He founded Laguna Film Festival — and he’s only 18

For the past few months, Laguna Beach High School senior Austin Fickman has been putting the finishing touches on the inaugural Laguna Film Festival, which he founded and is producing. It premieres Friday and runs through Sunday.

The festival will showcase about 75 short films spanning a variety of genres written and directed by young and emerging filmmakers. Also, a panel of film industry professionals will judge the entries and discuss filmmaking.

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Though Fickman can’t partake of celebratory libations on opening night — at 18, he is three years shy of the legal drinking age in California — he said he’s most excited to meet movie industry professionals and ask them about their inspiration and filmmaking experiences.

He came up with the idea of establishing the film festival over the summer. Fickman, whose father, Andy Fickman, is a movie director and mother, Elissa Leeds, is a talent manager, wanted to offer an opportunity to aspiring filmmakers to have their films shown and judged by industry professionals.

“Laguna is such a thriving art community, but they don’t have their own film festival,” Fickman said in early October. “I thought that it’d be cool to start one.”

Making films has always been his passion.

He started holding a video camera at the age of 8, founded the Laguna Beach High School Film Club and directed “Take a Stand,” a film based on bullying that appeared in multiple film festivals.

Launching a short-film festival would be his next endeavor.

So Fickman went on filmfreeway.com, a platform for filmmakers to submit movies to hundreds of film festivals and screenplay contests.

After posting information about the new Laguna Film Festival, Fickman said, he received over 400 submissions within the first week. The number grew to over 1,000 submissions representing 69 countries, including Spain, Germany and Kazakhstan.

“There were so many outstanding films,” Fickman said, noting that it took him and fellow judges three months to sort through them. “It became a harder process than I thought, because it was really challenging to choose what was accepted and what wasn’t accepted.”

Even while having to do homework and critique films, Fickman secured Regency Directors Cut Cinema to serve as the venue for the festival. He said he liked that the theater shows a combination of box office hits and small independent films.

The cost of securing the theater is $4,000, and other festival-related expenses have been greatly discounted, according to a family representative. In addition, companies including Oops Doughnuts Productions, Regency Theatres, Reel Talent Management and Lifetime Fitness are serving as sponsors, according to the festival website. And entrants are being charged a small fee.

When Fickman told his parents he wanted to create a film festival, they were encouraging but informed him that he would be responsible for all outreach, financing and curating.

One of the filmmakers who will appear at the weekend festival is Nicholas Julius, an actor and director who had a role in the television series “Boardwalk Empire.”

Julius’ short action film, “The Devil Goes Down,” starring “Boardwalk Empire” actor Michael Kenneth Williams, tells the story of a man challenged to a game of basketball by the devil. At stake is the man’s soul.

Julius, who is based in New York City and had never visited Orange County, said he learned of the film festival on filmfreeway.com.

“When I came across it, it just felt like a good vibe to me because they have legitimate producers and agents,” Julius said by phone from New York. “This festival came off to me like it embraces filmmakers and wants to help get people’s names out there. It’s going to be fun.”

The festival will award cash prizes to the best film and best student filmmaker.

Fickman said the most important aspect of the festival is the feedback provided by a panel of judges that includes Andy Fickman, who has directed comedies like “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2;” producer Michael Wimer, who has developed shows including “The Jim Gaffigan Show,” feature film agent Meredith Wechter, Leeds and writer and director Alejandro Monteverde.

Once he graduates from high school, Fickman said, he wants to enroll in film school and find a job producing comedy.

But right now, the focus is ensuring that the Laguna Film Festival runs smoothly.

“Being in the same room with these professionals is going to be really exciting,” Fickman said. “I just wish we could do a longer weekend.”

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What: Laguna Film Festival

When: 5:30 to 11:30 p.m. Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Sunday

Where: Regency Directors Cut Cinema, 25471 Rancho Niguel Road, Laguna Niguel

Cost: $10 for regular screenings, $5 for shorter blocks and $99 for an All Access Festival Pass

Information: lagunafilmfestival.com