and dance/music videos.”

The Nobudge² App

With the launch of the new Nobudge² App, Audley’s mission for NoBudge looks to be taking a major step forward. The new app will feature a wide array of shorts, shows, and features from a diverse block of up-and-coming filmmakers and creators. At launch, the NoBudge platform has partnered with Matt Grady and the indie distributor Factory 25 to include some bigger name films like Tyler Taormina’s Ham on Rye and Grace Glowicki’s Tito.

The new app will be subscription based for either $5.99 a month or $54.99 for a full year. Meanwhile, NoBudge promises that sixty percent of all profits from the platform will go to filmmakers. If you’re interested, you can check out the NoBudge app online or through devices like Apple TV, Android, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, or iOS. (You can also sign up for a free 7-day-trial to check it out first.)

What NoBudge App Means for Filmmakers

NoBudge App Welcoming Screen — *NoBudge offers a free trial if you want to try the app before purchasing a membership. Image via NoBudge.*

From a filmmaking perspective, this is huge news. After a year-plus of industry-wide shutdowns, delays, and new regulations many have wondered if film and video production might ever be the same. While there are plenty of positive signs of cinemas coming back, it’s also clear that filmmakers and film fans alike are shifting how they watch and make movies.

Big name platforms like Netflix, Amazon, and HBO Max making bigger and bigger investments into streaming. So, it makes sense for indie communities to do the same. NoBudge is perhaps one of the best early examples of where up-and-coming filmmakers can virtually congregate to watch new, inspiring projects and connect with other filmmakers.

This is also big news for the continued rise of DIY, low-budget and “no-budget” filmmaking styles and techniques. As its name would suggest, Audley’s NoBudge has long been a champion of finding and showcasing films and filmmakers made with the most minimal of resources.

If you’re someone starting out in film and video for the first time, or someone who’s been wanting to shoot a project but held up because of a lack of connections or resources, news of a growing indie platform and community built on spotlighting new and diverse voices might be just the motivation you need to make your film.

For more industry news and filmmaking articles and resources, check out these links below.

Cover image via NoBudge.