Tuesday 11 July 2000

Phoenix Film Festival 2018



The Phoenix Film Festival is the premier festival from the Phoenix Film Foundation and the largest film festival within the city of Phoenix, now in its 18th year.

Things are bigger this year with more dates, more films and more screenings. I counted 174 films this year (up from 131 last year). That's 97 features (way up from 53, mostly due to a huge expansion in Showcase Features) and 77 short films (just up from 72).

There's also the Arizona Student Film Festival, screening short films made by local high school students, but films haven't yet been announced for that.

All that's excluding the International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival, which I still think of as a separate event even if it technically hasn't been since 2010. I maintain a separate index page for this year's IHSFFF.

The event runs from 5th to 15th April in 2017, including two weekends, which will be really interesting. Things tend to quieten down after the first weekend with a lot less people attending during the week. With a second weekend, that may well change.

As is now usual, the weekday scheduling includes daytime slots, allowing many to see more films than was previously possible.

There are a few new sets this year. There's a four feature LGBTQ Showcase. There's an eleven film showcase of Music in Movies, which includes a lot of older (well, not that old) films about music or musicians. There's a Women Director Showcase with six features. On the short side of things, there's an extra documentary set called Docs for Foodies built of two long shorts.

Here are all the films scheduled to screen this year, with titles linking to my reviews and the IMDb pages added for reference. Features are listed in alphabetical order per set. Shorts are listed in the order they're screening per set. Films screened as part of the International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival are covered on a separate page.

Rating System
1 - Abysmal | 2 - Bad | 3 - Poor | 4 - OK | 5 - Good | 6 - Excellent | 7 - Classic

Arizona Feature Films
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Coalesce: A City Composed 2017 Joshua J. Provost IMDb
The Dead King 2017 5 5 Austin Harmon IMDb
Mister Sadpants 2018 Wade Shields IMDb

Competition Feature Films
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Bernard and Huey 2017 Dan Mirvish IMDb
The Best People 2017 5 - Dan Levy Dagerman IMDb
DriverX 2017 6 - Henry Barrial IMDb
Forever B 2017 Sky Borgman IMDb
Hunting Lands 2018 5 - Zack Wilcox IMDb
The Idea of Manhood 2018 4 5 Serge Kushnier IMDb
Locating Silver Lake 2017 Eric Bilitch IMDb
Modern American Artists 2017 Douglas Caplan IMDb
More Than Enough 2017 5 - Anne-Marie Hess IMDb
Rich Kids 2017 Laura Somers IMDb
Sinatra in Palm Springs 2018 Leo Zahn IMDb
Up to Snuff 2018 Mark Maxey IMDb

LGBTQ Showcase
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Alaska is a Drag 2017 Shaz Bennett IMDb
A Place to Be 2017 Tadeo Garcia IMDb
Snapshots 2018 Melanie Mayron IMDb
Susanne Bartsch: On Top 2017 Anthony Caronna & Alexander Smith IMDb

Music in Movies Showcase
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
La Bamba 1987 Luis Valdez IMDb
The Buddy Holly Story 1978 Steve Rash IMDb
Celia: The Queen 2008 Joe Cardona & Mario de Varona IMDb
Empire Records 1995 Allan Moyle IMDb
The Godfathers of Hardcore 2017 Ian McFarland IMDb
The Mad Hannans Martin Shore n/a
The Maestro 2018 Adam Cushman IMDb
Moulin Rouge! 2001 Baz Lurhmann IMDb
School of Rock 2003 Richard Linklater IMDb
Talk to Me 2007 Kasi Lemmons IMDb
That Thing You Do! 1996 Tom Hanks IMDb

Recent Retro
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
The Bling Ring 2013 Sofia Coppola IMDb
The End of the Tour 2015 James Ponsoldt IMDb
Free Fire 2016 6 6 Ben Wheatley IMDb
Ginger & Rosa 2012 Sally Potter IMDb
Laggies 2014 Lynn Shelton IMDb
The Lovers 2017 Azazel Jacobs IMDb

Showcase Feature Films
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
The 12th Man 2017 Harald Zwart IMDb
Alex & The List 2016 Harris Goldberg IMDb
Beirut 2018 Brad Anderson IMDb
Black Cop 2017 Cory Bowles IMDb
Blindspotting 2018 Carlos López Estrada IMDb
Breath 2017 Simon Baker IMDb
Bus Call: Life on Tour n/a
Crime + Punishment 2018 Stephen Maing IMDb
Eating Animals 2017 Natalie Portman IMDb
Eighth Grade 2018 Bob Burnham IMDb
Final Portrait 2017 Stanley Tucci IMDb
First Reformed 2017 Paul Schrader IMDb
Godard Mon Amour 2017 Michel Hazanavicius IMDb
The Guilty 2018 5 5 Gustav Möller IMDb
Gutland 2017 Govinda Van Maele IMDb
Izzy Gets the Fuck Across Town 2017 Christian Papierniak IMDb
Jurassic Park 1993 Steven Spielberg IMDb
A Kid Like Jake 2018 Silas Howard IMDb
The Last Movie Star 2017 6 - Adam Rifkin IMDb
Lean on Pete 2017 Andrew Haigh IMDb
Leave No Trace 2018 Debra Granik IMDb
The Long Dumb Road 2018 Hannah Fidell IMDb
Measure of a Man 2018 Jim Loach IMDb
Never Goin’ Back 2018 Augustine Frizzell IMDb
On Borrowed Time 2018 5 5 Yasir Al-Yasiri IMDb
On Chesil Beach 2017 Dominic Cooke IMDb
Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much 2017 5 - C. J. Wallis IMDb
Pick of the Litter 2018 Don Hardy Jr. & Dana Nachman IMDb
A Prayer Before Dawn 2017 Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire IMDb
RBG 2018 Julie Cohen & Betsy West IMDb
The Road Forward 2017 Marie Clements IMDb
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood 2017 Matt Tymauer IMDb
Searching 2018 Aneesh Chaganty IMDb
A Shot in the Dark 2017 Chris Suchorsky IMDb
Space Jam 1996 Joe Pytka IMDb
Sweet Country 2017 Warwick Thornton IMDb
A Swingers Weekend 2017 Jon E. Cohen IMDb
Tully 2018 Jason Reitman IMDb
Under the Tree 2017 5 5 Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson IMDb
The War in Between 2017 Riccardo Ferraris IMDb
Who We are Now 2017 Matthew Newton IMDb
Won’t You Be My Neighbor 2018 Morgan Neville IMDb
You Racist, Sexist Bigot Pita Juarez n/a
Zoo 2017 4 - Colin McIvor IMDb

Unified by Film Feature Films
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Palacios 2017 Robert T. Herrera IMDb
I Stand: The Guardians of the Water 2017 Kyle Kauwika Harris IMDb
Hot Summer Nights 2017 Elijah Bynum IMDb

Women Director Showcase
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
20 Weeks 2017 Leena Pendharkar IMDb
Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat 2017 Sara Driver IMDb
Dark River 2017 Clio Barnard IMDb
Far from the Tree 2017 Rachel Dretzin IMDb
Invisible Hands 2017 Shraysi Tandon IMDb
Porcupine Lake 2017 4 4 Ingrid Veninger IMDb

World Cinema Feature Films
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
All the Wild Horses 2017 5 - Ivo Marloh IMDb
Becoming Who I Was 2017 Moon Chang-Yong & Jeon Jin IMDb
The Best of All Worlds 2017 Adrian Goiginger IMDb
Julia Blue 2018 Roxy Toporowych IMDb
Streaker 2017 Peter Luisi IMDb
A Sublime Life 2018 Luis Diogo IMDb
Touched 2017 6 - Karl R. Hearne IMDb
Wonderlus 2018 Johan Cronje IMDb

African American Shorts
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Black Canvas 2017 Steven Bennett IMDb
The Truth of Us 2015 Destinee Stewart IMDb
Baby Steps 2018 Eric Dyson IMDb
Bodega! 2017 Donna Augustin & Talibah Lateefah Newman IMDb
Intercept 2017 Jackie J. Stone IMDb
Jitters 2018 Otoja Abit IMDb

Animated Shorts
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Revelation: The City of Haze 2017 Mao Qichao IMDb
E-Delivery Yung Gul Cho n/a
Two Balloons 2017 Mark C. Smith IMDb
The Big Shot Zhang Xiao Ming n/a
Fishy Joe Sulsenti n/a
Torture by Sound Gwyneth Christoffel n/a
Nora Mo Davoudian n/a
The Driver is Red 2017 Randall Christopher IMDb

Arizona Shorts A
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
With Ben Again 2017 Frank Di Bugnara IMDb
Adam’s Mask Jeff Fields n/a
Instinct Killian Davies n/a
From the Dark Matt Jones n/a
Erebus 2017 Sheila Patterson IMDb
Check, Please! 2017 Victor Vargas IMDb
Retribution 2017 Christopher Claxton IMDb
Natural Promotion 2017 Sean Oliver IMDb

Arizona Shorts B
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Helsing, Inc. 5 - David A. Miller n/a
Our Desert Farms 5 - Anna Augustowska n/a
The Secret Lives of Teachers 2017 6 - Steve Anderson IMDb
Glass 2017 5 - Margaret Adams IMDb
Take a Stand 2017 5 - Robert Felix IMDb
Blue Goodbye 2016 5 - Matt Decker IMDb
All These Little Things 2018 5 - Josh Kasselman IMDb

College Shorts
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Night Call 2017 Amanda Renee Knox IMDb
Stray 2017 Drew Boylan IMDb
Gloria Talks Funny 2017 Kendall Goldberg IMDb
(Out)caste 2017 Shilpi Shikha Agrawal IMDb
Look at Me 2016 Andres Gil IMDb

Docs for Foodies
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Kakehashi: A Portrait of Chef Nobuo Fukuda 2017 Andrew Gooi IMDb
The Last Blintz 2016 Dori Bernstein IMDb

Documentary Shorts
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Last Dance at Johnson’s Barn 2018 Clay Haskell IMDb
Still Sophie 2016 Caroline Knight IMDb
Back to Camp 2017 Ashley Mosher IMDb
$30 to Antarctica 2017 Joey Chu IMDb
A Name That I Admire Sam Smartt n/a
Mott Haven Kyle Morrison n/a

Latino American Shorts
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
One More Kiss 2017 Simon Brand IMDb
Instinct 2017 Maria Alice Arida IMDb
Desde el pincipio 2017 Miguel J. Soliman IMDb
Carol 2018 Rogelio Almeida IMDb
Towards the Sun 2017 Monica Santis IMDb
Sell Your Body 2017 Jaanelle Yee IMDb
Valentina 2017 Mary Angelica Molina IMDb

Live Action Shorts A
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Graham’s Mate 2017 Andy Hill IMDb
Laboratory Conditions 2017 Jocelyn Stamat IMDb
Juventud 2017 Austin Everett IMDb
Kathmandude 2017 Jacob Kirby IMDb
Deadbeat 2017 Jesse R. Tendler IMDb
The Drive 2017 Corinne Kassor IMDb
The Scorpion’s Tale 2017 Jhosimar Vasquez IMDb

Live Action Shorts B
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
This is a Short We’re Submitting to Film Festivals Liz Manashil n/a
The Dinner Scene 2017 Nicholas Thurkettle IMDb
Anything Helps 2017 Kevin Broggie IMDb
Killed in Action 2017 Christine Weatherup IMDb
Rekindled 2017 Erin Brown Thomas IMDb
Control 2017 Kimmy Gatewood IMDb
Interrogation 2016 Yuecheng Liu IMDb
The Lightkeeper 2018 Zach Bandler IMDb

Medium Length Documentaries
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Daddy John Gallen & Alex Faoro n/a
My Indiana Muse 2018 Ric & Jen Serena IMDb

Native American Shorts
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Five Dollars 2017 Ty Coughenour IMDb
Heel’D 2017 Kyle Kauwika Harris IMDb
The Entrada Mark Lewis n/a
K’ina Kil: The Slaver’s Son 2014 Jack Kohler IMDb
Missing Indigenous LaRonn Katchia n/a

World Cinema Shorts
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Don’t Be Afraid 2017 Lakshmi Devy IMDb
WoodMan 2017 Mike Jackson IMDb
Say Goodbye 2017 Oliver Goodrum IMDb
Stealing Silver 2017 Mark Lobatto IMDb
The Patron 2017 Lionel Auguste IMDb
To Wendy Who Kicked Me When I Said Love You 2017 Dan Castella IMDb

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