The Lumina story.
Carshénah Jefferson.
Carshénah Jefferson is a working actress and filmmaker, born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida. Her body of work spans New York and Los Angeles — onscreen credits, independent productions, and creative partnerships built across two of the industry’s most demanding markets.
Lumina Media Group, LLC is her return to the First Coast. Reel Seasons — the company’s inaugural residency — pairs the discipline of a national-market festival with the warmth and specificity of a hometown event.
She programs with the perspective of someone who has lived inside the work: an actor’s read on character, a filmmaker’s read on craft, and a producer’s read on what an audience deserves to see.
A residency built
for the work, not the noise.
Lumina is a Jacksonville cinema collective founded in 2026 to produce Reel Seasons — a three-chapter festival residency that programs film with the discipline of a theatrical run and the warmth of a hometown event.
We don’t try to be every festival to every filmmaker. Three thematic chapters across the fall, six premium event nights total, and curatorial care over volume every time.
Why Jacksonville.
Jacksonville’s film history is older than Hollywood’s. The city was a winter studio capital before the industry migrated west — a fact most of the country has forgotten, and the city itself is just starting to remember.
Lumina is part of a quiet new wave bringing serious cinema programming back to the First Coast. National ambition, Florida specificity.
Our partner venue is a historical theatre in Jacksonville — official venue announcement coming soon.
Programmed, not flooded.
Every chapter programs at least fifteen shorts at a target twenty-minute run time, organized into themed blocks across two days. Awards on the closing night.
Festival-grade playback.
High Quality delivery from selected films. Cinema-grade projection. Technical operator on site. Programming sequencing locked three weeks before each event weekend.
Filmmakers first.
Moderated Q&A after every block. Private filmmaker mixers in the lobby. We treat the people behind the films as the audience that matters most.
Submit your film.
Submissions are open now. Early Bird closes June 30 · Regular Deadline August 15 · Final close September 20.
