Amazing Fantasy Fest is a seven-day celebration of fantastic cinema held every September in Buffalo, New York (half an hour away from Niagara Falls). Our genres are Horror, Experimental, Animation, Action and Science Fiction: Micro Shorts, Shorts, Medium Length Films, Features. Our only Student category is for Western New York residents only. We have categories for Unproduced Short Screenplays and Unproduced Feature Screenplays. All Selected Films are screened at Dipson's Amherst Theatre in Buffalo, New York, on a large screen with comfortable seats, awesome sound, and convenient parking. We show all films on one screen with no counterprogramming. Every attending filmmaker receives a Q&A. We do not do online screenings.
Amazing Fantasy Fest (AFF) is the creation of Festival Director Gregory Lamberson (Slime City, Guns of Eden). This is his first festival as solo director after co-founding Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival, which ran for 10 years, and Buffalo Screams Horror Film Festival, which ran for three. AFF is the culmination of his efforts to spotlight the creators of independent genre cinema.
AWARDS
Film is art, not a competition, but part of Amazing Fantasy Fest’s mission is to recognize the work of talented genre filmmakers. We intend to present the following awards in an assortment of plaques, certificates, and digital files.
Best of the Fest
Best Feature
Best International Feature
Best Western New York Feature
Best Feature Director
Best Western New York Feature Director
Best Feature Screenwriter
Best Western New York Screenwriter
Best Unproduced Feature Screenplay
Best Male Performance, Feature
Best Female Performance, Feature
Best Western New York Performance, Feature
Best Score, Feature
Best Micro Short
Best International Micro Short
Best Western New York micro Short
Best Short
Best International Short
Best Western New York Short
Best Medium Length Film (National, International, WNY)
Best Western New York Performance, Short
Best Animated Film
Best Stop Motion Animated Film
Best Western New York Student Film (ID required)
Best Special Makeup Effects
Best Special Visual Effects
Amazing Fantasy Fest reserves the right to combine, alter or eliminate award categories at the Festival Director’s discretion. International award winners will receive digital certificates unless they attend AFF in person. Upon request, we will mail physical awards to filmmakers unable to attend at the filmmaker’s expense.
Rules
1. NO WAIVERS.
2. You warrant you are authorized to submit this film.
3. We only accept online screeners and digital screenplays.
4. All films must be in English, or subtitled in English.
5. NO WAIVERS. No exceptions.
5. Screening agreements must be signed and returned before our schedule will be posted. If we send you an acceptance notification and you fail to respond to communications, we will withdraw you from the festival.
6. Exhibition copies: All downloads must be h264 MP4 files, no larger than 1080p. We will not download DCP files for any films. For features, we will accept DCP files on external hard drives; filmmakers will pay for shipping to the festival; the festival will pay for return shipping of DCPs in the US only. Again, we do not download DCP files. For shorts, we only accept h264 MP4 files, no larger than 1080p.
7. Film rep authorizes Amazing Fantasy Fest to screen Official Selections twice during the festival, although the fest only intends to screen each film once.
8. NO WAIVERS. Seriously, we have expenses and our submission fees are low.
9. Every Official Selection Feature will receive four free passes good for the entire festival. Every Official Selection Micro Short, Short, Medium Length Film, and Unproduced Screenplay will receive two free passes good for the entire festival. All filmmaker passes must be confirmed no later than 10 days before the start of the festival.
10. Our Awards presentation is scheduled for Sunday, September 15th. All winners will be notified via Festhome. Digital files of awards will be mailed to all winners. Some awards will be in the form of plaques; plaques will be mailed to filmmakers who don’t attend the festival at the filmmaker’s expense.
12. Films written, directed or produced by Festival Judges may screen at the festival but are ineligible for awards consideration.
13. NO WAIVERS. We will ignore all waiver requests.
14. The festival cannot pay travel/lodging expenses for filmmakers. However, we will go out of our way to make recommendations for you during your stay.
15. We do not want any films or screenplays written by A.I.
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