News on the underground film festival front has been rather sparse lately, but that’s all going to change starting in August when the fest season kicks into high gear all the way through early November. Except for Revelation International in Perth, Australia a few weeks ago, July is a fairly dead month.

I do have full lineups for a few festivals already, but I don’t want to post those up until we get closer to their screening dates. Also, the Twin Cities Underground Film Festival is supposed to run this weekend, but they haven’t put up their schedule yet, so I don’t know what’s going on there. If I get it in time, I’ll definitely post it up.

So, to sort of “fill in the gap” so to speak before I really have to get rolling on doing lineups again, here are a few early picks as announced by their filmmakers on their various blogs. It’s not many. I only have three:

1) Zany Dick!, dir. Ricky Sprague. Normally, I don’t like posting up full short films before they play at a fest, but this one’s too good, so I’ve embedded it above. Zany Dick! has been accepted into the Sydney Underground Film Festival, which will run mid-September. It’s hilarious, so watch it and if you live in or near Sydney, Australia drag your friends out to watch their horrified reactions to seeing it on the big screen.

2) Seeya Rach, dir. Pearl Tan. This has also been accepted at the Sydney Underground. The trailer for this film is below and it looks interesting to me, kind of in the vein of Mike Z‘s hoaxes, especially when the main character announces she’ll be dead by the time you watch this video.

3) Marta’s Sex Tape, dir. Anthony R. Stabley. As for underground fests here in the U.S., this short film will be screening at the Minneapolis Underground Film Festival at the end of August. You can watch the trailer for this one, too, below. It’s another a first-person video about a woman, this one an artist who makes a sex tape to gain notoriety. Sounds like a good plan, actually. Didn’t Jeff Koons do that already? You can find more info at the film’s official site and blog. (Also, as a side note, one of my favorite films of the year so far, Altamont Now is playing at MUFF, too.)