2024 Arizona Underground Film Festival Award Winners
2024 was a great year for the Arizona Underground Film Festival. Many great films were screened and enjoyed! Here’s this years honors. See you next year!
Best Narrative Feature
2024 / 110 min / Canada / Drama
Directed by Ara Ball
Cast: Justin LaBelle, Larissa Corriveau, Patrice Dubois
Montreal, 1991. Delphis, 11 years old, is growing up in a disadvantaged neighborhood and an unstable family environment. One evening, he decides to take control of his life and becomes The Hurricane. Armed with a lightning bolt on his headband and his middle finger held high, he flees a world that has no place for him. With the police and the DPJ (Department of Youth Protection) on his heels, he leaves behind a distressed mother and encounters memorable people on the street. On a quest to discover himself, his adventure is like a road trip, from Hochelaga to Berri, from one family to another. Driven by an accelerated adolescence, his freedom defies indifference. Social labels explode with a confident tone and a fast pace. Between punk and Marjo, The Hurricane hits us square in the face, without waiting to be defeated!
Best Horror Feature
Unspeakable: Beyond the Wall of Sleep
2024 / 91 min / USA / Sci-Fi, Horror
Directed by Chad Ferrin
Cast: Edward Furlong, Bai Ling, Steve Railsback, Ginger Lynn, Lew Temple
Renowned oneirologist, Ambrose London, is requested to Arkham Asylum by newly appointed, Dr. Barnard to study the strange case of James Fhelleps. A patient seemingly inhabited by the personality of Joe Slater, a denizen of the Catskill Mountain region; a primitive colonial peasant of barbaric degeneracy, who had mysteriously vanished 122 years ago. Ambrose and Barnard’s investigation takes an unexpected turn when Fhelleps/Slater is attached to London’s “Dream Machine” which releases an alien life form hell bent on world annihilation.
Best Experimental Feature
2024 / 74 min / USA / Experimental
Directed by Chris Peters
Film made from the memories of dead people, from hours of 16mm home movies discarded by families at estate sales… and all of it in radiant Kodachrome color. Score by 2024 Grammy Award winner Carla Patullo. Artist driven first feature.
Best Documentary Feature
American Pot Story: Oaksterdam
2024 / 94 min / USA / Documentary
Directed by Ravit Markus
WINNER OF THE AUDIENCE AWARD AT SLAMDANCE 2023 and dozens of other international awards, American Pot Story: Oaksterdam is a documentary about how change transpires in America. The account of “a small group of concerned committed citizens” (to quote Margaret Mead) who took a huge risk in order to bring about a massive shift in public perception. It all happened at Oaksterdam University in Oakland , California – a magical place where cannabis history was made, falling right in place with Oakland’s rich history of civil resistance. Today when we see celebrities and corporations get into the cannabis business it’s easy to forget how many millions of people unjustly suffered and still suffer because of the American drug policy. Our documentary is not just an important historical chronicle of a campaign that brought into the mainstream a taboo topic, it’s also an inspiring reminder of how democracy can work when people come together in an effort to fulfill our pledge to liberty and justice for all.
Best Narrative Short
2024 / 12 min / USA / Drama
Directed by Colleen McGuinness
Cast: Angourie Rice, Tyson Bidner, Kristyn Macready
LOSER follows 22 year-old ALICE, who works at a frozen yogurt shop, on what turns out to be an unforgettable day of her life.
Best Horror Short
2023 / 14 min / Norway / Horror
Directed by Anders Elsrud Hultgreen
Cast: Susann Bugge Kambestad, Brita Grov, Roskva Yasmin Andersen
Ring Neck is the story of David, a recording engineer who gets an ash-laced tattoo of his recently deceased ring-necked dove. Nina, a young musician involved with David, tries to help him overcome his grief, but the tattoo soon gets infected, and David’s condition quickly gets worse.
Best Experimental Short
2024 / 8 min / USA / Experimental
Directed by Erica Schreiner
Blue Transcendence is a montage of blue butterflies, a performance in blue, and time lapse of a candle burning during a magical spell. The narration guides the audience through a psychedelic experience, reflecting on real friendships and the importance of being silly. Blue Transcendence was filmed by Erica Schreiner on her VHS camera in her apartment.
Best Documentary Short
2024 / 14 min / USA / Documentary
Directed by Dean Bertram
Was sci-fi writer Richard Shaver really abducted and tormented by a malevolent underground race of hideous humanoids, known as the “Dero”? Regardless, his “true” stories – known collectively as “The Shaver Mystery” and sometimes ghost written by editor Raymond A. Palmer – were the most successful and controversial sci-fi tales of the mid 20th century. They drove sales and circulation of the pulp magazine AMAZING STORIES to all time record highs, and paved the way for the emergence of UFO lore.
A short, stand alone, segment, cribbed from Dean Bertram’s upcoming feature documentary THE MAN WHO INVENTED FLYING SAUCERS: A film about Ray Palmer, the Shaver Mystery, and the creation of modern UFO belief.