Two Companies, One Mission: Dreamland Studios and the American Film Association

Austin Spicer is President of two separate companies that work on the same problem from opposite sides.

The American Film Association (AFA) is a professional association for independent filmmakers. It provides community, curriculum, programs, monthly live sessions, and events. It does not finance films or provide capital.

Dreamland Studios finances, produces, and distributes commercial feature films.

The same person leads both companies, and they remain two companies. This page states what each one does, what neither one does, and where the boundary sits.

What the American Film Association does

AFA is a professional home for independent filmmakers. In a webinar on May 12, 2026, Austin Spicer described the gap AFA was built to fill: lawyers, doctors, and architects have a professional association and a network, and independent filmmakers have never really had one. AFA is that association, built around the working life of a filmmaker trying to build a sustainable career.

In practice, AFA does four things:

• It maintains a professional community of serious independent filmmakers.
• It teaches a curriculum on how the film business works, including how films are packaged, financed, and distributed.
• It runs monthly live sessions on the topics that matter to a filmmaking career right now.
• It creates access through rooms, relationships, and events that filmmakers can rarely reach on their own.

Two programs carry much of that work. The 3-Day Challenge is a free program that teaches the craft of fundability: how to build a pitch, a package, and a meeting an investor can actually evaluate. The 6 Week Accelerator goes deeper, taking filmmakers from a script through packaging, cast strategy, financing structure, and distribution planning.

AFA also hosts live events, including the Film Conference and the Inaugural Gala on November 8, 2026, at The Beverly Hilton.

What the American Film Association does not do

AFA does not finance films and does not provide capital, and filmmakers can't pitch AFA for funding. Austin Spicer and Hailey Spicer say this plainly, on the record, in session after session, because students ask about it constantly.

On July 16, 2026, during a 3-Day Challenge session, Austin put it in one sentence: "American Film Association doesn't fund movies." On June 29, 2026, he told a Challenge audience the same thing: AFA does not finance films directly.

Hailey Spicer, who hosts Challenge kickoff sessions, answered the question directly on July 27, 2026: "You cannot pitch to the AFA, but we are connected to the Film Fund." Her point in that session was practical. AFA's job is to make sure filmmakers are fully equipped and fully packaged before they ever sit in a financing conversation anywhere. The education comes first. Any capital conversation happens elsewhere, through other doors, and only for projects that are ready.

Anyone who joins AFA expecting a check has misunderstood the association. Anyone who joins to learn how financing works, and to become the kind of filmmaker a financier takes seriously, has understood it exactly.

What Dreamland Studios does

Dreamland Studios is a film studio, with Austin Spicer as president. AFA teaches the business, and Dreamland operates in it: Dreamland finances, produces, and distributes commercial feature films.

The two activities require different things. Teaching filmmakers how a package is built is an education business. Deciding which films to finance, producing them, and taking them to market is a studio business, with its own company, its own decisions, and its own accountability.

AFA membership is not a submission process for Dreamland, and AFA is not a front door into the studio. The companies share a president and a mission, and each has its own function.

Hailey Spicer is Austin's wife and creative partner. She is a leader at AFA and a co-founder of Dreamland Studios, and like Austin, her work spans both companies: creative and educational at AFA, creative at the studio.

The fund, stated plainly

Dreamland's associated fund is the Stay Golden Film Fund, a Regulation D, Rule 506(c) offering for accredited investors only. That is the complete public statement about the fund on this page, and the brevity is deliberate.

The fund sits on the Dreamland side of the boundary. AFA does not provide capital, AFA does not endorse the fund, and AFA membership offers no route into the fund. Keeping those statements separate is the purpose of this article.

When AFA's leaders mention the fund in a classroom, the connection is educational. Students learn how a fund evaluates a package so they can build packages that hold up under that evaluation, at any fund and with any investor. It's a lesson, and it carries no financing partnership and no invitation to pitch.

Why both companies exist

Independent filmmakers face two separate problems.

The first is knowledge and access. Filmmakers are rarely taught how financing, packaging, and distribution work, and few have a professional community or a way into the rooms where decisions happen. AFA exists to solve that problem.

The second is execution. Films still need a company that will finance, produce, and distribute them as commercial work. Dreamland Studios exists to do that.

One company trying to do both jobs under one name would blur the line filmmakers most need to see. A filmmaker in a classroom needs honest education, including the honest answer that the classroom doesn't write checks. A studio needs to make financing decisions on its own terms. Two companies keep both jobs honest: AFA can teach without selling access to capital it doesn't provide, and Dreamland can operate as a studio without turning an association into a pipeline.

Where the boundary sits

The boundary is simple to state and consistent in practice.

AFA does not finance films, provide capital, or take funding pitches. Dreamland does not run the association, its programs, or its events. Austin Spicer leads both companies, and the overlap ends with his leadership.

A different Dreamland

One more point of confusion is common enough to address. Dreamland Studios has no affiliation with the unrelated apparel company that owns dreamlandstudios.com. The studio's home is dreamlandstudiosfund.com.

A search for Dreamland Studios can land on the apparel company, which has no connection to the film studio, to AFA, or to Austin Spicer. If you're looking for the film company described here, you're in the right place.

One mission

The two companies share one mission: a sustainable independent film business, built by filmmakers who understand how that business works. AFA builds the filmmakers (their knowledge, their packages, their community, and their access). Dreamland Studios builds films by financing, producing, and distributing commercial features.

The clear line between them is what lets each company do its job well.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Dreamland Studios and the American Film Association?

Dreamland Studios finances, produces, and distributes commercial feature films. AFA is a professional association for filmmakers that runs programs, events, and member relationship-building. AFA does not provide film financing or capital.

Who leads both companies?

Austin Spicer is President of both the American Film Association and Dreamland Studios.

Is AFA an investor in Dreamland Studios films?

No. AFA is not an investor in Dreamland Studios films and does not provide capital for them.