The GenreBlast Film Festival is an annual event held in the

Winchester, Virginia Winchester is the most north western independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Frederick County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Winchester wit ...

area that specializes in

genre film Genre film may refer to: * A film conforming to a well-defined film genre * Genre Films, aka Kinberg Genre, a television and film production company * ''Genre'' (1996 film), a live-action/animated short by Don Hertzfeldt See also * Genre, the ge ...

. GenreBlast is the largest genre film festival in the

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region, spotlighting short and feature films that are typically independently produced and would not otherwise receive theatrical release.

History

Started in 2016, by Nathan Ludwig, Chad Farmer, and Charles Hill, the first annual GenreBlast Film Festival took place in August 2016 in

Culpeper, Virginia Culpeper (formerly Culpeper Courthouse, earlier Fairfax) is an incorporated town in Culpeper County, Virginia, United States. The population was 20,062 at the 2020 census, up from 16,379 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Culpeper Coun ...

at the now defunct State Theatre. Programmers officially described the fest as playing, "horror, action/adventure, sci-fi, fantasy, martial arts, exploitation, grindhouse, international, experimental and more!" After the first year, the festival relocated to the

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is an American cinema chain founded in 1997 in Austin, Texas, which is famous for serving dinner and drinks during the movie, as well as its strict policy of requiring its audiences to maintain proper cinema-going etiq ...

, where it has been located since. Hill departed from the team after the second year of the fest and Raygan Ketterer, previously the fest designer, replaced Hill as programmer. GenreBlast is attended by filmmakers and writers whose work is recognized by the fest, with about 50% of films represented in the first year and a much higher percentage in subsequent years. It has also been judged to be a top genre fest.

Awards

GenreBlast gives out rocket trophies in a number of categories for short films, feature films, and unproduced screenplays. The festival also gives out a special wrestling belt to recognize an outstanding woman in genre film each year. The Les Femmes Du Genre Award was given to

Tristan Risk Tristan Risk, also known as Little Miss Risk, is a Canadian film actress, known for her roles in horror films such as ''American Mary'', '' Ayla'', and ''Aliens Ate My Homework''. In 2014 Risk penned the script for the short film ''Happily Ever Ev ...

in 2016, Samantha Kolesnik in 2017, and

Sophia Cacciola Sophia Cacciola is a Los-Angeles-based, American filmmaker, artist, and musician. Career overview Film Cacciola is known for her sociopolitical genre feature films that showcase women: '' TEN'', Magnetic, Blood of the Tribades, Clickbait, a ...

in 2018. GenreBlast also gives out the "Forever Award" for a film that "a film that truly encapsulates the spirit of the fest — fiercely independent, highly original, and spectacularly innovative." The 2020 recipient was ''Force to Fear''. The 2021 recipient was ''The Transformations of the Transformations of the Drs. Jenkins''. The 2022 recipient was Gouge Away. The 2023 recipient was ''

The Once and Future Smash ''The Once and Future Smash'' is a 2022 mockumentary film directed by Sophia Cacciola and Michael J. Epstein. The film tells the story of Mikey Smash (Michael St. Michaels) and William Mouth (Bill Weeden), who both played the same football canni ...

''.

Notable films featured

*''

Night of Something Strange Night (also described as night time, unconventionally spelled as "nite") is the period of ambient darkness from sunset to sunrise during each 24-hour day, when the Sun is below the horizon. The exact time when night begins and ends depends o ...

'' – Jonathan Straiton (2016) *''

Blood of the Tribades ''Blood of the Tribades'' is a 2016 horror film directed by Sophia Cacciola and Michael J. Epstein. The script, style, and look are heavily influenced by 1970s Euro lesbian vampire films. The film is distributed in North America on VOD and DVD/Blu ...

'' –

Michael J. Epstein Michael J. Epstein (born 1976), is an American filmmaker, musician, writer, and auditory scientist. Epstein has also spoken and written about the impact of local media on the arts, music service gatekeeping, effective social networking, and crowd ...

(2016) *''Scratch'' – Maninder Chana (2016) *''

Innsmouth Lovecraft Country is a term coined for the New England setting used by H. P. Lovecraft in many of his weird fiction stories, which combines real and fictitious locations. This setting has since been elaborated on by other writers working in the ...

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Izzy Lee Izzy Lee is an American filmmaker and writer, known for her short films ''Re-Home'' (2019), ''The Obliteration of the Chickens'' (2019), ''My Monster'' (2018), and ''Innsmouth (short film), Innsmouth'', which she produced through her company Nihil ...

(2016) *''Frankenstein Created Bikers'' – James Bickert (2016) *''Camino'' – Justin Herring (2017) *''Dead Bullet'' – Erik Reese (2017) *''Family Possessions'' – Tommy Faircloth (2017) *''Future'' – Rob Cousineau & Chris Rosik (2017) *''Guardians'' – Mark Brown (2017) *'' Happy Hunting'' – Joel Dietsch & Louis Gibson (2017) *''Lilith's Awakening'' – Monica Demes (2017) *''She's Allergic to Cats'' – Michael Reich (2017) *''

The Naughty List ''The Naughty List'' is a 2016 Black comedy short film written and directed by Paul Campion, about two American mobsters who come face to face with Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, and discover what it really takes to get on his Naughty or Nice li ...

'' - Paul Campion (2017) *''Boyne Falls'' – Steve Kopera (2018) *''Butterfly Kisses'' – Erik Kristopher Myers (2018) *''

The VelociPastor ''The VelociPastor'' is a 2017 American comedy horror film written, directed, and edited by Brendan Steere. The plot follows pastor Doug Jones who becomes infected by an artifact, resulting in him turning into a velociraptor when he becomes angr ...

'' – Brendan Steere (2018) *''Loon'' – Lillian Langston & Andrew Bassett (2018) *''Murder Made Easy'' – Dave Palamaro (2018) *''The Nothing'' – Clayton Thompson (2018) *''Amazon Hot Box'' – James Bickert (2018) *''She Was So Pretty: Be Good for Goodness Sake'' – Brooklyn Ewing (2018) *''Livescream'' – Michelle Iannantuono (2018) *''

Clickbait Clickbait is a text or a thumbnail link that is designed to attract attention and to entice users to follow that link and read, view, or listen to the linked piece of online content, being typically deceptive, sensationalized, or otherwise misl ...

'' –

(2018) *''I'm Dreaming of a White Doomsday'' – Mike Lombardo (2018) *''Lieutenant Jangles'' – Nic Champeaux (2018) *''House Shark'' – Ron Bonk (2018) *''The Psyborgs'' – David Hiatt (2018) *''Bong of the Living Dead'' – Max Groah (2018) *''Top Knot Detective'' – Aaron McCann & Dominic Pearce (2018) *'' The Ranger'' – Jenn Wexler (2018) *''Unterwelt: The World Beyond'' – Ralf Kemper (2018) *''Socket'' – Christopher Beaubien (2018) *''Force to Fear'' (2020) *''The Transformations of the Transformations of the Drs. Jenkins'' (2021) *'' ''Red Snow'''' — Sean Nichols Lynch (2021) *'' Fresh Hell —'' Ryan Imhoff & Matt Neal (2022) *''

/ End Zone 2'' –

(2022) *''Livescreamers'' – Michelle Iannantuono (2023){{cite web , title=THE FURTHERGenreBlast Film Festival – Lineup for This Year's Fest Includes 'Livescreamers', 'Project Eerie' and More , url=https://bloody-disgusting.com/the-further/3776470/genreblast-film-festival-lineup-for-this-years-fest-includes-livescreamers-project-eerie-and-more/ , website=Bloody Disgusting

References

External links

GenreBlast Film Festival
website Film festivals in Virginia Underground film festivals Experimental film festivals