Fantastic Fest 2008

Some people will go to the greatest lengths in the name of romance. This musical short was nominated for a 2005 Academy Award! Appearing as part of the SHORT FILMS OF NACHO VIGALONDO program. CLICK HERE for details.

An innocent, elegant woman is mercilessly chased from city to country to everywhere else by a slavering goofball vampire in this musical epic!

It's been said that animation isn't just for kids anymore. Well, that's ESPECIALLY the case at Fantastic Fest. We'll be showcasing all aspects of genre entertainment in animated form, some of which will make you laugh, and some of which will make your body revolt. BERNIE'S DOLL Dir. Yann Jouette / UK, France / 2008 / 12 min. A self-loathing cat food canner looks for happiness in all the wrong places, especially when he learns that a "female" companion can be ordered by mail. Beautifully animated in a style that proves to be less cute n' cuddlythan first glance would have you believe. BLOOD WILL TELL Dir. Andrew McPhillips / Canada / 2007 / 4 min. A uniquely animated nightmare that follows the beat of your pulse and unweaves the secret link between man and insect. Music by Sigur Ros. CITY WASP Dir. Stephan Wicki & Tod Steven / Switzerland, USA / 2007 / 6 min. A man combs a semi-sentient metropolis to create his own personal symphonic Frankenstein! Live action animation combines with an arguably musical score to create a short that's guaranteed to be unlike anything you've ever seen. A COFFEE VENDING MACHINE AND HIS SWORD Dir. Chang Hyung Yun / Korea / 2008 / 29 min To ward of defeat in his future life, a dying ninja warrior wishes to be reincarnated with a skin of steel. He returns to modern-day Korea as a coffee vending machine. DOG Dir. Hermann Karlsson / Scotland, Iceland / 2006 / 2 min. A loving eulogy to man's best friend. This animated comedy features a canine skeleton and some goofy yet sincerely tearful memories. THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF MR HOLLOW Dir. R. Gudino / Canada / 2008 / 6 min. A simple photograph becomes increasingly sinister upon closer scrutiny, until nearly every evil that lives in mankind's heart is unleashed upon the viewer. From the fiends at Rue Morgue! FANTAISIE IN BUBBLEWRAP Dir. Arthur Metcalf / USA / 2007 / 4 min. You think it's hard being a human? Try living your life as a roll of bubble wrap! This semi-animated short follows the lives of several little poppable pals as they fall in love,question their existence and -- of course -- get fatally pinched by human fingers. FILM NOIR Dir. Osbert Parker / UK / 2006 / 4 min. A senses-shaking tribute to the criminal acts of yesteryear, as traditional film noir elements are transformed through animation and bizarro artistry into a wholly original gripping thrillride. FISH Dir. Naoko Masuda and Max Margulies / USA / 2007 / 2 min. The filmmaking team behind last year's FF hit THE BIRD, THE MOUSE AND THE SAUSAGE are back with a new stop-motion food tale that reveals the nature of pescatorial reproduction. GAME OVER Dir. PES / USA / 2006 / 4 min. We don't need no fancy arcade...we got an arcade RIGHT HERE! Mysterious innovative stop-motion wizard(s) PES bring the universal excitement of video games into the real world in bold, unnatural ways. KARAOKE SHOW Dir. Karl Tebbe / Germany / 2007 / 5 min. Here at FF, we've always recognized karaoke as a true art. But filmmaker Karl Tebbe succeeds in turning up the karaoke insanity to visually deafening levels in this megashock of musical indulgence. MUTO Dir. Blu / Argentina / 2008 / 8 min. Street art taken to the illogical, beautiful maximum as an urban landscape is transformed into a moving palette of impossible creatures. Is this the most ambitious animation project of the century? Yes. THE SQUIRREL NEXT DOOR Dir. Carla Coma / Canada / 2007 / 2 min. True love sees no barriers...including species. Taxidermy animation that will make you want to run out, kill things and create great art. VIOLETA Dir. Anna Solana & Marc Riva / Spain / 2007 / 13 min. Violeta makes a new friend and takes him back home to meet the folks. Too bad the depths of depravity of this family is unparalleled in the history of animation. THE WATERMELON CHICKENS Dir. Won Jong-Shik / Korea / 2007/ 8 min. Watermelon-eating chickens inadvertently kill a boy's grandfather. The child vows revenge...at all costs.

Sure, it's a fact that psychopaths love to torture and destroy innocent people. But what happens when your average suburban family gets their hands on a pack of sadistic cannibals? Director Geoff Redknap and producer Katie Weekly will be in attendance.

A self-loathing cat food canner looks for happiness in all the wrong places, especially when he learns that a "female" companion can be ordered by mail. Beautifully animated in a style that proves to be less cute n' cuddly than first glance would have you believe. Appearing as part of the ANIMATED SHORTS program. CLICK HERE for details.

Forty eight hours to make a horror movie - how hard can it be? Get some ketchup, a couple of knives, and invite your buddies over for the weekend. But when one of those buddies shows up dead... Okay, that didn't happen in this year's BLOODSHOTS Filmmaking Frenzy competition. Instead, we've got films made by horror enthusiasts that know the value of investing in blood in today's topsy-turvy economy. We assigned every team a subgenre and a weapon, with genres ranging from First Person Shooter to Road Trip From Hell. Weapons for some teams were simple - a pistol, for example - and for other teams far from easy, but it's really fun to watch the creative solutions people came up with when they had to use gossip/blackmail as a method of killing someone. We'll be screening all of the completed BLOODSHOTS 2008 movies over the course of two programs on two different nights before Fantastic Fest. After those screenings, the results of audience ballots at the theater and online votes at FilmmakingFrenzy.com will determine who the finalists are, and those movies will screen as part of Fantastic Fest on Sunday, Sept 21. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the best in modern homemade horror!!!

A uniquely animated nightmare that follows the beat of your pulse and unweaves the secret link between man and insect. Music by Sigur Ros. Appearing as part of the ANIMATED SHORTS program. CLICK HERE for details.

Sometimes there's just no way to remain safe...even in our secure homes. Quite possibly the most unexpected surprise in the fest!

This Hansel and Gretel-esque fairytale may seem comfortably familiar at first, but as it unfolds, something unexpectedly dark takes over.... Appearing as part of the skull-boiling SHORT FUSE program. CLICK HERE for details.