The Festival of Fantastic Films is an annual non-profit celebration of cinema fantastique, held annually in central Manchester, England. It was created by Tony Edwards and the late Harry Nadler (both members of the Delta Film Group, an amateur film-making society active in the 1960s and both past organisers of an Eastercon), together with their fellow enthusiast Gil Lane-Young.
Past guests have included: the producer Tony Tenser; the producer/director Roger Corman; directors Robert Fuest, Val Guest, Robin Hardy, Jorge Grau; actors Andrew Keir, Robin Askwith, David Warbeck, Ken Foree, David Hess, Norman Rossington; actresses Caroline Munro, Barbara Shelley, Anne Robinson, Catriona MacColl, Ingrid Pitt.
Two prizes are presented each year: for the best amateur film screened (see entry for the Delta Film Award) and the best independent entry.
The 19th Festival of Fantastic Films was held on 17–19 October 2008 with Jess Conrad and Lamberto Bava among the guests appearing.
The 20th Festival was held on the 16–18 October 2009 with Emily Booth, John Carson, Jenny Hanley, John Hough, Ian McCulloch, Derren Nesbitt and Peter Sasdy appearing. The winner of the best Independent Feature film at the 20th International Festival was Kirk, a community project film by the Strathendrick Film Society, directed by Michael Ferns and produced by Joan Macpherson.
The Festival continues to be held every year; the latest event in the series is planned for 20–22 October 2023 in Manchester.
Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some 1,000 feet (300 m) above sea level. It lies close to Cheshire to the west and Staffordshire to the south, on the edge of the Peak District National Park. In 1974, the municipal borough merged with other nearby boroughs, including Glossop, to form the local government district and borough of High Peak.
Adam Offord Buxton is an English actor, comedian, podcaster and writer. With the filmmaker Joe Cornish, he is part of the comedy duo Adam and Joe. They presented the Channel 4 television series The Adam and Joe Show (1996–2001) and the BBC Radio 6 Music series Adam and Joe.
The National Science and Media Museum, located in Bradford, West Yorkshire, is part of the national Science Museum Group in the UK. The museum has seven floors of galleries with permanent exhibitions focusing on photography, television, animation, videogaming, the Internet and the scientific principles behind light and colour. It also hosts temporary exhibitions and maintains a collection of 3.5 million pieces in its research facility.
The International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival was founded in 1994 by Ian Smith and his son Neil and is held every summer in England. The two- or three-week Festival of Gilbert and Sullivan opera performances and fringe events attracts thousands of visitors, including performers, supporters, and G&S enthusiasts from around the world. The Festival was held in Buxton, Derbyshire, from 1994 to 2013, and from 2014 to 2022, it was held in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, usually with a week in Buxton preceding the main part of the Festival. The entire Festival is set to return to Buxton in 2023.
Amateur theatre, also known as amateur dramatics, is theatre performed by amateur actors and singers. Amateur theatre groups may stage plays, revues, musicals, light opera, pantomime or variety shows, and do so for the social activity as well as for aesthetic values. Productions may take place in venues ranging from the open air, community centres, or schools to independent or major professional theatres.
Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers’ creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the careers of screenwriters, who historically have been underrepresented within the film industry.
The Buxton Festival is an annual summer festival of opera, music and a literary series, held in Buxton, Derbyshire, England since its beginnings in July 1979. The 2020 festival would have run but was cancelled due to the Covid-19 crisis. The 2023 Buxton International Festival will run 6–23 July.
Helen Keen is an English alternative comedian and writer born in Yorkshire, now living in London. She suffered with SM as a child but overcame this before becoming a comedian.
The Delta Film Award was presented annually to the best amateur film screened at the Festival of Fantastic Films in Manchester, England from 1990. The awards relaunched for the 2022 festival as a new short film competition, including a best-in-festival award.
Abertoir: The International Horror Festival of Wales is an annual horror and horror film festival held in the Aberystwyth Arts Centre in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales.
The Woodstock Film Festival is an American film festival that was launched in 2000 by filmmakers Meira Blaustein and Laurent Rejto with the goal to bring high quality independent film to the Hudson Valley region. The festival takes place each fall in the towns of Woodstock, Rosendale, Saugerties and Kingston, in the height of fall foliage.
The National Film Festival for Talented Youth, held annually in Seattle, Washington, showcases work by filmmakers 24 and under from across the U.S. and the world. Founded in 2007, it has since become the most influential youth-oriented film festival in North America, featuring early work by several notable filmmakers, including Gigi Saul Guerrero, Ben Proudfoot, and Rayka Zehtabchi. The festival includes film screenings, filmmaking workshops and panels, concerts by youth bands, and a gala opening night.
Michael Ferns is a Scottish film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his debut feature film Kirk about the life of Reverend Robert Kirk of Aberfoyle. The film won the 'Best Independent Feature' at the Festival of Fantastic Films and also earned Ferns the 'Best Director' award at the 2010 British Academy Scotland New Talent Awards.
The Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival (SEFFF), is an annual film festival held in Strasbourg, France, that focus on fantasy, science fiction and horror films. The festival takes place annually in September since 2008, it derives from the Spectre Film Festival that was created in 2005 by the organization Les Films du Spectre.
The Lusca Fantastic Film Fest is an annual film festival held in Puerto Rico. It is the first and only international fantastic film festival in the Caribbean devoted to sci-fi, thriller, fantasy, dark humor, bizarre, horror, anime, adventure, virtual reality and animation in short and feature films. The event is held in San Juan, Puerto Rico metropolitan area, and other venues throughout the island of Puerto Rico. It runs for eight days during two weeks during October and November. Its main objective is to promote cinematographic art by presenting high-quality short and feature films.
The Rhode Island International Horror Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Providence, Rhode Island, which features a wide variety of horror, sci-fi, and thriller films, as well as documentaries, from the United States and around the world. Founded in 2000, as one of several "festival sidebars" of the Rhode Island International Film Festival, it is the largest and longest-running horror film festival in New England.
The Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival is a film festival with a focus on independent films held annually at L.A. Live / Staples Center and additional cinemas across Hollywood, California. HRIFF guests have included Pierce Brosnan, Hilary Duff, Harry Dean Stanton, Martin Landau, Joe Mantegna, Josh Brener, Frances Fisher and Uwe Boll and many other Hollywood film celebrities.
Nathan Cassidy is a British comedian and podcaster. In 2021, he was nominated for an Off West End Stage Award for his show 'Bumblebee' along with nominations for Best Comedy Show at the Greater Manchester Fringe and Buxton Fringe. 'Bumblebee' was released as an Amazon Prime Special in 2022. In 2022 he was nominated for Best Standup at the Buxton Fringe for his show 'Hot Tub God' and this show along with his show 'Observational' were awarded with the Best Standup Award at the Brighton Fringe 2022. For his 2023 shows 'Amnesia' and 'Fifty' he was awarded with the Best Standup Award at the Brighton Fringe 2023. He was previously nominated for Best Show at the Leicester Comedy Festival 2020 for his show 'Observational'. This show was widely reported in the press as the only live show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2020. The show was given four stars by The Times which reviewed it as 'The best show at the Fringe. A classic, structured, rollercoaster Fringe hour...star-in-waiting...he is untouchable.' Previously he was nominated for a Malcolm Hardee Award in 2012, won best solo comedy show on the Buxton Fringe in 2014, and was nominated for the same award in 2015, 2016, 2017 2019, and 2021. He has also won the Sir Michael Caine Award for new writing in theatre. He also presents the podcast Psycomedy about the Psychology of stand-up comedy and the daily comedy/piano podcast Daily Notes.
Foxtrot is a 2017 internationally co-produced drama film written and directed by Samuel Maoz. It stars Lior Ashkenazi and Sarah Adler as a couple who are informed that their son, an IDF soldier, was killed in action.
Marina Zenovich is an American filmmaker known for her biographical documentaries. Her films include LANCE, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic and Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which won two Emmy awards.