2012 Call for Entries for the Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival

Science fiction and fantasy cinema filmmakers can now submit their films for the Experience Music Project|Science Fiction Museum’s (EMP|SFM) 2012 Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival (SFFSFF). The 7th annual festival will screen 20 films at the Seattle Cinerama in the winter of 2012. EMP|SFM, in partnership with the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), is encouraging original and creative science fiction film submissions 15 minutes or shorter in length for the festival. The festival will accept original entries created after 2007. The final submission deadline is September 15. The last three years of the festival have shown films to a capacity house of over 800 people. Submission guidelines and other information can be found here.

Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival NOW SOLD OUT ENCORE SCREENING JUST ADDED for January 30, 2011

SEATTLE— Due to popular demand, Experience Music Project|Science Fiction Museum (EMP|SFM), in partnership with Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), has added an encore screening to the sixth-annual Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival (SFFSFF). SFFSFF brings together industry professionals from both the filmmaking and science fiction and fantasy genres to encourage and support new, creative additions to science fiction and fantasy cinema. The encore presentation will feature the Jury Award winners, Audience Award winners, and Curator's choices from the 2011 Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Film Festival.

Event Details:
WHAT: SFFSFF Encore Screening
WHEN: Sunday, January 30 at Noon
WHERE: SIFF Cinema at the Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at McCaw Hall
321 Mercer Street, Seattle Center
TICKETS: $9
WEBSITE: http://www.empsfm.org/filmfestival
MORE INFO: Tickets are available on siff.net. For additional info, please call 206.464.5830. From a field of more than 100 films from all over the world, 20 entries were selected for inclusion in the festival. The January 30th encore screening will include 10 out of the 20 original films selected for the festival. All films were required to be no longer than 15 minutes in length, and produced after January 2006. Entries included animated or live-action films in science fiction (examples: futuristic stories, space adventure, technological speculation, social experiments, utopia and dystopia) and fantasy (examples: sword and sorcery, folklore, urban fantasy, magic, mythic adventure).

This year’s judges include science fiction notables and award-winning film professionals - filmmakers Barbara Brown, Ben Kasulke, Howard McCain and Bragi Schut, Jr., and writers Annalee Newitz, Lindy West and Daniel Wilson. The judges will award Grand Prize, Second Place, Third Place and the Douglas Trumbull Award for Best Special Effects. The audience will determine the Audience Favorite Award during the festival.

The mission and objective of the Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival is to promote and encourage an awareness, appreciation and understanding of the art of science fiction and fantasy cinema. Its mandate is to create a forum for creative artistry in science fiction and fantasy film and recognize the most outstanding short films produced.

The Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival is generously sponsored by Cinerama Theatre, Vulcan Inc. and NORWESCON.

Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival 2011
FILMS: For more information, including film stills and director bios, please visit www.empsfm.org/filmfestival
Please note: The January 30th encore screening will include 10 of the 20 films below.

ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD – World Premiere Director: Gavin Fox & Jason Fox Country: UK Year: 2010 Running Time: 7 minutes Bill likes it in his shed. It’s his little sanctuary; the place where he goes to escape his wife, the world and hard work. But one lazy Sunday, when he finally bothers to fix an old video player, he chances upon a discovery that could change not just his day, but the entire course of history.

COCKPIT: THE RULE OF ENGAGEMENT Director: Jesse Griffith Country: USA Year: 2010 Running Time: 12 minutes In the year 2103, mankind is at war with the Tarceds, an alien race that can control minds. Our brave men and women of the U.E.S. Navy hold the enemy at the outer edge of the galaxy. But when a pilot returns mysteriously from a bombing run without his wingman, suspicious of his affliction arise. The Captain of a Star Carrier must decide whether to let him land and risk exposing his carrier to alien control, or succumb to the will of the cold Government Agent and let him die in space.

DENMARK – Seattle Premiere! Director: Daniel Fickle Country: USA Year: 2010 Running Time: 6 minutes Pily is a lovable crustacean of mixed origin who struggles to escape his underwater home when it becomes threatened by pollution.

EMMA – Seattle Premiere! Director: David Beglin Country: USA Year: 2010 Running Time: 7 minutes In 2172, only 50,423 humans have survived a cataclysmic impact from an asteroid. Those left have split up to explore space in hopes of finding the next Earth. Now a Captain, Christian Steel, struggles between his duties as the leader and his own desire to join his lost family. As his sense of reality slips away, the crew looks to him for leadership through these near impossible times.

HECTOR CORP. Director: Gary Lee Country: USA Year: 2010 Running Time: 10 minutes A thriller about a company, Hector Corporation, that must take extreme measures to manage their employees with unexpected executioners. Our righteous hero, Victor, takes us through his experience and shows how justice prevails in the end.

JUAN CON MIEDO – Seattle Premiere! Director: Daniel Romero Country: Spain Year: 2010 Running Time: 11 minutes During the holidays at his grandparent’s village, John meets Mary, a mysterious girl who tells the terrifying legend surrounding the peasant’s old house. John, unlike the character in the tale, is fearful. Mary is not.

KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES! – Seattle Premiere! Director: Robert Dastoli, James Dastoli Country: USA Year: 2010 Running Time: 5 minutes People of Earth attention! Will you be prepared when the invasion comes? Out of the saucer ship will come an evil force that seeks to replace our freedoms with a barbaric way of life. Through artistic projections and live action dramatizations, this 1950’s style civil defense film encapsulates the mid-20th century Communist paranoia. Is it fantastic imagination or terrifying truth of the future? This film will have you watching the skies!

KING ETERNAL Director: Ori Guendelman Country: USA Year: 2010 Running Time: 15 minutes On their rite of passage journey, life-long friends Chu’a and Kele set off into the forest unaware of an ancient being that awaits them in the dark.

SPARK – Seattle Premiere! Director: Bridget Palardy Country: USA Year: 2010 Running Time: 5 minutes Spark is set in a future where fire is banned, clean air is precious, and an over-protective society fears the natural disasters of the past. Young ‘Very,’ is the quiet, new girl in an unfriendly classroom teeming with technology, hormones and cruelty. When a false fire alarm is triggered, she is unexpectedly swept up in a rebellious crime and thrust into an outsider culture. Only with her new accomplices does she discover friendship and a more organic connection to the planet, fire and her past.

THE ASTRONOMER’S SUN Director: Simon Cartwright, Jessica Cope Country: UK Year: 2010 Running Time: 6 minutes A young man, accompanied by his mysterious mechanical bear, visits an abandoned observatory to confront memories of his past and follow his Father on a journey into the unknown. A magical journey about relationships and what it is to be human.

LIFELINE Director: Andres Salaff Country: USA Year: 2009 Running Time: 6 minutes Lifeline is the tale of a brilliant scientist who travels through various dimensions and worlds in search of his lost love.

LOCAL UNIT Director: Tad Ermitano Country: Philippines Year: 2006 Running Time: 9 minutes In 2072, Silicon computers have been superseded by neuroprocessors—cloned brains sustained in nutrient fluids. As is usual in the Philippines, black markets have cropped up, trafficking in bootleg alternatives to the branded units. The street has evolved terminologies to distinguish the various grades of merchandise, but the words hide uncomfortable truths behind the product origins.

PROJECT PANACEA – Seattle Premiere! Director: Daniel Jourdan Country: Canada Year: 2010 Running Time: 8 minutes A young scientist has discovered a revolutionary disease treatment. Nobody believes him. He will see it through…Filmed alone in a basement.

SCHIZOFREDRIC – Seattle Premiere! Director: Andy Poyiadgi Country: UK Year: 2009 Running Time: 15 minutes Fredric has lost the fire in his belly and wants it back. After signing up for an unorthodox self-improvement program, Fredric is trapped outside of his own life, while a new, improved version takes over.

SUPER SCIENCE – Seattle Premiere! Director: Joel MacKenzie Country: Canada Year: 2009 Running Time: 8 minutes Super Science is a wild comedy about Eugene who is trying to attend a party and finish his science fair experiment on time. Since this task is not humanly possible, Eugene enlists the help of a non-human friend.

THE NECRONOMICON Director: Joseph Nanni Country: Canada Year: 2009 Running Time: 2 minutes Do you want to be a nicer person? Are you looking for inspiration to do good things? Well keep looking. But if you’re into opening up terrifying vistas of reality then the Esoteric Order of the Old Ones and Cthulhu Cultists want to help. The Necronomicon is a short and biting spoof of faith-based commercial advertising and accepted religious dogma.

TELEVISNU Director: Prithi Gowda Country: India Year: 2010 Running Time: 12 minutes A surreal tale of a young Indian woman who works at a call center. Her computer breaks down and in an attempt to fix it, she falls into a magical, mythical web of electronic wires where memories, secrets, and hidden desires reveal themselves.

THE WONDER HOSPITAL Director: Beomsik Shimbe Shim Country: USA Year: 2010 Running Time: 12 minutes The Wonder Hospital, a 3D and puppet-animated film, is a surreal journey of oddity and empty illusion. In a mysterious hospital, modification of physical beauty is not what you would expect. A girl’s desire for superficial beauty leads her to chase after the luring ‘After’ images on a path of advertisements throughout the hospital. But in the end, she finds something unimaginable and irreversible.

TUB Director: Bobby Miller Country: USA Year: 2009 Running Time: 12 minutes It’s just your typical short film about a guy who can’t commit to his girlfriend…And accidentally impregnates his bath tub.

ZERO Director: Christopher Kezelos Country: Australia Year: 2009 Running Time: 13 minutes In a world that judges people by their number, Zero faces constant prejudice and persecution. He walks a lonely path until a chance encounter changes his life forever: he meets a female zero. Together they prove that through determination, courage, and love, nothing can be truly something.

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ABOUT EMP|SFM Experience Music Project|Science Fiction Museum is a non-profit organization dedicated to the exploration of creativity and innovation in music, science fiction and popular culture. EMP|SFM combines interpretative, interactive exhibitions with state-of-the-art technologies, and educational programming to offer visitors of all ages a first-hand, multi-dimensional experience of the creative and artistic process.

Seattle Genre Film Festival Films & Schedule Announced

Seattle, September 14th, 2010 - The Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival (MIFFF), a three day international showcase of action, animation, fantasy, horror, and science fiction cinema, is pleased to announce its second year film lineup and schedule for September 17th-19th, 2010 at the SIFF Cinema at McCaw Hall in Seattle, Washington USA.

MIFFF's second year will debut 4 feature films and over 40 short films to cinema fans across the Pacific Northwest. Descriptions and synopsis's of all the films can be accessed at the MIFFF website. MIFFF's feature films which are nearly all northwest premiere's include facing a reckoning in "Blood River", award winning festival favorite Mørke Sjeler (Dark Souls)", you are not prepared for the 18+ only Srpski Film (A Serbian Film) , & a darkly romantic ghost story "The Presence".
http://www.mifff.org

Tickets are available in advance online. Tickets will also be available at the theater each day of the festival. The venue is the SIFF Cinema, 321 Mercer St., at McCaw Hall on the campus of Seattle Center in Seattle. Complete box office can be found here:
http://www.siff.net/cinema/seriesDetail.aspx?FID=209

The schedule for films for 2010 is now available here. Below the link is a list of films screening at this years event.
http://www.mifff.org/schedule2010.html

FEATURE FILMS LIST

Blood River
USA - Director Adam Mason - 104 min
A newlywed couple are pushed to the limit during a chance encounter with a mysterious drifter in a deserted ghost town.

Mørke Sjeler (Dark Souls)
Norway, France - Directors César Ducasse, Mathieu Peteul - 97 min
A revengeful father embarks on a dark thrill ride of lost memories, conspiracy and zombie-like symptoms. Finding the mysterious darkness within is the source of the bizarre world he has uncovered.

The Presence
USA - Director Tom Provost - 88 min
A woman travels to an isolated cabin where she finds herself stalked by an apparition who has come to inhabit her space as his own.

Srpski Film (A Serbian Film)
Serbia - Director Srđan Spasojević - 104 min
An aging adult movie star agrees to participate in an "art film" in order to make a clean break from the business, only to discover that he has been drafted into making a pedophilia and necrophilia themed snuff film.

SHORT FILMS LIST

A Complex Villainelle
USA Directors: Nathan Billington, Bart Ovaitt, Ryan Porter, Rebecca Forth - 8 min
The Penguin is looking for love and is introduced to a lovely nanny, Mary Poppins, who prefers travel by umbrella.

The Abaddon File
UK Director: Lorne Guy - 9 min
A cold war experiment into psychic spying turns out to be a dangerous game. The dead are not always the friends of the living.

Alice Jacobs is Dead
USA Director: Alex Horwitz - 22 min
A scientist races to find the cure to a horrific virus before it turns his wife into something monstrous.

Babylon 2084
Germany - Director: Christian Schleisiek - 30 min
In the year 2084 the world has sunken into the sea. The rest of mankind lives in two towers which underlie a self-destructing constraint to grow higher and higher.

Billy Baxter and The Mystery of Dr. Amazo
USA - Director Patrick Flaherty - 13 min
A young boy opens a new dimension of adventure when some comic book toys send him on an amazing trip of wonder.

Clemency
USA - Director Joseph Albanese - 19 min
A reporter confronts a sadistic killer who takes her on a terrifying thrill ride she will never forget.

Cockpit: The Rule of Engagement
USA - Director Jesse Griffith - 12 min
In 2103, one rule in fighter combat keeps a mind controlling alien raceaway from Earth's doorstep.

ConLang
USA - Director Marta Masferrer - 15 min
Conlang is a unique comedy about secret crushes, extreme linguistics and the language of love.

The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Hamburger
USA - Director Bill Plympton - 6 min
A children's fable about the power of advertising, the meaning of life and ultimately the test of a mother's love.

DemiUrge Emesis
USA - Director Aurelio Voltaire - 3 min
A mummified cat is tormented by the skeletons of past meals. Directed and animated by MTV and Sy Fy Channel veteran Aurelio Voltaire and narrated by Danny Elfman.

Dracula's Daughter vs The Space Brains
USA - Directors Frank Ippolito, Ezekiel Zabrowski - 5 min
Marketa, a vampire, must find untainted human blood to save her sister from the menace of the space brains.

Ducked and Covered: A Survival Guide to the Post Apocalypse
Australia - Director Nathaniel Lindsay - 9 min
An animated government/science style public service film, circa 1981, for surviving life in Australia after Nuclear War.

Elder Sign
Canada - Director Joseph Nanni - 3 min
If you suffer from an overwhelming sense of dread brought on by the realization of your own insignificance in the universe, then you need Elder Sign.

The Familiar
Canada - Director Kody Zimmermann - 22 min
Sam Matheson has accepted a very odd job: be the personal caretaker of an immortal, amoral, bloodsucking vampire.

Father and Sister
USA - Director Soyeon Kim - 5 min
A chance occurrence leads to a workplace temptation.

Flat Love
Spain - Director Andres Sanz - 15 min
A man, convinced that the world is actually flat, falls in love with a two-dimensional woman at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Flowers for Norma
USA - Director Juan Pablo Reinoso - 11 min
A young man strolls the streets of New York City to meet the love of his life, only to find that love is not all he expected it to be.

The Hatter's Apprentice
USA - Director Derek Meyer - 17 min
The Hatter's Apprentice is a Victorian-era thriller about a young apprentice hat maker who, driven by his affection for a local flower peddler, creates an exquisite hat, despite his master's warnings.

Hollow Girl
Ireland - Director Dave McCabe - 12 min
When young Katie wanders into a strange field and takes something that doesn't belong to her, she discovers that the fairies in her storybooks were lies and that there's a good reason why farmers leave the fey folk well enough alone.

Journey Quest
USA - Director Matt Vancil - 45 min
Following a group of dysfunctional adventurers on a quest to discover and destroy the mythical Sword of Fighting.

Kidnap
USA - Director Sijia Luo - 4 min
A little chicken who is late to school, and her excuse is being kidnapped on the way to school.

The Lift
USA - Director Robert Kohr - 6 min
An elevator interaction goes wrong, prompting a young woman to learn about being insensitive and to never make the same mistake again.

Love Does Grow on Trees
UK - Director Bevan Walsh - 10 min
A coming of age comedy about a teenage boy whose life is thrown into chaos when he discovers porn magazines, girls and the embarrassment that goes with both.

The Macabre World of Lavender Williams
USA - Director Nicolas Delgado - 26 min
Eight year-old Lavender Williams, who recently lost her mother to cancer, sets off on an epic journey to find her Dad, whom she's never met.

Manual Practico del Amigo Imaginario
Spain - Director Ciro Altabas - 19 min
At 27, Fernando must choose between finding love and losing Captain Kiloton, his imaginary friend.

The Necronomicon
Canada - Director Joseph Nanni - 2 min
Do you want to be a nicer person and are looking for inspiration to do good things? Well keep looking. But if you're into opening up terrifying vistas of reality then the Esoteric Order of the Old Ones and Cthulhu Cultists want to help.

No Escape
Germany - Director Till Martinsen - 8 min
Three employees find themselves in the men's room during a bank robbery. None of them fully comprehends what is happening outside in the bank's teller area and each of them is overwhelmed by the situation.

Noirville
UK - Director Andrew Marsh - 13 min
Lucy, Noirville's only inhabitant, takes a mysterious journey through the night in a hope to cure her loneliness in this darkly surreal tale.

One Small Step
Australia - Director Damien Slevin - 5 min
On July 24th 1969 man finally reached the Moon as 600 million people watched. They were not the only ones.

Porque Hay Cosas Que Nunca Se Olvidan
Argentina - Lucas M. Figueroa - 12 min
Four friends plays soccer on the street. Suddenly the ball falls inside "evil grandma's" house. Thy probably won't play with this ball again, but the revenge will be terrible.

Red Revenge
Canada - Director Denny Dias - 6 min
With life already crashing, urban cowboy Billy Bruce loses the only thing he ever loved - a Red 1984 Camaro - to a crazed car enthusiast. Now the one thing he can finally steer is revenge, and you better bet it's gonna get red! Never mess with a man's car!

Rise of The Living Corpse
Canada - Director Christopher Walsh - 1 min
Rotting flesh breaks soil and the fun begins.

The Scottish Ninjas
USA - Director Beau Obremski - 21 min
Three kilted warriors, freshly settled in America, make their public debut battling the primate delusional, gun wielding maniac known as 'The Executioner. In the process, they catch the attention from the police, media, and a mysterious evil force working behind the scenes.

Slap Back Jack 'High Five Master'
USA - Director Mark Newell - 12 min
Having some trouble with high-fives and hand slaps? There's someone who can help, he's Slap Back Jack.

ST: Phoenix
USA - Director Leo Roberts - 30 min
After a major attack on the crew's starship, the crew attempts to rescue an away team on a remote planet.

Street Angel
Australia - Director Lucas Testro - 17 min
When Doctor Pangea, 'the world's deadliest geologist', escapes from prison with plans to destroy earth as we know it, Angel City turns to its unlikely champion, 14 year old homeless girl and kung-fu skateboarding superhero - Street Angel!

SuperBattle (Episode 1)
USA - Director Ethan Marak - 8 min
When a notorious super-villain escapes from his subterranean prison, the enigmatic robot warden summons his most powerful henchman to deliver justice. The first completed episode of an ongoing stop-motion animated series.

The 3rd Letter
USA - Director Grzegorz Jonkajtys - 17 min
Faced with the imminent loss of his crucial health insurance, Brief (Rodrigo Lopresti) unwittingly unravels a dark truth behind his insurance which subsequently pushes him to unspeakable lengths in an attempt for survival.

Thy Kill Be Done
USA - Directors Greg Hanson, Casey Regan - 16 min
When the Monsignor priest of a small church is killed by a gang of no-good hoodlums and their leader, the nuns in the church's clergy must take revenge. But these are no ordinary nuns.

Toothnapped
USA - Director George Dondero - 5 min
Pull the tooth. Discover the truth.

Two Men, Two Cows, Two Guns
Canada - Director Pardis Parker - 5 min
An unexpected visitor with odd news and an odder story interrupts a family's quiet day at the farmhouse, sending it spiraling into a chaotic whirlwind of unfortunate misunderstandings.

ABOUT MIFFF
The second annual Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival runs September 17th through 19th, 2010. Tickets are available online as well as in designated ticket venues. For more information on the Festival, including descriptions of films and events, please visit www.mifff.org. Members of the press can find and download more information, including press kits, photos, press releases, and full film descriptions in the press section of the website.

2011 Call for Entries for the Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival

Science fiction and fantasy cinema filmmakers can now submit their films for the Experience Music Project|Science Fiction Museum’s (EMP|SFM) 2011 Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival (SFFSFF). The 6th annual festival will screen 20 films at the Seattle Cinerama in the winter of 2011. EMP|SFM, in partnership with the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), is encouraging original and creative science fiction film submissions 15 minutes or shorter in length for the festival. The festival will accept original entries created no earlier than January 2006. The final submission deadline is September 15. The last two years of the festival have shown films to a capacity house of over 800 people. Submission guidelines and other information can be found here.