How to Open Premiere Pro Projects in FilmCraft (Free Open-Source Editor)

FilmCraft just landed, and it's getting attention for one simple reason: it looks and feels like Premiere Pro, it's free, and it's open source. Same panels, same workspaces, same keyboard shortcuts.

If you're tired of paying Adobe every month, the first question is obvious: what happens to all your existing Premiere projects?

Short answer: FilmCraft can't open .prproj files directly. But it can import XML timelines, and that's your way in. This guide shows you how to get your Premiere Pro projects into FilmCraft, with or without an active Adobe subscription.

What is FilmCraft?

FilmCraft is a free, open-source video editor released by the ArtCraft team. It's part of a family of "Crafting Apps" that rebuild the main Adobe tools from scratch: PhotoCraft for images, VectorCraft for illustration, EffectCraft for motion graphics, and FilmCraft for editing.

A few things that make it stand out from older open-source editors like Kdenlive, Shotcut or OpenShot:

• It's designed for Premiere users. Source and Program monitors, bins, three-point editing, ripple and roll trims, J/K/L playback, and a Lumetri-style color panel. There's even a Premiere Pro keyboard shortcut preset.
• It's written in Rust, with its own codecs. No FFmpeg inside. H.264, HEVC, ProRes, DNxHR and AV1 decoding are built in.
• It runs everywhere. macOS, Windows and Linux, with a web version in progress.
• It's licensed MIT or Apache 2.0. Free to use, including commercially.

It’s also very young. FilmCraft is still pre-1.0 and ships updates almost every day. Its roadmap estimated around 87% feature coverage compared to Premiere Pro in early October 2026, though hands-on testers say it feels less ready than that for professional work. FilmCraft is not affiliated with Adobe.

Can FilmCraft open .prproj files?

No. A .prproj file is Adobe's own project format, and FilmCraft doesn't read it.

What FilmCraft does read is the standard interchange formats editors use to move timelines between applications:

• XMEML (Final Cut Pro 7 XML), the format Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve use to exchange timelines
• FCPXML (versions 1.9 to 1.11)
• OpenTimelineIO (OTIO)
• CMX 3600 EDL

So the path from Premiere to FilmCraft always goes through one of these files. You have two ways to get one.

How to move a Premiere Pro project to FilmCraft

Option 1: Export an XML from Premiere Pro

If you still have Premiere Pro installed and an active subscription:

1. Open your project in Premiere Pro.
2. Select the sequence you want to move in the Project panel.
3. Go to File > Export > Final Cut Pro XML.
4. Save the .xml file next to your media.
5. In FilmCraft, import the XML. Your sequences, bins and media links are added to the project, and FilmCraft relinks the media it finds on disk.

This works well for one or two projects. It gets painful when you have years of archives, because you have to open each project in Premiere, one by one. And it doesn't work at all once your Adobe subscription has ended.

Option 2: Convert the .prproj with PR2XML (no Premiere needed)

PR2XML converts Premiere Pro .prproj files to XMEML, FCPXML or DaVinci Resolve .drp directly in your browser. You don't need Premiere installed, and you don't need an Adobe subscription.

1. Go to pr2xml.com from your computer.
2. Upload your .prproj file.
3. Choose XMEML (or FCPXML) as the output format.
4. Download the converted file.
5. Import it into FilmCraft and point it to your media if needed.

This is the option for people who've already cancelled Adobe, or who are about to. You can cancel your subscription and still keep access to every project you've ever built.

Which format to choose: XMEML or FCPXML?

Both work in FilmCraft. Our recommendation for Premiere projects is XMEML. It's the format Premiere itself exports, it maps closely to how a Premiere timeline is structured, and FilmCraft's XMEML import supports nested sequences, transitions, speed changes, opacity, motion and audio levels.

Use FCPXML if you also plan to open the same project in Final Cut Pro. If you're unsure, we compare the two formats in detail in our FCPXML vs XML guide.

What transfers, and what doesn't

Moving a timeline between editors is never a perfect copy. Here's what to expect.

Usually transfers:

• Your cuts, clip in and out points, and track layout
• Multiple video and audio tracks
• Common transitions like cross dissolves
• Speed changes and basic motion (position, scale, rotation)
• Audio levels
• Media links, as long as the files are still on your drive

Usually needs to be redone:

• Lumetri color grades (FilmCraft has its own color tools, but grades don't travel through XML)
• Third-party plugins and effects
• Complex titles and Essential Graphics templates
• Some audio effects

The rule of thumb: your edit comes across, your finishing work doesn't. For most people that's the part that matters, because the edit is what takes weeks to rebuild.

Is FilmCraft ready to replace Premiere Pro?

Honest answer: not for every project, not yet.

FilmCraft is impressive for such a young project, but it’s early software. Some Premiere features are still missing (hardware decoding, plugin support and After Effects Dynamic Link among them), and you’ll hit rough edges. If you're delivering paid client work tomorrow, test it on something low-stakes first. For a full side-by-side on features, performance and stability, read our FilmCraft vs Premiere Pro comparison.

If you want the most mature free alternative today, it's DaVinci Resolve. Its free version is used on professional productions, its color tools are the industry reference, and it's stable. PR2XML can convert your .prproj files straight into a Resolve .drp project.

But Resolve has a learning curve. Its interface is organized around pages (Cut, Edit, Fusion, Color, Fairlight) and it works differently from Premiere. If you've spent years building Premiere muscle memory and you want to keep that exact workflow, FilmCraft is the more comfortable move. Same layout, same shortcuts, same logic. You open it and your hands already know where things are.

So the choice looks like this:

• You want the most reliable free editor right now: DaVinci Resolve.
• You want to leave Adobe without relearning how to edit: FilmCraft, as long as you're comfortable with young software.

Either way, your Premiere projects don't have to stay locked in Adobe's format.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to bring your Premiere projects with you? Convert your first .prproj with PR2XML and open it in FilmCraft or DaVinci Resolve in minutes, no Adobe subscription required.