The International Horror & Sci Fi Film Festival took
place at the luxurious Harkins Centerpoint 11 in
downtown Tempe, Arizona. The festival was presented
by Showtime’s Masters of Horror.
Photo: Scott Trimble
The men who made it all happen: (L to R) Senior
Festival Director – and all around amazing man –
Jason Carney and C-Founder / Executive Director
Chris “The human dynamo’ LaMont.
Photo: David Zilly
Meet the programmers: ( L to R) Horror Program
Director Adam “give me zombies, or give me death”
Goldfine, Co-Founder and Festival Director Brian
“Killer Gnome” Pulido and Science Fiction Program
Director Michael “May the force be with you” A,
Stackpole.
Photo: David Zilly
Director Tobe Hooper (2nd on left) was
inducted into the International Horror and Sci Fi
Film Festival Hall of Fame for his astounding body
of work, including Texas Chainsaw Massacre,
Poltergeist and Toolbox Murders.
Photo: David Zilly
Director Tobe Hooper held a Q & A after
the free screening of “Dance of The Dead” from Showtime’s
Masters of Horror series.
Photo: David Zilly
Zombiefied fans
sit transfixed by the stellar programming – and
amazing concession stands - at the festival which
was procured from across the globe.
Photo: Scott Trimble
Troma Entertainment honcho and
Toxic Avenger director Lloyd Kaufman (2nd
on left) was inducted into the International Horror
and Sci Fi Film Festival Hall of Fame for his life
long contribution to independent cinema!
Photo: Scott Trimble
Festival coordinator James Schoepflin
rallied the brigade of volunteers to man the Ticket
Welcome & Expo Center, which was decorated by The
Spirit Store and featured vendors including Atomic
Comics, Halo Piercing and Towers Records, among many
others
A bunch of ghouls crash the Filmmaker Lounge,
sponsored by Budweiser, and get loaded on soda and
chips, while talking shop with horror renaissance
man Tobe Hooper.
Photo: David Zilly
Lloyd Kaufman and his pal Toxie treated festival
goers to his seminar “Make your Own Damn Movie!”
Photo: Scott Trimble
Peter Mayhew, famous for playing Chewbacca in the
Star Wars Films, greeted fans and hosted the amazing
“Star Wars Fan Films” program.
Photo: Scott Trimble
Executive director Chris LaMonte, who’s son is named
Luke (well his wife wouldn’t let him name him
Chewbacca), is in his glory hanging with Peter
Mayhew!
Photo: Scott Trimble
Mark Greenawalt did a live body painting
demonstration and brought the demonic Egyptian
vampire goddess, Purgatori to life!
Photo: Scott Trimble
Festival goers crowd the streets waiting for the
sneak peek of John Gulager’s Project Greenlight
project, Feast!
Photo: Scott Trimble
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On Friday October 21st,
2005 only hours before the launch of the first
annual International Horror & Sci Fi Film Festival (IHSFFF),
festival co-founders Chris LaMont and Brian Pulido
were excited beyond belief. After all, this event
was the fulfillment of a dream to provide a
global-class experience for fans and filmmakers of
the genres Chris and Brian love.
Close to fifty volunteers,
gathered by Deborah Hildebrandt and Brett Wells,
oversaw the last minute details on the magnificent
Ticket Welcome & Expo Center (including super cool
gift bags for filmmakers including goodies from
McFarlane Toys, Art Asylum, Fangoria, and Sideshow
Toys, among others). Every major newspaper in
Arizona ran reviews of films featured in the event.
News crews covered it. Even the New York Times
covered the event!
But the question remained --
would the filmmakers and fans come?
Our call for entries was
successful beyond our wildest belief with close to
one thousand entries in all categories. Under senior
Festival Director Jason Carney’s watchful eyes, it
took twenty people countless hours to review all the
films and choose the winners.
Months prior to the event, key
sponsors joined the festival thanks to the tireless
work of James Schoepflin, Chris La Monte and Brian
Pulido. Harkin Theaters, long supporters of indy
cinema, came on board and we named Harkins
Centerpoint Eleven & Valley Arts Theaters as our
official venues. Good thing too. They have the best
concession stands around. This put the IHSFFF in the
heart of Tempe, AZ smack dab in the middle of ASU.
The Mill Avenue Merchants association, quickly came
on board.
Then came our media sponsors.
KUPD, local hard rock radio would provide over 500
on air mentions of the event. The Arizona Republic,
Arizona’s leading daily newspaper would blanket the
state and Harkins theaters would run ads before all
screening on 200 screens for three weeks prior to
the event! Not to be outdone, Cable America, one of
the southwest’s key cable providers, ran a one
minute IHSFFF commercial that reached forty thousand
homes. Phoenix Magazine ran advertising. Finally,
MMA, led by Jeff Moss and Ted Anderson, provided all
marketing materials for the event, including the
stellar logo.
Support came in from the
educational community as The Art Institute of
Phoenix and the University of Advancing Technology
came onboard as sponsors.
The presenting sponsor is a key
position in our event and who better to fill those
shoes than cable TV forces of nature, Showtime and
their amazing series “Masters of Horror?” To promote
the kick off of the series we showed Tobe Hooper’s
episode “Dance of The Dead” free all weekend.
Saturn signed on as our
Automobile sponsor and we displayed their 2006
models right in front of the theater for all our
patrons to see.
This was all great, but would
it all work? Would the people come?
Any concerns quickly evaporated
as the evening kicked off with the opening night
event, Three Extremes, provided by Lion’s Gate
Films. The theater was packed, the Welcome Center &
Expo was crowded with filmmakers from across the
globe (some as far as Australia) and fans of the
genres. To open the evening The Scorpius Dance
Theater performed an excerpt for their popular
theatrical production “A Vampire Tale”.
Winner of best Horror feature,
The Dark Hours (with writer Will Zmak in attendance)
and Experiment (with producer Clare Deacon in
attendance) winner of Best Sci Fi feature wowed
viewers.
Later that night, sci fi fans
were treated to Star War’s Peter Mayhew (also known
as Chewbacca) hosting a program of Star Wars fan
films, selected by Lucasfilms themselves!
The opening night party,
sponsored by Budweiser, was held at Grilled
Expedition, and allowed fans and filmmakers to get
to know each other into the wee hours of the night.
It was a blast to see IHSFFF signage all over the
town, including a giant, full color, fifty-foot tall
logo projected on the front side of the Centerpoint
Eleven theater. You couldn’t escape us! Tobe Hooper,
director of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, among other
horror classics, made a surprise appearance much to
everyone’s delight.
Free shuttle service, even at
three in the morning, proved that Courtyard Marriott
was a wise choice for the official filmmaker hote
Saturday was a madhouse with
four theaters showing movies continuously from 10AM-
2AM. A big shout out goes to Greg Wolf, our tireless
Technical Director , George Love, our Theater
Operations Director and Siobodan Popovic who ran the
Valley Art Theater all weekend. These guys are
incredible and do this all out of a love for movies.
Each screening featured an
introduction to the film and the filmmakers in
attendance by Festival Director Brian Pulido, Horror
Program Director Adam Goldfine or Sci Fi Program
Director Michael A. Stackpole. After each screening,
there was a Q & A session that allowed festival
attendees to ask filmmakers about their films and
the filmmaking process.
The Phoenix Film Project,
Co-Executive Directed by Amanda Melby and Julie
Holman, provided educational seminars throughout the
day. Representatives from the horror web site
Bloody-Disgusting were on hand to review movies.
The Arizona Screenwriters
Association announced winners of the screenplay
contest. Lion’s Gate Entertainment read the winners
for production consideration.
Our Ticket Welcome & Expo
Center, brought together with style by Festival
Coordinator James Schoepflin, was buzzing with
activity. Vendors included the mighty Atomic Comics,
Smart Living Realty, Tower Records, Halo piercing
and Troma Entertainment. Kepi Peterson managed an
amazing silent auction, with horror and Sci Fi
collectibles.
In the mid-afternoon, Grilled
Expedition was the site of the filmmaker’s
reception, where everyone had drinks and muchies and
talked film.
Saturday night featured a
tribute to Lloyd Kaufman, founder of Troma
Entertainment and director of The Toxic Avenger,
among others. Lloyd was inducted into the
International Horror & Sci Fi Hall of Fame for his
renegade spirit and his contribution to independent
filmmaking by Executive Director Chris LaMont,
Senior Festival Director Jason Carney and Festival
Director Brian Pulido. Lloyd delighted fans with a
madcap question and answer session.
Right after that, Tobe Hooper,
director of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist and
many other cool horror films, was inducted into the
International Horror & Sci Fi Hall of Fame for his
astounding ongoing contribution to horror filmmaking
by Executive Director Chris LaMonte, Senior Festival
Director Jason Carney and Festival Director Brian
Pulido. A lively question and answer session
followed after that.
Tobe was generous with his
time, meeting with Fans and signing autographs.
As film premiere’s including
Brain Damage films The Witch’s Sabbath, Shadow: Dead
Riot, Neighborhood Watch and Vegas in Space
entertained movie goers beyond midnight, the
Saturday night bash, sponsored by Budweiser was held
at My Big Fat Greek Restaurant.
Sunday kicked off with Lloyd’s
Kaufman’s “Make Your Own Damn Movie” seminar
(complete with harpist in a bikini)! Films ran on
four screens all day
The closing night event was a
wildly successful screening of the Project
Greenlight film, Feast. The house was packed!
Afterwards, there was a question and answer session
with director John Gulager, co-writer Marcus Dunstan
and actress Diane Goldner .
Our closing night party, was
held at the atmospheric The Loft. Many beers were
hoisted that night.
As we look back on our first
year, there are innumerable people to acknowledge
and thank, only some of whom were mentioned above.
Much respect goes to the Phoenix Film Foundations’
Board of Directors who approved our festival and
allowed it to be part of the growing foundation
family.
A sincere and heartfelt thanks
go to every filmmaker who submitted their work to
the Festival. We consider it an honor that you chose
our festival to screen your work at and we worked
hard to provide a festival worthy of your talents.
We can say that our audience deeply appreciated it
as well.
And last, but most importantly,
on behalf of the Executive Staff and volunteers, we
thank YOU, the horror and Sci Fi film fan! We did
this all for you and without you the IHSFFF Festival
wouldn't exist at all!
Please stay tuned to
this web site for news on our insidious plans
for 2006’s International Horror and Sci
Fi Film Festival to be held October 27-29th,
2006!
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