Discover the Fantastic: FilmQuest Begins This Weekend

_{By Mike Romero}

For nearly a decade, FilmQuest has been delighting and terrifying audiences around the globe. And they’ve been doing it right here in our own backyard.

Founded by Jonathan Martin in 2014 to complement Fan X in Salt Lake City, the festival was met with rave reviews and enthusiastic support. Since 2017, it has been held at Velour Live Music Gallery, welcoming genre filmmakers to downtown Provo. Genre cinema, also known as the “Cinema of the Fantastic,” focuses primarily on Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, and the Beyond.

The festival has been gaining incredible momentum. One of the fastest growing genre film festivals in the world, MovieMaker Magazine named it one of the “World’s 50 Best Genre Festivals” and one of the “30 Bloody Best Genre Fests in the World.” Dread Central named FilmQuest one of the “Best Horror Festivals in the World” for the second time this year. FilmQuest’s success infuses nearly a quarter million dollars of revenue into Provo’s economy each year.

FilmQuest had a record number of submissions for the 2022 festival. 1,567 projects were considered. “By far this was the deepest and most incredible season yet, even outdoing last year,” FilmQuest said in a statement. “We seriously could have programmed two full festivals worth of quality and deep selections.”

This year’s judges will award filmmakers in over 45 categories. The one we’re most excited for at Provo Music Magazine is the music video category. We’ll let you figure out why. Every music video will be Horror, Sci-Fi, or Fantasy related, which will make for a unique watch.

Judges include filmmaker and Actress Natasha Halevi, whose work can be found on Crypt TV, Screambox, and DUST; Actor Sean Gunn, AKA the lovable goof Kraglin from Guardians of the Galaxy; Megan Duffy, who has appeared on Criminal Minds, Mad Men, and the film Maniac where she starred opposite Elijah Wood; Romanian filmmaker Adrian Tofei, whose found-footage film Be My Cat: A Film For Anne was the Anne Hathaway-themed horror film we didn’t know we needed; and many more.

Winners in 12 major categories will receive the coveted FilmQuest Cthulhu Trophy.

Isn’t it beautiful?

FilmQuest is Friday, October 28 through Saturday, November 5 at Velour Live Music Gallery. Make sure to follow FilmQuest on Instagram. Get tickets online here. See the event’s full schedule here. You can watch FilmQuest’s teaser video below.