Roll credits, y’all: UK alum brings Hollywood to Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 21, 2025) — The sleepy, tree-lined streets of Greenville, Kentucky are a world apart from the frenetic, glittery chaos of Hollywood Boulevard. Growing up among the coal country hills and green farmland, Eli Samek, a 2019 University of Kentucky Gatton College of Business and Economics graduate, never imagined his interest in films would lead him to the heart of the movie industry. But today, he’s juggling a budding film producing career, a day job as a banking analyst and a plan to bring more movies to his home state.

“When I’m Ready,” Samek’s debut production, follows a young couple navigating personal and existential challenges as Earth is threatened by a giant asteroid. The genre-blurring, end-of-the-world road movie — one part “Armageddon,” another part “Road to Morocco,” with a skosh of “The Notebook” thrown in for good measure — gave Samek his first taste of life as a feature film producer.

Samek traces his interest in film back to childhood. Growing up in Muhlenberg County, he often watched movies with his father and grandfather, discovering a love for older films that many of his peers overlooked.

“It was one of the commonalities we had,” Samek said. “Even when I was really young, I gravitated toward older Westerns and screwball comedies from the ’60s. I always liked movies that were kind of beyond my years.”

LIGHTS!...

That passion deepened as Samek started exploring films on his own. Curiosity turned into action as he began experimenting with cameras and storytelling from a young age. In his elementary school’s library, he discovered a biography of Steven Spielberg and marveled at the director’s boyhood experiments with filmmaking. Inspired, Samek began shooting his own short films with friends and uploading them to YouTube in middle school.

By high school, he had developed a near-encyclopedic knowledge of classic cinema. One movie in particular made a lasting impression: Spielberg’s 1977 hit “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

“I was probably 13 when my dad showed me that movie,” Samek said. “It was so different from what I had seen before. At the end, when they communicate with the UFOs through musical tones, it moved me in a way I didn’t expect. It showed me that movies could be magical, emotional and profound all at once.”

Samek credits the Felix E. Martin Jr. Scholarship, which supports academically outstanding students from Muhlenberg and Hopkins counties, as the chief reason he was able to attend the University of Kentucky.

“If I hadn’t gotten that scholarship, I probably wouldn’t have been able to attend UK,” Samek said. “It meant everything — it opened the door for me. And not having debt when I graduated gave me the freedom to take risks, move to Los Angeles and chase opportunities I might not have otherwise.”

Financial freedom was critical in choosing film as more than a hobby.

“When you don’t have $100,000 in loans hanging over your head, you can actually take a chance on making a movie,” Samek said.

With the Martin scholarship opening doors, Samek was free to explore new interests. When he arrived at UK, there were a few TV production courses, but no formal film degree. He studied in UK’s Gatton College, but through a French cinema course taught by Professor Jeffrey Peters, Ph.D. — who was, at the time, developing a nascent film studies program in the College of Arts and Sciences — he discovered the possibility of pursuing cinema seriously.

One of the films Peters showed his students as a way to introduce film technique was Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Amélie,” a film that was popular with students in the early 2000s. The whimsical French movie captivated Samek and helped him see the artistry behind film in a new way.

“I never would’ve watched ‘Amélie’ on my own,” Samek said. “But that opened my eyes to how whimsical and beautiful films could be.”

The class, Peters said, was designed to spark students’ curiosity, and for Samek, it clearly had an impact.

“It’s an absolute delight to hear that Eli could have been influenced in this way by my class,” said Peters, adding that professors don’t often get the opportunity to see how their teaching impacts a person’s life in the long term. “‘Amélie’ is a useful film for teaching film technique because Jean-Pierre Jeunet pulls out every possible trick in the book. In class, we talked about the development of mise-en-scène, cinematography and editing over the course of French film history, which, in many ways, is the history of film itself.”

Peters, who serves as chair of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures, helped develop a curriculum for a 16-unit undergraduate certificate in International Film Studies, which Samek would also go on to earn at UK.

…CAMERA!...

For Samek, the passion for cinema centered particularly on horror films. He grew up watching “Friday the 13th” marathons with friends, reveling in the campy thrills. To him, horror offered a unique range of experiences for audiences.

“The ceiling for how much fun you can have with a horror movie is so high — and even a bad horror movie can still be fun,” Samek said. “If a comedy isn’t funny, you’re miserable. If an action movie is dull, you check out. But even a terrible horror movie can make you laugh, scream or just have a great time.”

He cited Wes Craven’s “Scream” as a significant influence, with its blend of genuine scares, sharp humor and self-awareness.

“That movie was brilliant,” Samek says. “It worked as horror, it worked as comedy and it worked as a commentary on itself.”

Although film has always been his passion, Samek recognized the practical challenges of breaking into the industry. At UK, he pursued a business degree, figuring that even if he couldn’t land on a film set, he could work in the front office of a studio.

That decision paid off. He secured an internship at WWE Studios in Los Angeles, where he worked for the studio president and learned firsthand how movies are financed and produced.

“I realized producing a movie is really just putting all the pieces together,” Samek said. “It’s not something you necessarily need a degree to do, though it helps — it’s about organization, persistence and relationships.”

“When I’m Ready,” is set during an apocalypse, but focuses on intimate human stories rather than spectacle. In the film, a young couple embarks on a cross-country journey to visit the woman’s grandmother before the impending asteroid extinction event. Along the way, they encounter a diverse group, including a former beauty queen clinging to hope and a solitary drifter, played by Dermot Mulroney, looking for connection. The Andrew Johnson-directed film also stars Lauren Cohan and up-and-coming actors Andrew Ortenberg, who also wrote the screenplay, and June Schreiner.

“We’ve seen plenty of end-of-the-world movies that are about why the world is ending,” Samek said. “We wanted to do something smaller, more personal. How would different people come to terms with their lives ending? What would that look like?”

The film opened in eight theaters nationwide — including Phoenix, Louisville and Madisonville, Kentucky, near where he grew up — before moving to streaming platforms.

“I grew up going to that theater in Madisonville, so to see my movie play there was incredible,” he said.

…ACTION!

Today, with his second film, “New Fears Eve,” in post-production, Samek is gearing up for his next project: a darkly comedic, 80s-based horror film that will shoot in the Bluegrass this fall. And this is where his day job in banking and Kentucky’s generous film incentives come together in perfect harmony.

Based in Louisville, Samek helps independent filmmakers navigate the Kentucky Entertainment Incentive Program, which offers tax credits to productions that shoot in the state. The program, operated by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, exists to “encourage the film and entertainment industry to choose locations in the Commonwealth,” while also growing the local industry, creating more jobs for Kentuckians and building top-notch production facilities.

“My business partner, Andrew [Ortenberg], and I founded our production company, 19th Hole, with that in mind,” Samek said. “We’ve financed distribution agreements and tax incentives — we even gave a horror movie a loan that I brought into the bank. Kentucky’s incentives make the Bluegrass a really attractive place to film, and my job in banking allows me to help other filmmakers take advantage of those opportunities while also giving me the financial knowledge to structure my own projects. It’s been an exciting way to combine my professional training with my passion for film.”

Samek hopes that expanding Kentucky-based productions will give residents greater access to film and TV careers and open doors to opportunities they might never have imagined. He has shown that a love of movies, a bit of banking know-how and a lot of curiosity can take someone places they never imagined. Samek is making films, taking chances and having fun along the way. He remains proof that the story can start in Kentucky and reach all the way to the stars.