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Year One: 2016

This is an archive page. For the current year's festival, please visit our main page. The first annual Apocalypse Later International Fantastic Film Festival (ALIFFF) was held in the 3rd Street Theater at the Phoenix Center for the Arts on Saturday, 15th October, 2016. Overview Tickets were only $10 and parking and popcorn was free. The venue ran a bar. Thank you to everyone who submitted a film for doing so! Thank you to the filmmakers who attended: Michael Giannantonio (Blurred Vision) Taylour Geiss (Cotard's Syndrome) Jim Politano (Flight Fright) Thank you to our panel of judges for 2016: Jim McLennan, from Phoenix FearCon, Trash City and Girls with Guns Victor Moreno, from Cult Classics and Cult Following Toni Ross, from the Jerome Indie Film & Music Festival

Program Book

Download or view a PDF copy of the 2016 ALIFFF program book here.

Awards

Our competition films fought it out for these awards, created and designed by the ever-fantastic Tom Deadstuff!

Winners Congratulations to our 2016 winners: Best Horror Short Yotlungerdal (Wesley Gunn, USA) Best Science Fiction Short Roadside Assistance (Bears Fonté, USA) Audience Favourite They Will All Die in Space (Javier Chillon, Spain) Festival Director's Award María Fernanda in Time (Xavier Pijuan, Spain)

The Audience Favourite came down to a tiebreaker! Toni Ross, one of my judges, kindly added to those awards. Each winner gained automatic acceptance into the Jerome 89A Indie Film & Music Festival in 2017 (or, in one instance, a free submission for the filmmaker's next work). Thanks, Toni! Watch the video acceptances: Javier Chillon (They Will All Die in Space) (mov, 20 MB) Xavier Pijuan (María Fernanda in Time) (mp4, 56 MB)

Schedule

Doors opened at 5.00pm.

Set	Start Time	End Time	Length
Horror Shorts	6.00pm	7:37pm	96:50
Flight Fright	7:37pm	7:45pm	7:00
Intermission	7.45pm	8.00pm	15:00
Science Fiction Shorts	8.00pm	9.42pm	94:42
Awards Ceremony	9.45pm	10.00pm	15:00
A Way Out	10.00pm	10.14pm	13:47

Horror Shorts

The Horror Shorts set ran 96:50 and included 7 films from 4 countries:

Title	Year	Director	Location	Length
Hada	2015	Tony Morales	Spain	8:55
All in the Family	2016	Daniel Rimon	Israel	22:05
Blurred Vision	2015	Michael Giannantonio	Arizona	7:25
E.Z.P.Z.	2015	Jason Bryan	USA	11:11
Awakenings	2015	Bhargav Saikia	India	13:18
Cotard's Syndrome	2015	Taylour Geiss	Arizona	8:30
Yotlungerdal	2015	Wesley Gunn	USA	25:26

	Hada 8:55, Spain, dir: Tony Morales Tonight Hada comes to visit Daniel because her last child tooth has fallen out. What Daniel doesn't expect is that his worst enemy is the light. Tony Morales was born in 1988 in Malaga, Spain. When he was 20 years old he moved to Madrid to enter the world of Television. He studied interpretation at Estudio Interactivo and film directing at IES La Arboleda. He has been working in TV shows, commercials and videoclips since then. Hada is his second short movie.
	All in the Family 22:05, Israel, dir: Daniel Rimon Tammy is a teenager who aspires to fit in like everyone else. One evening, her new boyfriend, Dvir, unexpectedly stays for dinner with her parents. While Tammy's parents seem nice, the family hides a dark secret. Daniel Rimon was born in 1990 in Raanana, Israel. From a young age, he tampered with cameras and produced short films. He chose to expand his cinema studies in high school and made documentary movies. He served in the Israeli army as a photographer and video editor. Immediately after, he began studying at Beit Berl Academic College, majoring in cinema, and made a series of short films in the genre of horror.
	Blurred Vision 7:25, Arizona, dir: Michael Giannantonio Copycat killer "ZCD" is busy "dismembering" his latest victim in the style of his idol, the notorious KM Butcher. ZCD soon finds his "session" interrupted by a surprise visit from Detective Jones, who delivers some disturbing news about the KM Butcher. ZCD soon finds himself taking drastic, and unthinkable, measures as fate deals him a serious twist... As a filmmaker, Michael Giannantonio likes to push the envelope between reality and fiction. His goal is to create films which will cause an emotional response in viewers. Blurred Vision was a last minute project he assembled to compete in an Arizona film challenge. Blurred Vision was the winner of the Blood Moon Midnight Horror Challenge sponsored by the Jerome 89A Indie Film & Music Festival, taking home the Best Film Award and Best Actor Award. He feels truly blessed to work with such a professional cast and crew.
	E.Z.P.Z. 11:11, USA, dir: Jason Bryan Two survivors take advantage of a government bounty program during the waning days of an apocalypse. Jason Bryan began writing, producing and directing short films in 1991. A graduate of Vancouver Film School, he found a welcome community of like-minded artists in the San Francisco Bay Area filmmakers collective known as Scary Cow Productions.
	Awakenings 13:18, India, dir: Bhargav Saikia The line between dreams and reality is blurred when a young woman in charge of two children is haunted by mysterious entities. Awakenings is Bhargav Saikia's debut film as a director and screenwriter. In 2014, Bhargav produced the critically acclaimed feature film, Kaafiron Ki Namaaz, which was showcased at several film festivals, including Jeonju International Film Festival in South Korea and Ladakh International Film Festival in India, where it won the Best Feature Film award. Bhargav attributes Mani Ratnam, J.A. Bayona, Tim Burton, Peter Jackson, Roman Polanski and Vishal Bhardwaj as major influences on his work. Bhargav was born in 1988 in Assam, India.
	Cotard's Syndrome 8:30, Arizona, dir: Taylour Geiss A young girl is experiencing events similar to sleep paralysis, as well as the unintentional re-occurrence of dreams. She becomes lost in this paranoid, confused state. Taylour Geiss was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona in 1996. Cotard's Syndrome was the first film she finished, completed when she was eighteen years old. Inspiration for this film came from three consecutive dreams that she had. She feels extremely fortunate to have an amazing cast and crew who allowed her to bring her vision to life.
	Yotlungerdal 25:26, USA, dir: Wesley Gunn Inspired by German Expressionist cinema of the early twentieth century, Yotlungerdal tells the tale of a young Nightwatchman who falls asleep during his first night on the job. Amidst his slumber, a mysterious creature creeps into his village and steals a baby. The Nightwatchman must lead a madcap midnight search to retrieve the infant, lest the child never be heard from again.

Science Fiction Shorts

The Science Fiction Shorts set ran 94:42 and included nine films from four countries:

Title	Year	Director	Location	Length
Friendlies	2016	Steve Kopera	USA	5:26
Blood Run	2016	Michael Freeman	USA	19:40
No Guarantee	2016	Stuart Black & Nick Mather	UK	5:41
Yo Soy Pedro	2014	Jordan Inconstant	France	10:35
All Your Base: Last of Last	2016	Richard F. Roszko	USA	3:35
They Will All Die in Space	2015	Javier Chillon	Spain	14:59
Roadside Assistance	2015	Bears Fonté	USA	7:31
María Fernanda in Time	2015	Xavier Pijuan	Spain	9:20
Point Zero	2014	Arthur Cauras	France	17:55

	Friendlies 5:26, USA, dir: Steve Kopera Gabe lives a solitary existence. He enjoys his computer engineering, his frozen three-cheese ziti, his shiraz, and his complete action figure set from The Tick. Yet, nothing gives him more joy than staring into the expanse of space through his beloved telescope. On clear, cold nights, Gabe spends hours searching the constellations. On this fateful night, through, Gabe discovers much more than solitary bodies, gaseous nebulas, and fiery comets. A Michigan native and graduate of Northwestern University, Steve Kopera is the founder and CEO of Chapter 3 Media. He has over 15 years experience making movies, working with Jesse Dylan (Kicking & Screaming) and producer Moritz Borman (Terminator 3).
	Blood Run 19:40, USA, dir: Michael Freeman In a distant future, ravaged by war and destruction, mankind is on the edge. Surrounded by the 'Dead Zone', small inhabitable settlements carve out an existence. Those living in the Dead Zone struggle to survive with trade, madness and violence while Raiders pillage settlements in and out of the Dead Zone. Good men and women struggle to hold onto what they have. One such man living in the Ranchlands falls prey to Raiders and they take his most precious belonging. Now he hunts them deep into the Dead Zone to get back what was taken.
	No Guarantee 5:41, UK, dirs: Stuart Black & Nick Mather London 2056 - the city is dying and those living in the smog-clogged ruins live by their wits. Those who can afford to opt out of the desperation upload their consciousnesses to Cloud 9. This is advertised as a one way ticket to virtual heaven - but can the Company who run it really be trusted? Virgil and Mary have different attitudes: she wants to go, he doesn't. Can she persuade him to 'ascend' before he dies from terminal illness?
	Yo Soy Pedro 10:35, France, dir: Jordan Inconstant It's 1977 and Mackenzie and Banks, two American cops, encounter an alien who has just crashed. The police take him for a film actor and decide to take him back to the Hollywood studios. Jordan Inconstant was passionate about film and video from a young age. In 2013 he graduated from ESRA (Higher School of Audiovisual Production) in Paris. Subsequently, he joined the writing of OOB, a magazine about fashion, to make promotional videos and making of photo shoots. At the same time, he created Tirak Line to be able to frame his personal projects.
	All Your Base: Last of Last 3:35, USA, dir: Richard F. Roszko All Your Base: Last of Last is a monumental stupendous three-dimensional animated science fiction steampunk comedy mock trailer parody spoof short film final-remake of All Your Base Are Belong To Us. The original game video 'cut scene' from the Zero Wing arcade game had the Japanese text badly mistranslated into not-so-standard English. This was not missed by the techies, gamers and geeks. The 8 bit video from the game was re-dubbed multiple times and shared across the fledging Internet and became one of the first 'memes' of the Internet. It's strange, it's offbeat, and now, talcMedia Productions presents the 'last' remake of All Your Base are Belong to Us. Here is All Your Base: Last of Last, starring an all scifi cast: Claudia Christian (Babylon 5), Cliff Simon (Stargate SG-1), Colin Baker (Doctor Who), Lizzie Roper (Doctor Who) and Terry Molloy (Doctor Who).
	They Will All Die in Space 14:59, Spain, dir: Javier Chillon The starship Tantalus drifts through space.
	Roadside Assistance 7:31, USA, dir: Bears Fonté A mysterious woman stranded by the side of the road hitches a ride with a passing stranger - neither of them is who they seem. Bears Fonté is the Founder and Executive Director of Other Worlds Austin, a festival in Texas' capital focused on SciFi. Prior to that, he served as Director of Programming for Austin Film Festival from 2012-14. He serves as a consultant for film festivals and filmmakers beginning the film festival circuit. He also writes for AMFM Magazine, covering indie film and the festival circuit. His most recent short film, The Secret Keeper, has been selected by over 35 US film festivals since September 2012. His feature thriller, iCrime, which he wrote and directed, was released on DVD, VOD and streaming by Vicious Circle Films in 2011. Bears also self-produced two web-series which have been seen by a combined ten million viewers.
	María Fernanda in Time 9:20, Spain, dir: Xavier Pijuan An overprotective mother produces an accident with terrible consequences in the space-time continuum in the scientific laboratory where his son works. Xavier Pijuan Sala was born in Terrassa (Barcelona, Spain) in 1978. He studied architecture in Barcelona and worked as an architect for 10 years before starting his career transition to cinema. In summer 2012, he decided to take a step forward and leave his full time job to focus on his childhood dream: to become a filmmaker. He studied in the cinema school of Barcelona (ECIB) and this leap of faith soon started to pay off. His short films were selected amongst top of the class and three of them (Kübler-Ross, María Fernanda in Time and The Great Adventure of Manel and the Magic Toothpicks) were selected and awarded in several short film festivals around the world..
	Point Zero 17:55, France, dir: Arthur Cauras In a wasted future, the world has sinked into chaos after an epidemic of an unprecedented scale, and the rare human survivors have regressed to a quasi-primitive level. To provide for his beloved one, a man is forced at the risk of his life to venture in hostile territory. Arthur Cauras has directed two short films. The first one in 2004 was shot in Super-16mm and is a vigilante flick called Day After Day (Jour après jour). The second one, shot on Red One, is Point Zero, a post-apocalyptic no-holds-barred action film. Arthur has also worked in the martial arts area as a reporter since 2006.

Bonus Shorts

Just to keep value for money at the forefront of this event, we screened two additional short films out of competition. I was an extra in Flight Fright and A Way Out shows how ALIFFF aims to be a genre film festival that isn't restricted just to horror and science fiction, but will embrace other genre cinema too in future years.

Title	Year	Director	Location	Length
Flight Fright	2015	James Politano	Arizona	7:00
A Way Out	2015	Jason Tostevin	USA	13:47

Flight Fright 7:00, Arizona, dir: James Politano An airline passenger with a fear of flying starts to see strange things after taking his nerve medicine in this comedy spoof of the Twilight Zone episode, Nightmare At 20,000 Feet. Winner of the Gold Remi Award at the 2016 Houston-Worldfest International Film Festival. Jim Politano is a director/producer/writer based out of Chandler, AZ and is the owner of Dreamlook Productions LLC.

A Way Out 13:47, USA, dir: Jason Tostevin When aging gangster Vic risks it all to quit the life, he discovers his young protege has been keeping a secret of his own - one that plunges them both into a deadly cat and mouse game over the course of one car ride. Jason Tostevin is an American filmmaker living in Columbus, Ohio. His previous films include festival favorites Stones (Cannes, 2010), 'Til Death and I Owe You.

Last update: 15th October, 2018