September feels more like a new year than January.
January brings resolutions. September brings sharpened pencils.
There’s something about the end of summer that makes us want to learn again—new notebooks, new teachers, that mix of excitement and dread about what comes next.
For filmmakers, September is exactly that moment.
You don’t need to disappear for three years and emerge with a degree. Sometimes you just need a day, a few evenings, a weekend, a mentor, or a room full of people trying to do what you’re trying to do.
At Raindance, Autumn 2026 is packed with opportunities to learn, experiment, meet filmmakers and—most importantly—move your project forward.
And this bank holiday Raindance Create Members get 40% off, and free Raindance Connect Members get 30%.
Here are seven ways to go back to film school without putting your life on hold.
1. Start Here: Saturday Film School
If you don’t know where to begin, start here.
The Raindance Saturday Film School takes place on Saturday 19 September, in London and live online. In one day, we cover screenwriting, producing, directing and the realities of building a film career.
Filmmaking becomes simple once you see how the pieces fit.
You don’t need permission to be a filmmaker—but you do need to understand how filmmaking actually works.
And after the London session, we head to the pub. Some of the best lessons at Raindance never make it onto slides.
2. Learn to Pitch Your Movie
You might have the greatest film idea since Pulp Fiction.
If you can’t explain it, it doesn’t matter.
On Monday 2 November, Live! Ammunition! The Pitching Competition lets filmmakers pitch to an industry panel in front of a live audience. You get two minutes. The panel can gong you off if you lose them.
Terrifying? Yes.
Useful? Absolutely.
Pitching forces clarity. If you can’t hook someone in two minutes, 90 minutes won’t save you.
3. Turn Yourself Into a Producer
Ideas don’t make films. Producers do.
The Film Producers’ Foundation Certificate begins Tuesday 22 September and covers the practical side of filmmaking: planning, financing, budgets, legal, marketing and sales.
Producing is often misunderstood. A producer isn’t just a fundraiser—they create the conditions for everyone else to do their best work.
Even writers and directors benefit from understanding it.
Because sooner or later, someone has to answer:
How are we actually going to make this?
4. Stop Talking About Your Screenplay and Write It
Writers are excellent at avoiding writing.
Research. Development. Rewriting the protagonist’s motivation again.
Sometimes what you need is a deadline.
The Screenwriters’ Foundation Certificate starts Tuesday 10 November and runs for five Tuesday evenings online. It tests your idea, strengthens your understanding of story, and gives you a framework you can reuse long after the course ends.
You don’t need a finished script.
You need an idea, curiosity, and the willingness to pressure-test it.
5. Take Your Directing Further
Directing isn’t shouting “Action!”
It’s making hundreds of decisions while convincing everyone you know what you’re doing.
The Film Directing Certificate begins Monday 9 November. This five-week film directing course provides a detailed overview of the skills, knowledge and professional requirements for those wishing to direct for the big screen.
Good directors never stop learning.
6. Discover What Happens on the Other Side of the Camera
Filmmakers spend a lot of time talking about cameras.
We often forget the human being in front of them.
The Screen Acting Masterclass: The Secrets of Screen Acting runs in London on 12–13 September and gives actors hands-on experience in front of the camera. It’s also invaluable for writers, directors and producers who want to understand performance.
If you’re a director who’s never acted, try it.
You’ll never give a useless direction again.
7. Fast Track the Project You Already Have
Maybe you don’t need another course.
Maybe you already have the project.
The screenplay in a drawer. The documentary you’ve talked about for years. The short you keep promising to make.
The Raindance Fast Track for Writers, Producers & Directors begins Monday 21 September and runs for ten Monday evenings. It includes group sessions, one-to-one mentoring, selected classes and a year of membership. Most importantly, it focuses on moving your project forward.
Sometimes the problem isn’t information.
It’s accountability.
Your Autumn Starts Here
You don’t need to do everything.
Find the gap that’s holding you back.
Story. Producing. Directing actors. Pitching. Or simply being in a room with people who also want to make films.
That’s the point of going back to school.
Change your environment, and your environment changes you.
Explore the full programme at Raindance Filmmaking Courses.
September is coming.
Buy the notebook if you want.
But this time—fill it.
Raindance promotes and supports independent filmmaking and filmmakers.
From new and emerging to industry pros, Raindance connects, trains, supports, and promotes visual storytellers through every step of their career.
The Raindance Film Festival runs each Summer in London’s Leicester Square.
Raindance has been delivering film training since 1992. A wide range of Open Classesto a 2 year HND Level 5 BTEC in Moving Images to a Postgraduate Film Degree are delivered to students on five continents, both in person and online.
