San Francisco Underground Short Film Festival To Return In 2011!
By Mike Everleth ⋅ January 17, 2011
Check out the 2011 SFUSFF lineup here!
After taking a couple years off to concentrate on his own filmmaking activities, Joshua Grannell, aka Peaches Christ, is reviving his San Francisco Underground Short Film Festival for 2011. Yes, the festival is currently open for submissions, but, as always, you have to live in the Bay Area to have your film get in.
The SFUSFF ran for several years as the concluding event of Peaches Christ’s wildly popular summer Midnight Mass screening series, which began in 1998 and would screen several cult Hollywood and indie film classics over the summer. Along with the movies, there was also usually an accompanying stage show featuring drag queens and other performers, plus costume contests and filmmakers and stars in attendance.
The last year for SFUSFF was in 2008 and, in 2009, Grannell announced it would be the last year for Midnight Mass. Afterward, Grannell became heavily involved in the production of his own feature film, the horror movie spoof All About Evil starring Natasha Lyonne, Thomas Dekker and Elivra herself, Cassandra Peterson.
All About Evil would go on to be a big hit on the film festival circuit, showing in as diverse venues as the Los Angeles Film Festival and Toronto After Dark. Plus, Grannell went on a screening tour that included live stage shows at each theater that showed the movie.
With the film now being self-released on DVD, Grannell appears to be happily getting back into the Midnight Mass spirit. In December, Peaches Christ hosted the first ever holiday edition of Midnight Mass, screening the Santa-as-psychopath cult classic Christmas Evil. Now, she’s reviving SFUSFF.
However, instead of an end-of-summer event like previously, the San Francisco Underground Short Film Festival will run in the spring on April 9. The deadline for submissions is March 1. While it’s free to enter your short film, you do have to live in the Bay Area to submit. Submission guidelines are on the Peaches Christ website.
While I’ve never personally been to the SFUSFF, several excellent filmmakers have been introduced to me thanks to my writing about the event, including the terrifically morbid and hilarious Waylon Bacon (Help Wanted) and Loretta Hintz (The Sheep and the Ranch Hand).
The official announcement is below:
Are you an SF Bay Area filmmaker, or have shot a film in the SF Bay Area? See your film on the big screen!
The San Francisco Underground Short Film Festival celebrates the underground, overlooked, avant-garde, and ultra outrageous films of the Bay Area. Anything goes… so don’t hold back! Submit now!
Submitting to the film festival is now, and always has been, completely FREE!
Deadline for Submissions is March 1st
The next SF Underground Short Film Festival is April 9thdownload a submission form right here.
Please provide a copy of this form and a DVD submission copy of your film via mail to: Peaches Christ Productions, 59 Albion street, San Francisco, California, 94103. All submissions must be made by a San Francisco Bay Area filmmaker or shot in the SF Bay Area. Multiple submissions OK. Submission DVDs will not be returned. Thank you for submitting to the SFUSFF!