The Apocalypse Later International Fantastic Film Festival (ALIFFF) is the only annual dedicated genre film festival in the fifth largest city in the United States: Phoenix, AZ.
We will always remain true to our core ideals, which are to find the very best genre films from anywhere in the world and screen them to audiences at as low a cost as is possible without sacrificing quality. We want 'fantastic' to refer to our quality as much as our genres! We pride ourselves on opening our audiences up to new experiences.
Our fifth year will expand to three days on our regular weekend. There will be Q&As with any filmmakers present and intermissions between the sets to emphasise the social environment. An award ceremony will run on Sunday evening.
NOTE: due to the COVID-19 crisis still being rampant in Arizona and the Phoenix Center for the Arts being closed, our fifth anniversary will be pushed back one year. Our new dates are Friday 8th to Sunday 10th October, 2021.
Our content is features and short films from across the fantastic genres, not only horror and science fiction but also fantasy, crime, action, grindhouse, the punked genres and what can only be described as cult film. We love the depth that features can explore but also firmly believe that every opportunity to screen quality short films to a live audience is a good opportunity! We believe that we screen more short sets than any other genre festival in state.
Our venue is the Phoenix Center for the Arts, which is centrally located in downtown Phoenix right off I-10. There is free parking right next to the building. We screen in the Third Street Theater, which seats a comfortable 210. A variety of concessions and beers will be on sale and we will be once again providing free popcorn for everyone!
ALIFFF was founded by Hal C. F. Astell, a film critic and award-winning author who has been part of the film festival community since 2007. His reviews have been quoted on DVD covers, posters and Kickstarter campaigns in multiple languages, as well as within trailers. He runs the Apocalypse Later Empire (apocalypselaterempire.com) and has six books in print on film with a couple more due.
Hal is also an experienced screener, programmer and judge for a variety of film festivals and film challenges. He also programs free mini-film festivals at conventions across the American southwest through the Apocalypse Later Roadshow, playing to the events' themes; most are genre-based, usually science fiction, steampunk or horror.
Our awards are utterly unique, because they're commissioned from the utterly unique Tom Deadstuff, a Phoenix-based artist who creates amazing work in papier-mâché. No other film festival has awards like ours! Check them out on the festival website!
In 2020, we expect to give out at least the same five awards as previous years. Three are for shorts (Best Horror, Best Science Fiction and Best Other), decided by our panel of judges, which changes every year. The Best Feature award is voted on by the live audience. The Festival Director's Award goes to any one film of special merit in the opinion of the festival director. We may or may not add others: that will depend on the breadth of submissions that come in.
Our judges for year five will constitute the usual variety of viewpoints on the local film scene. We're confirming who they will be and will announce them shortly.
ALIFFF reserves the right to waive submission fees, but films with a complete waiver will be ineligible for competition.