Tuesday 11 July 2000

Phoenix Film Festival 2013

The Phoenix Film Festival is the premier festival from the Phoenix Film Foundation and the largest film festival within the city of Phoenix. This was its 13th year, which saw more than a hundred films screened at the Harkins Scottsdale 101 from 4th to 11th April.

While I've religiously followed its sister event, the International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival, since 2007, I've never been able to see much of the Phoenix Film Festival proper. I have seen enough to realise that this year's competition features were incredibly strong. That was obvious to me and it was backed up by the comments of other festival goers. The judges did not have an easy time of it this year.

While it always surprises me that the prominence of special guests seems to be lower than other large film festivals in Arizona, the Phoenix Film Festival has such a focus on indepedent film that almost every screening was accompanied by a Q&A from at least one of the filmmakers, often many of them. I should emphasise that this isn't just for local Arizona film, which is especially well represented, but for films from much further afield too, including many from outside the US. This year's special guests were D B Sweeney, Melora Walters and Natalie Imbruglia.

Here are all the films that screened this year, with titles linking to my reviews and the IMDb pages added for reference. 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

Competition Feature Films
Down and Dangerous 2013 6 6 Zak Forsman IMDb
Favor 2013 6 6 Paul Osborne IMDb
Lonely Boy 2013 5 6 Dale Fabrigar IMDb
Los Wild Ones 2013 5 5 Elise Salomon IMDb
Music City USA 2012 3 4 Chris McDaniel IMDb
Putzel 2012 6 6 Jason Chaet IMDb
The Retrieval 2013 6 7 Chris Eska IMDb
The Story of Luke 2012 5 6 Alonso Mayo IMDb
Uprising 2012 5 5 Fredrik Stanton IMDb
Waking 2013 6 6 Ben Shelton IMDb

World Cinema Feature Films
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Inch'Allah 2012 Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette IMDb
In the Shadow 2012 David Ondricek IMDb
Love in the Grave 2012 David Vondrácek IMDb
Loveless Zoritsa 2012 5 6 Radoslav Pavkovic & Christina Hadjicharalambous IMDb
Ninah's Dowry 2012 6 6 Victor Viyuoh IMDb
Occupy: The Movie 2013 Corey Ogilvie IMDb
Sanctuary 2012 Norah McGettigan IMDb
Years Later 2011 Laura Gárdos Velo IMDb

Showcase Feature Films
.357: Six Bullets for Revenge 2013 Brian Skiba IMDb
Babe 1995 Chris Noonan IMDb
Da Vinci's Demons 2013 David S Goyer IMDb
Eating Alabama 2012 Andrew Beck Grace IMDb
Fight Like a Girl 2013 Jill Morley IMDb
He's Way More Famous Than You 2013 4 4 Michael Urie IMDb
It's a Disaster 2012 6 6 Todd Berger IMDb
Kon-Tiki 2012 6 6 Joachim Rønning & Espen Sandberg IMDb
Misa's Fugue 2012 Sean D Gaston IMDb
Pit Stop 2013 Yen Tan IMDb
Renoir 2012 Gilles Bourdos IMDb
Still Mine 2012 6 6 Michael McGowan IMDb
Stuck in Love 2012 5 5 Josh Boone IMDb
The Brass Teapot 2012 4 5 Ramaa Mosley IMDb
The East 2013 5 5 Zal Batmanglij IMDb
The Kings of Summer 2013 Jordan Vogt-Roberts IMDb
The Spectacular Now 2013 James Ponsoldt IMDb
Underdogs 2013 Doug Dearth IMDb
Unfinished Song 2012 6 7 Paul Andrew Williams IMDb
Wish You Were Here 2012 5 5 Kieran Darcy-Smith IMDb

Animated Shorts
Buy Buy Baby 2012 Gervais Merryweather IMDb
Fortuity Mist 2012 David Rogers IMDb
Head Over Heels 2012 5 5 Timothy Reckart IMDb
Here to Fall 2012 Kris Kelly IMDb
Make a Wish 2012 Hee Jin Kim IMDb
The Nebbish 2012 Barbara Mones IMDb
Pound for Pound 2012 Justin Pixler IMDb
Revenge of the Fly 2012 Tony White IMDb
Shelved 2012 James Cunningham IMDb
Stuper Powers: Rise of the Chipmunk King Greg Bro n/a
SuperFuzz 2013 6 6 David Towles-Moore IMDb
Worlds Apart 2011 Michael Zachary Huber IMDb

Arizona Shorts
Interceptor 2012 4 5 Angel Ruiz n/a
Lake Effect 2012 4 4 Michael Chadwick IMDb
Mission Control 2013 5 5 Brandon Nazari IMDb
The Muse 2012 4 4 Brian Kiefling IMDb
Pensil 2012 5 5 Andrew & Elise Gooi IMDb
Say What You Want 2012 4 4 Stephanie Lucas & Josh Kasselman IMDb
Screaming in Silence 2012 5 5 Neil Sparks IMDb
Shift 2012 6 6 Kasim Aslam & Joshua M Lambeth IMDb
Titus 2012 4 4 Robert Garcia & Nicki Legge IMDb
The Violation 2011 6 6 Christopher Bradley IMDb

College Shorts
Brother 2012 Christopher Rickard IMDb
God's Country 2012 Josh Mendoza IMDb
The Hard Day Knights 2012 Alex Italics IMDb
If You're Serious 2012 5 5 Zhi Li IMDb
Passion and Acceptance 2012 Wayne Thomas IMDb
Peace at Home 2012 Avital Epstein IMDb
Tlaloc 2012 Sabrina Doyle IMDb

Documentary Shorts
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Bad Blood 2012 Shane Gabler & J B Schiess IMDb
The Garden Pool 2012 Angus Cann IMDb
Ivan and Arnold: Day Laborers from Both Sides of the Border 2011 Michael McPherson IMDb
Kurdish: Searching for Newroz 2012 Raied Khayoun n/a
LA Aboriginal 2012 Bayou Bennett & Daniel Lir IMDb
Peggy's Story 2012 David Lindblom IMDb
Pulling Teeth 2012 Steve Abruzzese & Jennifer Suwak IMDb

High School Shorts
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Abracadabra! 2012 Catriona Warren IMDb
Alone Together 2012 Ben Kadie IMDb
Look Up 2012 Jake Oleson & Amanda Prager IMDb
Memories 2012 Joseph Procopio IMDb
No Regrets 2012 Alfie Barker IMDb
The Painted Girl 2012 Ben Kadie IMDb
Piece of Cake 2012 Susan & Katherine Procopio IMDb
Rain Dog 2012 6 6 Jordan Wippell IMDb
Recipe for Love 2012 5 5 Gwyneth Christoffel IMDb

Home Grown Shorts
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Another Chance 2012 4 - Barbara Gross IMDb
Cordones 2013 4 4 Bob Marquis IMDb
Dust Jacket 2012 5 5 Kenneth Miller IMDb
Second Chance 2012 4 4 Lee Quarrie IMDb
Spark 2012 4 4 Diane M Dresback IMDb
Split 2012 4 4 Miguel Gonzalez IMDb

IFP Shorts
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
The Duel 2012 5 4 Robert Garcia IMDb
The Face of Innocence 2013 5 5 Robert Garcia IMDb
Love Sucks 2012 4 5 Jim Politano n/a
La Lucha 2012 6 6 Aaron Kes n/a
The Memory Ride 2012 6 6 Travis Mills IMDb
Mission Control 2013 5 5 Brandon Nazari IMDb
Screaming in Silence 2012 5 5 Neil Sparks IMDb
Titus 2012 4 4 Robert Garcia & Nicki Legge IMDb

Live Action Shorts A
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
6 Years, 4 Months & 23 Days 2012 6 6 Gerard Roxburgh IMDb
Amelia 2012 Frank Lucatuorto IMDb
Elegy for a Revolutionary 2012 5 5 Paul Van Zyl IMDb
Lure 2012 Warren Skeels IMDb
New Broken Calculator 2010 Brandon Luck McDuffey IMDb
The Test 2012 Anthony DiBlasi IMDb

Live Action Shorts B
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Counterfeiters 2011 Bryce Hirschberg IMDb
The Farmer's Wife 2012 Francis Lee IMDb
Harry Grows Up 2012 Mark Nickelsburg IMDb
Heads Up 2012 Alex Merkin IMDb
Life on the River 2011 Chris Remerowski IMDb
Menschen 2012 5 5 Sarah Lotfi IMDb

Prime Shorts
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Alone Time 2013 5 5 Rod Blackhurst IMDb
Docket 32357 2012 6 6 Randy Wilkins IMDb
Girl Clown 2012 5 5 Beth Spitalny IMDb
HowardCantour.com 2012 4 4 Shia LaBeouf IMDb
Loveseat 2013 6 6 Matthew Richmond IMDb
Patti and Me, Minus Patti 2012 4 5 Brian McAllister IMDb

World Cinema Shorts
Title Year H D Director(s) IMDb
Bound by Heart 2012 Outi Hartikainen IMDb
Counting Happiness 2012 Venetia Evripiotou IMDb
The Future 2011 Venetia Taylor IMDb
Half Good Killer 2012 Brent Ryan Green IMDb
Hush 2012 Georgia Oakley IMDb
Jacob's Arrow 2012 Marta Borowski IMDb

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