Four friends, four film freaks. Four film freak friends who want to found a film festival. With Indie Memphis and On Location Memphis already firmly established in Memphis’ film festival terra firma, the quartet decided to focus in. One liked horror, another was into fantasy. Jim Weter, for his part, is a sci-fi fan. “You can do a lot more than straight drama,” he explains. “There’s suspension of belief.”
The Unreal Film Fest highlights independent sci-fi, fantasy, and horror features and shorts. It’s now in its fifth year and will be at Studio on the Square September 9th-11th.
The Dark Tapes
Weter says the festival receives about 150 submissions from all over the world. That was culled down by a panel of judges to 20 for this year’s festival. Awards are given out for best director, actor, screenplay, FX, cinematographer, wardrobe and makeup, and more.
Feature films include The Dark Tapes, a found footage thriller; Virtual Revolution, set in 2047 Paris where most people spend the majority of their time online; and Peelers, about strippers fighting off infected patrons. Among the local films are the action thriller I Am Spartan and Scumbags from Outer Space, an homage to B movies.