Fantasy and SciFi Film & Music Screen in Colorado

Updated Nov. 1, 2019 Here’s an overview of our 2017-2019 film festivals. This year’s SciFi & Fantasy film event was held Sunday, 10/20/2019 from 3-9 PM at The Bug Theater, 3654 Navajo Street, Denver Colorado 80211. Learn more. Here’s #CISFFF2019 Awards (updated Oct. 26th), PDF. Here’s Nominees (updated 10-20-19), PDF. Here’s All Submitters, PDF. Here’s the event program, PDF. Here’s the Poster.

Submitters attended our live event for free; crew, family and friends purchased $5 tickets and/or donated at the door. Also, beginning this year, we offered free admission with a SciFi & Fantasy related costume. Also, here, here. Learn about The Bug Theater, here. We received 60 entries. We screened 36 submissions, including 13 trailers and 23 full-length submissions. We sincerely regret that we are unable to screen all of our official selections. Learn more. We screened shorts, music videos & trailers followed by a brief awards ceremony. Thanks to everyone who shared your filmic vision with us!

According to its creators, ARXIV / Archive is “…an immersive sci-fi drama set in an alternate apocalyptic future. A traveler traverses through a desolate wasteland on a quest for the ARXIV’s cure. The story touches on aspects of technological totality, reality, human desire and the dynamic tension between historical traces produced by humanity, and speculative futures that emerge out of them. ARXIV/ Archive serves as a thought-provoking commentary on each individual’s role in our collective future.”

In the animated film Avarya by Gökalp Gönen, an old man embarks on a spaceship in the hope of finding a new habitable planet. He becomes trapped in his own ship after his robot overseer finds every single candidate planet unsuitable. Eventually, the human finds a way out, revealing a dark secret.

Troll Bridge by Daniel Knight is a live-action & hand-animated hybrid, lovingly crafted from the Discworld fairy-tale by Sir Terry Pratchett.

“Without a shadow of doubt, the film’s greatest success story is the team itself – particularly in post-production, but this was no less true for the rest of production. …We have a lot of crew in Germany, and around Spain …in Moscow, Sao Paulo, Vancouver, Wellington, Dubai …all over the place, just over 300 of them all working towards a singular objective through email and Skype, and some software called Shotgun Studio which makes it all easier.

“It’s mad, and incredible, daunting and humbling. I still can’t believe how lucky we have been with our talent pool. I’m very proud of the coordinated effort that made all of this work, it required a great deal of sacrifice and singular determination, from a great many people.” Read more 

“Terry was around for 12 of the 15 years we worked on this, and watched it grow and develop as the team did. He was incredibly encouraging and only wanted the best for the show …what small involvement he could afford was fuel for many of the crew working on this, myself included. The last time I saw him was in 2014, and I think it’s fair to say he was ecstatic with its progress. I wish more than anything we had been quicker with the film, I miss him very much.” Read here, here, here, here, here, here.

In Ji, directed by Ben Griffin, a modified human from a manmade planet risks his life to travel to where humanity originated. Once he arrives there he meets a beautiful young woman and falls in love. But it’s only a matter of time before his people come looking for him and expose the truth about who he really is.

Ben is a director and also the founder and President of Prime Zero Productions. A childhood passion for movies and entertainment led him to shooting and editing his own videos in high school. The Academy of Art in San Francisco sharpened his technical skills allowing him to be comfortable working in any genre of music or cinema. Ben is well-versed in every area of production from preproduction to post. Ben’s award-winning music videos have been seen on countless networks and websites. His first comic book, Hero for the Day, will be released at the end of 2019.

Songbird (2018), directed by Sophie Black, is written by Tommy Draper with cinematography provided by Christopher Newman, music by Ian Algie and Simon Andrews. The film stars Janet Devlin, Therese Collins, and Oliver Park. Sophie Black graduated from the University of Creative Arts in 2010, then spent the next few years working in the art department of independent productions.

The film ” …is a tremendous short that shows the importance of voices and how they can truly transform and heal when you are filled with doubts and a lack of confidence. Sophie Black demonstrates a skill for the craft of filmmaking and, others take note, has created an artistic short with a raft of narrative to keep an audience captivated. With a selection of thematic and emotional beats, Songbird therefore takes flight with a magical trip from the mic stand to wonderland.” Read more, Mike, Midlands Review.

“Shy singer Jennifer thinks her dreams are coming true when a music producer approaches her at an open mic night. But her hopes are dashed after an encounter with a mysterious old woman leaves Jennifer without a voice. After some research, Jennifer discovers the presence of magic in the world, and sets off on a journey to retrieve her stolen voice from a foreboding place known as ‘Blackmoor Woods’.

“Can Jennifer find her courage as well as her voice before her future is taken from her forever?” Read more. Also here, here, here. Watch the official trailer, video.

Directors Jerom Fischer and Boris Acket have created this cinematic poem, I am Home. “As computers become more advanced each day, and artificial intelligence is on the verge of breaking through to our daily lives, the question of how well we’ll be able to understand this new technology becomes more and more interesting. After all, we don’t expect a dog to understand what happens in our mind, so how can we expect to know what an AI is thinking when it’s much more advanced than we are? Our only reference is our own experience as human beings.”

According to the directors, I am Home is “an experimental science fiction short film about a simulated entity going through the different stages of self-conceptualization. Essentially answering the life-long question: ‘Who am I?’  Each of the five sequences represents one of the many stages we go through as human beings: from the very basic accomplishment of recognizing one’s own body, as babies do in the first few months after birth, to the complex feat of attaining a social identity, something that can take years, well into our adult lives.”

#CISFFF2019 Screening – Not in Order (Trailers)

Please see the event program, PDF.

01.0 A Brief History of Time Travel – Trailer (02 min 08 sec) AWARD; 02.0 Forbidden Power – Trailer (01 min 03 sec) SEMI-FINALIST; 03.0 Jurassic Thunder – Trailer (02 min 15 sec) AWARD; 04.0 Love Bite – Trailer (29 sec) AWARD; 05.0 Monster Force Zero – Trailer (01 min 19 sec) AWARD; 06.0 Norman – Trailer (01 min 59 sec) AWARD; 07.0 Rage of the Mummy – Trailer ( 01 min 52 sec) AWARD; 08.0 The Return of Space Girl – Trailer (59 sec) AWARD; 09.0 The Tangle – Trailer (02 min 10 sec) AWARD; 10.0 12/14 – Trailer (39 Sec) SEMI-FINALIST; 11.0 Wish Weasel – Trailer (1 min 48 sec) FINALIST; 12.0 Kaia Kena – Visual Concept – Trailer (1 Min 14 Sec); 13.0 The Unexplainers Ep. 2 ‘Big Cat’ – Trailer (02 min 23 sec).

Love Bite producer/director Charles de Lauzirika made his feature directing debut with the psychological thriller Crave (2012), starring Josh Lawson, Emma Lung, Edward Furlong and Ron Perlman.

The film played at festivals around the world, winning several awards, including the New Flesh Award for Best First Feature at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, and Best Director in the Next Wave category at Fantastic Fest in Austin.

After USC Film School, he spent several years in the most immersive post-grad education ever, producing BTS content for Ridley & Tony Scott, David Lynch, Michael Bay and many others. He continues to produce behind-the-scenes content, and has several feature films projects in various stages of development. Read more.

Doors at the venue open at 3 PM. Block 1 runs from 3:15-5:30 (135 Mins), Break 5:30-6 PM (30 Mins). Block 2 runs from 6 PM – 8:35 PM (155 Mins), Break 8:35 – 8:45 PM (15 Mins). Awards held from 8:45 – 9:15 PM (30 Mins). Close 9:15 PM – 9:30 PM (15 Mins). Learn more.