Adam Wayne Nixon
Senior Lecturer, Communication
Education
Ph.D., Performance Studies/Digital Cinema, University of Maryland;
M.A., Cinema Studies, New York University;
M.F.A., Directing, VCU School of the Arts
Research Expertise
Digital Media
Media Studies
Adam is an Emmy-nominated and Tele Award-winning television producer and filmmaker. He has produced more than 1,000 television broadcasts from the Middle East to Middle America. For MBN, a former sister-station to Voice of America, he helmed the longest-running show in network history, Inside Washington. Additionally, he directed and executive-produced the network's social media-based U.S. Unit, making content for Instagram, X/Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. His team reached 130+ million online views with science, history, and cultural content. Before that, he was the show producer of the nationally syndicated McLaughlin One-on-One on PBS and a senior producer on The McLaughlin Group on NBC. He worked with NBC News Washington, CNN, ABC News New York, Fox Television, and on many documentary films.
He was the Director, Writer, and EP of the feature film comedy Aspirin for the Masses, awarded Best Feature United States at the San Francisco Global Movie Fest, the Audience Award at the Cannes Underground Film Festival, and was an Official Selection of the St. Tropez and Milan International Film Festivals - among others. He was a finalist in the Sundance Screenwriting Competition and an Official Selection of the Beverly Hills Film Festival, the Los Angeles Film and Script Festival, and the Mountain Film Festival for screenwriting. His plays have been presented at festivals in London, Romania, Switzerland, and the U.S. He is a member of UMD's Communication Department as a Senior Lecturer in digital visual communication.
His book No-Budget Feature Filmmaking in the Digital Era was published in 2025 by Palgrave-Macmillan.
Other publications include:
Collected Screenplays, Plays and TV Scripts
TV Pitches, Concepts and Pilots: Decades of Ideas
Publications
No-Budget Feature Filmmaking in the Digital Era: Cinema in Ones and Zeroes
New 2025 book, "No-Budget Feature Filmmaking in the Digital Era" published by Palgrave-Macmillan
Author/Lead: Adam Wayne NixonThis book chronicles the transformative impact of CMOS sensor technology on the global DIY filmmaking community. Through the lens of an ethnographer and outsider filmmaker, the author explores how digital cameras have democratized the art of filmmaking, allowing amateurs to create professional-quality films on a shoestring budget. The journey begins with the author's own experience creating Aspirin for the Masses, a feature film shot for just $500, and extends into the broader world of no-budget filmmaking. Key concepts include the rise of the "Am-Auteur," the role of film festivals in identity creation, and the cultural capital of low-cost cinema. The book examines how digital technology has redefined notions of media dissolution and creation, offering new pathways for identity formation. It also delves into the performative aspects of film festivals, where outsider artists gain socio-cultural status. This book is essential for scholars, filmmakers, and anyone interested in the intersection of technology and art. It offers a unique perspective on how digital cameras have reshaped the filmmaking landscape, empowering a new generation of creators to challenge traditional norms and redefine what it means to be an auteur in the digital age.
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