He’s been an actor and he’s been a producer, and now, Ben Andrews wants to give back to the Seattle film industry.

The Summit Film Festival, which usually takes place in Renton at the Renton Regal Theatre, will be held from Sept. 6 to Sept. 9. The festival will include table reads, networking showcases, an awards ceremony, Pacific Northwest indie awards, consultation opportunities, and film screenings. Although there weren’t many film festivals in Washington when Andrews founded the Summit in 2014, he said he created it because he wanted to bring independent filmmakers together.

“Well, it’s pretty known that the film industry in Seattle has struggled for probably about 20 years. I wouldn’t say there was not enough events. I would say there was not enough collaboration between all the organizations that are there to support film,” Andrews said. “That’s why I used the word summit in the name — because I felt there was too much competition among such few constituents. So, I thought the word summit would be the perfect excuse to bring all those organizations together to build more collaborative bridges.”

Andrews said the Summit is all about bringing creatives together, watching their content, and collaborating. He said he wants to give creators a moment to celebrate a small victory as they move forward.

Many of the films Andrews said he picks to be screened are great, but he doesn’t screen them because they’re perfect. Instead, he does it to celebrate the creativity and effort of creatives who want to learn more.

“If you were to talk to other people in the film industry in Seattle who knew me, that’s like 100% what I stand for, giving opportunities to Northwest content creators to take their content and go global with it, go mainstream,” Andrews said. Additionally, he said he partly does the film festival to grow Seattle’s industry.

Andrews said 90% of the films this year will be from creators based in the Northwest, with creators from Kent, Auburn, Belfair and Port Orchard. Showcasing the collaboration born from the Summit, Andrews said this year they’re screening two films made by creators who met at last year’s festival, got inspired, and then decided to make a short film.

One way Andrews is attempting to enrich the Seattle film industry is through his collaboration with a Los Angeles film festival named “Holly Shorts” at the TCL Chinese Theatres. Andrews said Holly Shorts gets 1,000 short-film scripts sent to them globally, but then they cut it down to the 30 best, and then the winner is picked out of 30. From there, the film gets shot in Washington and is played on opening night at the TCL Chinese Theatres in Los Angeles.

This year, the film’s lead actors are Tom Skerritt and Jason Faunt. Andrews said additionally, he usually has a cameo in the film.

“It’s called ‘An Old Friend.’ An imaginary friend who comes into existence, doesn’t realize he’s an imaginary friend, and then gets allocated to a child, as all imaginary friends do, but he is allocated to a 92-year-old dying man,” Andrews said. “And the story is about figuring out why he is allocated to an old dying man instead of a child.”