2015 Phoenix Film Festival Call for Entries!

THE SUBMISSION DEADLINE FOR THE 2015 PHOENIX FILM FESTIVAL HAS ENDED.

We will notify all filmmakers in February 2015.

The Phoenix Film Festival, fresh off its best year yet, is planning for another big year and we want you to be a part of this great filmmaker event.

The PFF has been named one of The 25 Coolest Film Festivals and a Top 50 Worth the Entry Fee by MovieMaker Magazine and has been called the most filmmaker-friendly festival out there.

The Phoenix Film Festival annually screens over 150 films, holds amazing parties and provided filmmaking seminars to capacity audiences. Over 23,000 attendees enjoy the 8 day festival.  The Festival takes place all in one convenient location and is held on 7 screens at the state of the art Harkins Scottsdale 101. All parties and workshops are held in the Party Pavilion just outside the theatre. Which means everything you need is right on site.

But don't just take our word for it. Check out what some of our past filmmakers had to say about the Phoenix Film Festival:

"Of all the film festivals I've been to Phoenix was by far the most relaxed and fun, with great enthusiastic audiences and interesting engaging films.  I love the Phoenix Film Festival and can't wait to go back." - Matt Rabinowitz, Director of "The Frontier"

"The people of the Phoenix Film Festival seem to instinctively know what filmmakers need: Encouragement, fun and so often overlooked in the film world- kinship. I don't know how, but PFF understands. All the filmmakers felt pampered, not just by the amazing screening facility or the cool parties but by the warmth and real friendship extended. Never have I been to a film festival where camaraderie, instead of competition between filmmakers was fostered, where fun and imagination was extended from the film making process and into the film screening experience. PFF wasn't just a place to screen to the filmmakers there, but the time of their lives." - Eddie Jemison, Director of "King of Herrings

"From the minute you land, they scoop you up and make you a part of their family. They've carefully created an itinerary designed to bring you closer with your filmmaker brethren, and these are friendships I will have a lifetime. The film selection is varied and strong, the venue is top notch, but most importantly, the people working the festival are warm, helpful, and just plain fun, from those running the show to the volunteers helping seat 

people. I very much look forward to returning with all my future films, and will be singing this festival's praises to whomever will listen." - Mark Stolaroff, Producer of "The House that Jack Built"

"Can I coin a phrase to talk about the Phoenix Film Festival? Let's call it the "ultimate fest experience" or maybe "fest quest achieved!" Ok, so maybe I can't coin a phrase that's catchy. But regardless, all indie filmmakers go to festivals with goals in mind whether it's audience feedback or networking. The Phoenix Film Festival exceeded all my expectations and raised the bar for what a festival experience should be. The audiences the PFF attracted were the biggest and best I have seen anywhere. Not to mention they were excited, engaged and intelligent film-goers - the exact people you want at your screenings! I enjoyed a sold-out show for my film 45RPM and received thoughtful feedback and encouragement from viewers and filmmakers alike." - Juli Jackson, Director of "45 RPM"

"I don’t need to tell you that filmmakers often exist in a vacuum as they toil to make their films come to life. The fact that I was invited to screen my film, not once but 3 times, was really great. The Phoenix Film Festival is pure heaven for any filmmaker. I highly recommend it." - Whitney Ransick, Director of "Misfire:The Rise and Fall of the Shooting Gallery"

Thank you to all of the hard-working filmmakers who entered! Good luck and we hope to see you at the 2015 Phoenix Film Festival!

Support the Phoenix Film Foundation while you shop on Amazon.com!

Thanks to a program on Amazon.com, you can support the Phoenix Film Foundation while you shop. By clicking the link below, you will be able to support the Phoenix Film Foundation and our educational programs while you pick out that perfect present because of Amazon's new program, Amazon Smile.

Through Amazon Smile, once you have made the Phoenix Film Foundation your charity of choice, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchase's price to help us on our mission: to support and develop the artistic appreciation, educational opportunities and growth of independent film within Arizona. We do this through our educational programs that teach the art of independent filmmaking to hundreds of Arizona students every year.

Here's the best part, almost everything you buy on Amazon.com is eligible — clothes, books, appliances. Need a Norman Rockwell painting? There's one on Amazon for $4.8 million. You get a present for yourself and you support us as well!

As always, we thank you for your support of the Phoenix Film Foundation. So what are you waiting for? Click below and start shopping! But don't forget to always start your amazon.com shopping at smile.amazon.com!

[button link="https://smile.amazon.com/ch/86-1012666" type="big" color="orange" newwindow="yes"] CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT PFF[/button]

Support the PFF by shopping at Safeway, Fresh & Easy or just eating out! PFF is a part of eScrip!

If you have kids in elementary school, you know all about eScrip. If not, by just registering , you can help us earn some much needed money for the Phoenix Film Foundation. And the best part is, all you have to do is sign up and a percentage of what you spend is automatically given to the Foundation. Plus, you can benefit up to 3 different organizations, so if you are already enrolled for your school or church, just add us to your existing account! Click on the banner to the right or read on to sign up and support us!

WHEN SEARCHING FOR ORGANIZATIONS, BE SURE TO LOOK FOR

THE PHOENIX FILM FOUNDATION (eSCRIP ID: 500046125)

 

  There are 3 ways to  help us out, and it's all FREE!  

Sign Up and Add Cards

You can add your Safeway Shopper's card or your Fresh & Easy card. Plus, if you are out of AZ, you can add any number of shopper's cards. Just plug in the numbers and the savings start adding up for us!

SIGN UP AND ADD CARDS  (be sure to use our eScrip ID: 500046125)

eScrip Dining

Contribute up to 5% of your entire bill to The Phoenix Film Foundation when dining at any of the thousands of participating restaurants across the country. Just add the card that you pay with when you go out to eat and the savings will automatically get transferred to us. Not sure if you would be dining at any of the restraunts that qualify? There are about 250 in the Phoenix area alone that do!

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR eSCRIP DINING

eScrip Online Shopping

Have some shopping to do? Click below and help out the Phoenix Film Foundation! By starting at the eScrip online mall, you can shop most anywhere on the web -- Target, Macy's, Nordstrom, hotels.com -- even Starbucks!  Just click on the logo to the right to learn more

2015 Phoenix Film Festival Award Winners

On Sunday night, the Copper Wing Award Winners were announced at the Sunday Night Award Party in the Party Pavilion. It was a big night for so many of our filmmakers and we look forward to having encore screenings of many of the winners this week. Below are the winners....

 Click here to see the schedule for the festival

Feature Film Awards

Best Arizona Feature: Unsound

Best Acting Ensemble: Wildlike

Best Screenplay:Frank Hall Green, Wildlike

Best Director: Khalil Sullins, Listening

Best Documentary: Angel of Nanjing

Best Picture:Wildlike

Cox Audience Award: Far from Home

World Cinema Awards

Best World Cinema Short: In the Clouds

Best World Cinema Documentary: Dennis Rodman’s Big Bang in Pyong Yang

Best World Cinema Director: Zdenek Jirasky, In Silence

Best World Cinema Picture: In Silence

World Cinema Audience Award Winner: Glories of Tango

International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Fest Awards

Best Sci-Fi  Short: Air

Best Sci-Fi Feature: Clew

Best Horror Short: Dead Hearts

Best Horror Feature: Blood Punch

Short Film Awards

Best College Short: Drone

Best Arizona Short: Ouroboros

Best Short Documentary: Anna

Best Animated Short: The Ocean Maker

Best Live Action Short: Contrapelo

Foundation Awards

Arizona Filmmaker of the Year: Randy Murray

Volunteer of the Year: Dan Gluck

Dr Sydney K Shapiro Humanitarian Award: Angel of Nanjng

Like Us, Really Like Us on Facebook

Your favorite film festival is on Facebook, so be sure to check us out. The Phoenix Film Festival on Facebook is a great place to hear about festival announcements, movie news and to interact with fellow festival fans. So give us a look on Facebook and don't forget to click "Like". Click here to see us there

PHX Film News for April 18, 2014

PHX Film News April 18th, 2014 Thank you to everyone who came out to the 2014 Phoenix Film Festival. In the upcoming weeks, many of these films will be released in theatres and we'll keep you posted.This week we thought we would update you on some exciting news on some of our films from 2013. The Retrieval : Opening April 25th at Harkins Shea After a successful run on the film festival circuit in 2013, The Retrieval is hitting theatres. Next Friday (04/25) the film will be opening exclusively at Harkins Shea 14.Taking place a year after the Emancipation Proclamation, The Retrieval follows Will (newcomer Ashton Sanders), a boy sent by a bounty hunter gang to retrieve a wanted freedman (Tishuan Scott) and bring him back to the South. The film is Independent Spirit Award winner Chris Eska’s second feature and has garnered over a dozen awards at more than forty festivals worldwide, including Best Director, Best Acting Ensemble, and the Audience Award at last year’s Phoenix Film Festival.Find out more at the Harkins website Favor: iTunes and On Demand on April 22nd Favor was the winner of Best Screenplay at the 2013 Phoenix Film Festival and it will be available on home video starting on April 22nd. That includes iTunes, Cox On Demand and along with another dozen services.Here's a refresher on the synopsis: Kip Desmond has gotten everything he's ever wanted: a thriving career, beautiful wife and an affluent lifestyle, all of which is put in jeopardy when Abby, the waitress with whom he's having a casual fling, is accidentally killed. ​ ​ Desperate, he ends up on the doorstep of childhood friend Marvin Croat and asks him for a huge favor: help get rid of the body. ​ This gruesome circumstance begins a series of events which unravels Kip and Marvin’s lifelong friendship, leading both men to murderous acts neither had ever suspected themselves capable of. ​ Click here to get it on iTunes Putzel: Available nowOur 2013 Best Picture winner, Putzel is available now for purchase through Amazon as well as various home viewing options.Synopsis: For Walter Himmelstein, a young man endearingly known as Putzel, life literally doesn't go beyond his family's fish store on the upper west side of Manhattan. In this heartwarming romantic comedy about sex, love and smoked fish, Walter's aspirations of taking over his uncle's fish emporium are disrupted by the arrival of Sally, who becomes romantically involved with his about-to-retire and very-married uncle. While Walter tries to thwart their romance in order to ensure his taking over the business, he finds his circumscribed life thrown off kilter, and, after years of being undermined by his family and friends, finally starts to realize that he's more than a Putzel. Click here to get your copy Down and Dangerous : Available now in iTunes Down and Dangerous is one of the films we get asked about the most from last year's festival. And we have great news, it's also available on iTunes.Here's the synopsis: Always one step ahead of the Feds, Paul Boxer is the most inventive and principled smuggler in the trade, and has never needed to carry a gun. When violent mid-level traffickers coerce him into designing a foolproof plan to bring ten kilos of cocaine across the México border, he maneuvers to rid himself of their hold over him once and for all. However, when a sharp and beautiful woman from his past enlists his help to escape this rival outfit, Paul must confront the man that is hunting him down, and choose between his livelihood as a drug runner and his integrity as a man.Click here to check it out on iTunes

Are You an AZ Filmmaker?

Are you a local Arizona filmmaker who wants to get more involved with the local film community? IFP Phoenix (Independent Feature Project, Phoenix)  supports and develops the growth of independent filmmaking in Arizona through comprehensive training, networking, exhibition and filmmaking opportunities. Additionally, the organization aspires to continually reach out with support for all other filmmaking-friendly organizations in Arizona and be the resource that helps connect everyone in our filmmaking community.

How do you get involved?  Join IFP Phoenix today, and get involved in the various programs and events that are scheduled through out the year, just for filmmakers.  If you believe independent film is critical to our culture and to the future of cinema here in Arizona, visit IFPPHX.org today.

Congratulations to the winners of the 2015 Phoenix Film Festival Short Screenplay Competition!

Thank you to all who submitted their screenplays to the 2015 Phoenix Film Festival Short Screenplay Competition. We are very excited to announce this year's winners!

First Place: Tattoo by R. Wayne Gray from Welles River, Vermont.

The wife of an old man is less-than-thrilled when he tells her he wants to get a tattoo..

• $300 from the Phoenix Film Foundation
• One InkTip.com Script Listing on InkTip.com. InkTip Script Listings provide writers with the opportunity to get their scripts read by InkTip’s extensive network of producers, reps, manager, agents, and other qualified industry professionals.
• Script review and consultation from the Director of Development at Script Pipeline
• A 5-year membership to Writers Database provided by Script Pipeline
• One free entry to any Script Pipeline writing or idea competition
• A Phoenix Film Festival prize pack
• Listing on Phoenix Film Festival website
• Two VIP Passes to the 2015 Phoenix Film Festival (accommodation and air fare not included).

Second Place: The Loop by Matthew Himlin from Scottsdale, Arizona.

Two scientists successfully test a time machine, but are they prepared for the implications of time travel?

• A 5-year membership to Writers Database provided by Script Pipeline
• A Phoenix Film Festival prize pack
• Listing on Phoenix Festival website
• Two VIP Passes to the 2015 Phoenix Film Festival (accommodation and air fare not included).

Third Place: Ghost in the Gun: Vintner's Folly by Andrew Chen from Mountain View, California.

A man left for dead in the desert comes across a possessed gun and transforms into a gunslinger bent on avenging his murdered family, but unbeknownst to him the gun has a vendetta of its own.

• A 5-year membership to Writers Database provided by Script Pipeline
• Listing on Phoenix Film Festival website
• Two VIP Passes to the 2015 Phoenix Film Festival (accommodation and air fare not included).

Top Ten Finalists:

A Challenge To the Dark by Anna Imhof from Los Angeles, CA

No matter what anybody else says; Frankie, a 9-year-old tomboy, is convinced that in due time John Wayne will appear in her sleepy Midwestern hometown, pick her up on his horse and take her to the Wild West to fulfill her destiny.

Away From the Slough by Danielle Barcena from Concord, CA.

An abused woman struggles to free herself from her brother's web of control when a grocery store clerk offers her the chance to escape.

Crank by Matthew Himlin from Scottsdale, AZ.

Lou is such a cranky son of a b!tch that he's going to a wake to settle a score with a corpse.

Golddigger by Phil Yuhas from Orange, CA.

A couple's anniversary celebration is spoiled by the antics of a pretentious young blonde and her very elderly date.

Haunted House Hunters -- LA by Heidi Willis from Montgomery, AL.

Watch Jeff and Laura, a ghost couple, shop for a new home to haunt when Haunted House Hunters hits Los Angeles.

John Mott by Suzy Stein from Phoenix, AZ.

No one asks the Devil for happiness. Sell your soul to the Devil and he takes it away immediately and puts it in a box until you die. You can't be happy without your soul, no matter how much money you have. But John Mott can get that box back. For a price, John Mott can set you free. Unless the Devil stops him first.

True Blue by Phil Yuhas from Orange, CA.

The virtue of loyalty is explored through the eyes of an aging shelter dog.

Contact information for winning screenplays is available for producers by emailing submissions@phxfilm.com.