WELCOME TO FANTASTIC FEST
Important dates for the Fantastic Fest 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008: First wave of festival content posted
Thursday, August 7, 2008: Second wave of festival content posted
Thursday, September 4, 2008: Final content and schedule posted
Thursday, September 18, 2008: Festival begins
Saturday, September 20, 2008: 2009 Festival Badges go on sale
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.