Phoenix Film Festival 2019

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 19th year.

Last year's big expansion amounted to 97 features and 77 short films. This year's comparable, with 91 features and 80 shorts, though oddly one film counts towards both of those numbers. That doesn't count the 17 short films screening in the Arizona Student Film Festival.

And, of course, 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 4th to 14th April in 2017, including two weekends, which makes for a long but enjoyable event. The Phoenix Film Festival competition films screen early over the opening weekend with the usual award ceremony. The week that follows includes encore screenings, more showcase features and warms up to the IHSFFF taking over on the second weekend, which is also the time for Arizona shorts.

As is now usual, the weekday scheduling includes daytime slots, allowing many to see more films than was previously possible. An event pass has never been better value.

There are some minor changes to programming. The competition features expand from ten films to twelve. There's a Cultural Diplomacy block, which includes five features. The Showcase features include a number of classics, not just recent ones but titles going back to Duck Soup and The Invisible Man in the precode era. There are only two sets of Documentary Shorts this year, simply delineated A and B.

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
Eleven Eleven	2018			Chris Redish	IMDb
Killing Margery Keller	2019			Gordon Ian Green	IMDb
Raising Buchanan	2019			Bruce Dellis	IMDb

Competition Feature Films
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Boom	2018			Jordan Albertsen	IMDb
Cruel Hearts	2018			Paul Osborne	IMDb
General Magic	2018			Sarah Kerruish & Matt Maude	IMDb
The Grounds	2019			Peter O'Melia	IMDb
Hudson				Sean D. Cunningham	IMDb
Off the Rails	2018			Damian Fitzsimmons	IMDb
This World Alone	2018			Jordan Noel	IMDb
Vanilla	2019			Will Dennis	IMDb
Volition	2019			Tony Dean Smith	IMDb
The Weight of Water	2018			Michael Brown	IMDb
Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin	2018			Arwen Curry	IMDb
The Wrong Todd	2018			Rob Schulbaum	IMDb

Cultural Diplomacy Feature Films
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Fireflies	2018			Bani Khoshnoudi	IMDb
The Fireflies are Gone	2018			Sébastien Pilote	IMDb
Jan Palach	2018			Robert Sedlácek	IMDb
Rusty Boys	2017			Andy Bausch	IMDb
Secret Ingredient	2017			Gjorce Stavreski	IMDb

LGBTQ Showcase
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Consequences	2018			Darko Štante	IMDb
The Garden Left Behind	2019			Flavio Alves	IMDb
Southern Pride	2018			Malcolm Ingram	IMDb

Showcase Feature Films
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
All Creatures Here Below	2018			Colin Schiffli	IMDb
All is True	2018			Kenneth Branagh	IMDb
An American Tail	1986			Don Bluth	IMDb
Back Fork	2019			Josh Stewart	IMDb
Batkid Begins	2015			Dana Nachman	IMDb
Before Sunset	2004			Richard Linklater	IMDb
Beneath Us	2019			Max Pachman	IMDb
The Biggest Little Farm	2018			John Chester	IMDb
Brian Banks	2018			Tom Shadyac	IMDb
Chronicle	2012			Josh Trank	IMDb
Collisions	2018			Richard Levien	IMDb
Connected: The Joe Polish Story				Nick Nanton	n/a
Cry-Baby	1990	6	7	John Waters	IMDb
The Deer Hunter	1978	6	6	Michael Cimino	IMDb
Disneynature's Penguins	2019			Alastair Fothergill & Jeff Wilson	IMDb
Duck Soup	1933	6	5	Leo McCarey	IMDb
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile	2019			Joe Berlinger	IMDb
Fantastic Mr. Fox	2009			Wes Anderson	IMDb
The Farewell	2019			Lulu Wang	IMDb
Favor	2013	6	6	Paul Osborne	IMDb
The French Connection	1971	6	6	William Friedkin	IMDb
Geek, and You Shall Find				Brad Faye	n/a
Hail Satan?	2019			Penny Lane	IMDb
Heart, Baby!	2017			Angela Shelton	IMDb
In the Heat of the Night	1967	7	7	Norman Jewison	IMDb
An Innocent Kiss	2019			Jason Shirley	IMDb
The Invisible Man	1933	7	7	James Whale	IMDb
Life without Basketball	2018			Tim O'Donnell & Jon Mercer	IMDb
Little Woods	2018			Nia DaCosta	IMDb
Live from the Astroturf, Alice Cooper	2019			Steven Gaddis	IMDb
Loro	2018			Paolo Sorrentino	IMDb
Lost Holiday	2019			Michael Kerry & Thomas Matthews	IMDb
Midnight Cowboy	1969	6	6	John Schlesinger	IMDb
Midnight Traveler	2019			Hassan Fazili	IMDb
Mike Wallace is Here	2019			Avi Belkin	IMDb
Mountain Rest	2018			Alex O. Eaton	IMDb
Ode to Joy	2019			Jason Winer	IMDb
Ophelia	2018			Claire McCarthy	IMDb
Original Sin	2018			Jean Lee	IMDb
The Proposal	2018			Jill Magid	IMDb
Prosecuting Evil	2018			Barry Avrich	IMDb
Red Joan	2018			Trevor Nunn	IMDb
Speed of Life				Liz Manashil	IMDb
Spell	2018			Brendan Walter	IMDb
Sprinter	2018			Storm Saulter	IMDb
Stand by Me	1986	6	7	Rob Reiner	IMDb
Summer Night	2019			Joseph Cross	IMDb
Surprise Me!	2017			Nancy Goodman	IMDb
Teen Spirit	2018			Max Minghella	IMDb
Tell It to the Bees	2018			Annabel Jankel	IMDb
Them That Follow	2019			Britt Poulton & Dan Madison Savage	IMDb
The Tomorrow Man	2019			Noble Jones	IMDb
Vita & Virginia	2018			Chanya Button	IMDb
While I Breathe, I Hope	2018			Emily L. Harrold	IMDb
The White Crow	2018			Ralph Fiennes	IMDb
Wild Rose	2018			Tom Harper	IMDb
Wildland	2019			Jeanette Nordahl	IMDb

Unified by Film Feature Films
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
The Charlie Movie	2017			Bobby Huntley	IMDb
Inner City Rats				Sam Garcia Southern	IMDb

World Cinema Feature Films
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Curtiz	2018			Tamas Yvan Topolanszky	IMDb
Doing Money	2018			Lynsey Miller	IMDb
Families Like Yours	2017			Rodolfo Eduardo Moro	IMDb
Finding Alice	2018			Pablo Fernandez	IMDb
Modified	2017			Aube Giroux	IMDb
The River Within	2018			Ivan Botha	IMDb
What Men Long For	2018			Rudolf Havlik	IMDb
Wolves Unleashed: Against All Odds	2018			Andrew Simpson	IMDb

African American Directed Shorts
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Disco Head				Lindsey Oblitey	n/a
Pink & Blue	2016			James Parris	IMDb
Gamers	2018			Searit Huluf	IMDb
ASIA A	2018			Andrew Reid	IMDb
Birth of Afrobeat	2018			Opiyo Okeyo	IMDb
Trio	2019			Kevin Giles	IMDb
White Noise	2018			Frida Perez	IMDb
The Treadmill	2018			Stefan Dezil	IMDb
Utopia				Aimiende Negbenebor Sela	IMDb

Animated Shorts
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Lullaby Theories: Babies & Babies & Babies				Clara Lehmann & Jonathan Lacocque	n/a
Toasted	2018			Chad Janusch	IMDb
L' homme et le poisson				Lewis Leon	n/a
The Blues Crab	2018			Ari Rubenstein	IMDb
The Seasons of Saguaro Sam	2018			Brian O'Connor	IMDb
Novalis				Chris Powell	n/a
The Indies: An Animated Short	2018			DJ Tony Blake & Chaz Bottoms	IMDb
Red Tape	2018			David St. Clair	IMDb
Pour 585	2018			Patrick Smith	IMDb
Bristled	2018			Scott Farrell	IMDb
Mogu and Perol				Tsuneo Goda	n/a

Arizona Shorts A
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Lovers	2017			Nell Teare	IMDb
Schwagged	2018			Adolpho Navarro	IMDb
Cosplay vs. The World				Katie Owens & Vic Rincon	n/a
Sweetheart				Chris Wilembrecht	n/a
Tender Matches	2018			Cassandra Nicholson	IMDb
Glitter				Jeff Fields & Kannon	n/a
Consortium: A Prologue	2017			Sheila Patterson	IMDb
Levi				Craig Dean Devine	IMDb
Directions to Albuquerque				Angela Houston	n/a
Improbable	2018			Ryan Glauser	IMDb

Arizona Shorts B
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Imaginary Bullets	2018			Sean Oliver	IMDb
Me.	2018			Alyssa Eshelman	IMDb
Heart of Gold	2019			Justin Lee Stanley	IMDb
Teaching in Arizona				Lisa Molomot	n/a

Arizona Student Film Festival
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Don't Move				Madyson Tutt	n/a
The Dognapping Inconvenience				Jackson Stake	n/a
Box of Crayons				Chelsea Selestewa	n/a
My Drive with Dick				Brendan Alcott	n/a
Paranoia				Julio Ramirez	n/a
Ang Pangarap				Isa Soriano	n/a
Transitions				Michael Placenti	n/a
Game Night				Antonio Smith-Plata	n/a
Allegory of Time				Jason Breinholt	n/a
Memory of Seth				Tyler Watson	n/a
Psyche				Thomas Timberlake	n/a
Interview with Eleanor				Isa Soriano	n/a
Copious				Aaron Zier	n/a
A Woman's Touch				Kaelyn Starrs	n/a
The Journey				Abigail Drake	n/a
How to Romance				Casey Likes	n/a
The Journey of a Dream				Patrick Jackson	n/a

College Shorts
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Lemonade				Keegan Carlson	n/a
Esta es tu Cuba	2018			Brian Robau	IMDb
Homecoming	2018			Jennifer Blair	IMDb
The Incident	2017			Meedo Taha	IMDb
How to Live Your Life Correctly	2018			Xindi Lou	IMDb
Snowball	2019			Paul Rivet	IMDb

Documentary Shorts A
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Jim's Camelot	2018			Evan Falbaum	IMDb
The Battle for Ranked Choice Voting	2018			Julie Mallozzi	IMDb
Kenny				Lukas Korver	n/a
Dust Rising				Lauren Schwartzman	n/a
Forgotten	2018			Daniel Soares	IMDb

Documentary Shorts B
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Live from the Astroturf, Alice Cooper	2019			Steven Gaddis	IMDb
Out of the Shadows	2019			Adrienne von Wolffersdorff	IMDb

Latino American Directed Shorts
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Without Shame				David E. Valdez	n/a
Abuela's Luck	2018			Ricky Rosario	IMDb
Pozole	2019			Jessica Mendez Siqueiros	IMDb
Manos que nos hicieron	2018			Julius Austin Olivas	IMDb
A Period Piece				Sylvia Ray	IMDb
Her Body	2018			Juan Avella	IMDb
ME 3.769	2019			Elaine del Valle	IMDb
Paradise Terrace	2018			Pedro Perez Nuñez	IMDb

Live Action Shorts A
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
The Parable of the Disappearing Recliner	2017			Elisabeth Gray	IMDb
A Boy's Fear	2018			Samson Alli	IMDb
Scrap	2018			Leena Pendharkar	IMDb
Just a Question	2018			Roy Eisenstein	IMDb
Jameson	2018			John Humber	IMDb
A Cohort of Guests	2019			Todd Sandler	IMDb
Eclipse	1996			Jason Ruscio	IMDb

Live Action Shorts B
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Peggy	2018			Justin O'Neal Miller	IMDb
Soliloquy	2018			Marion Kerr	IMDb
Suncatcher	2018			Parker Croft	IMDb
Every Other Weekend	2018			Josh Victor Rothstein	IMDb
A Civilized Life	2018			Victoria Keon-Cohen	IMDb
Disappearing Inka	2018			Nathan Cole	IMDb
Never Land	2019			Brett Smith	IMDb

Native American Directed Shorts
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Odd Timbre	2018			Matthew George	IMDb
Crooked				Lauren DeJolie	n/a
Telling People You're Native American When You're Not Native is a Lot Like Telling a Bear You're a Bear When You're Not a Bear	2018			Joey Clift	IMDb
Light	2016			Sarah Hennigan	IMDb
Cowboy	2017	6	5	Boise Esquerra	IMDb

World Cinema Shorts
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Melodi	2017			Michael Kam	IMDb
Generations	2018			Sune Sorensen	IMDb
Love Pool	2018			Asim Chaudhry	IMDb
The Loss	2018			Machu Latorre	IMDb
Over the Wall	2018			Roy Zafrani	IMDb
A Wreck in Paradise	2018			François Zaïdi	IMDb