WELCOME TO FANTASTIC FEST

About Fantastic Fest
Fantastic Fest is a week-long festival featuring the best in new science-fiction, fantasy, horror, animation, crime, Asian, and all around badass cinema. The event was created to offer exposure to genre films which are often overlooked by the traditional festival circuit. We strive to offer acquisition, media and exhibition opportunities for undistributed films as well as to spotlight upcoming genre theatrical releases and give audiences a chance to see 35mm prints of repertory classics.

Fantastic Fest is held each year at one venue, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema on South Lamar in Austin, Texas. The Alamo Drafthouse was named the best cinema in America by Entertainment Weekly, and features food and drink served to your seat without any disruption of the movie experience.

During his Keynote Address at the International film Festival Summit in Las Vegas, Variety president and publisher Charlie Koones listed Fantastic Fest in a list of "10 Film Festivals we Love," which he described as "interesting and exciting" events, not listed in order of importance. In addition to our festival, the list included industry heavy-hitters such as Cannes, Toronto and Telluride.

We strive to make the festival the most friendly, fun and exciting experience as possible for our out of town guests and visiting filmmakers. In addition to showcasing over 60 premiere genre features and 30 shorts, we host plenty of parties throughout the week as well as outings to local Texas institutions and always one serious barbecue run.

"The best film festival I've ever been to, at the best theater in the world. Everyone at Fantastic Fest really cared about the filmmakers, and worked incredibly hard to make every screening memorable. Thanks to everyone for making this first-time short film director feel like a Hollywood superstar."- Phil Mucci, director, THE LISTENING DEAD.

Tickets for the 2008 Fantastic Fest
2008 VIP Badges went on sale during the 2007 Festival and sold out in a number of days. The remainder of all badges are on sale online now. Given the fast sellout of VIP badges, we expect the remainder of badges to sell out quickly, so if you don't want to miss what most of our guests have called "the best festival experience ever," then buy your tickets soon! Check out the tickets page of this website for more details on ticketing options. In addition to our VIP and Film Badges, we are offering discounted "2nd half" festival badges and "day-only" badges.

Free Screening - Machine Girl 6/2

We began programming Fantastic Fest 2008 in December 2007. One of the downsides of starting this early is that films that you really like sometimes find distribution and get out to market before the festival. One such movie is Machine Girl, which has found a home at Media Blasters and will hit video in Early June. We thought you guys would really like to check out this film early and have arranged with Media Blasters to present a sneak preview free screening of the film.

About Machine Girl
When bullies kill her younger brother, schoolgirl Ami (Minase Yashiro) seeks revenge on the perps and their parents. She loses an arm during a yakuza torture session; fortunately, sympathetic motor mechanics help with a machine-gun prosthesis, and Ami turns the bloody tide.

Check out the trailer below. Wow! Arterial sprays, chainsaws, ninjas, throwing stars and rotary drill bras. Machine Girl is without a doubt our kind of popcorn.

Admission to this show is free. Fantastic Fest and Austin Asian American Film Festival badge holders (plus one guest each) will be guaranteed admission as long as you arrive 20 minutes before showtime, all others are welcome but will be admitted on a space available basis beginning 20 minutes before the showtime.

Please RSVP at the Fantastic Fest Facebook Group so we know how many folks to expect.

This event is presented by Fantastic Fest and the Austin Asian American Film Festival

By noreply@blogger.com (Tim League) Posted on Thursday, May 08, 2008 View Blog Subscribe

Iron Man Photo and Video Posted!

On April 26, Fantastic Fest and AICN teamed up to present a sneak preview screening of Iron Man featuring a guy in an actual jet pack flying around the parking lot before the film. If the jet exhaust was so loud that you couldn't take your fingers out of your ears long enough to snap photos, never fear. Our pal Mary Sledd from Sledd Photography was furiously snapping away. You can find the complete set of Iron Man/Jet Pack photos on the Alamo Flickr Page.

If you didn't get a chance to see IRON MAN yet. Do so. Quickly. A super hero movie that has a 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes is practically unheard of. It really is that good.

Serious Tony Stark fans should only see it at the new Alamo Ritz where we'll be flexing our new full-liquor license and featuring some of Stark's favorite adult beverages.

Check out video footage of the Jet Pack extravaganza below:

By noreply@blogger.com (Tim League) Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 View Blog Subscribe

Iron Man contest photos online

Fantastic Fest and Ain't It Cool News are presenting an advance screening of IRON MAN on April 28. Before the screening we'll be treated to a demonstration of Jet Pack International's amazing technological breakthrough: an ACTUAL jet pack. To get tickets, patrons had to make an Iron Man or Tony Stark costume and send us a photo. These photos are now available on the Alamo Flickr Page. We'll have photos of the Jet Pack demonstration posted up later this week.

To find out about more of these events in advance, join us on the Alamo Fanatics Facebook Page or the Fantastic Fest Facebook Page.

Iron Man opens at the Alamo on Friday, May 2. Check it out at the Ritz where we'll be featuring Tony Stark's favorite happy hour special: a Glenmorangie Scotch Flight and discounted Whiskey Sours. The Alamo at the Ritz... your new happy hour bar!By noreply@blogger.com (Tim League) Posted on Saturday, April 26, 2008 View Blog Subscribe

Fantastic Fest praised in Moviemaker Magazine

In the current issue of Moviemaker Magazine, Fantastic Fest was hailed as one of the "25 Festivals Worth the Submission Fee." While this is of primary importance to filmmakers who are considering Fantastic Fest to debut their film, it's also of interest to the audience attending the festival. We are expecting a lot of guest filmmakers and Q&As in this year's festival, as the word of Fantastic Fest's southern hospitality has been getting around. More filmmakers and more "badass" films means a better festival for you, me and the entire audience. 2008 is shaping up, in the words of William Shatner, to be a "very good year."

Check out a hi-res scan of the article here for all the details.
Fantastic Fest official site.By noreply@blogger.com (Tim League) Posted on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 View Blog Subscribe

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