Apex Short Film & Music Video Festival

Apex was a wonderful event. Everyone was friendly and so talented. The short films and especially the music videos were all of great quality, so the fest lives up to its name. The Q&A panels included filmmakers, an Olympic wrestler singer-songwriter, and an astrophysicist. It was good to hear from such an interesting group, and to learn Tucson has such a diverse filmmaking community. You cannot miss this event.

My first major festival that I was privileged to attend. The entire event is clearly structured and conducted with a passionate love of cinema. Every film that played had a unique story to tell with a strong voice, and I was honored to have my project included among them. I was also struck by the highly diverse depth of talent included, which was just plain awesome to see.

As a festival, the whole team did a wonderful job of keeping me in the loop, ensuring that I had a strong understanding of how the event would go, and how the creator's Q&A would be structured. Overall, I cannot recommend Apex Film Festival enough. It's a festival by film lovers, for film lovers!

Low key a feminist film festival, from the selections to the panelists. Glad I made the trip, and I'll be back next year.

Unfortunately I couldn't attend the festival, but the staff behind it were simply amazing! Communication through e-mails between me and the festival were easy and quick, and - best of all - my short movie won an award there! Some filmmakers I know told me the festival is well regarded. Hope to attend the festival next time! Thanks!

Disappointing to say the least. I don't know if this was just a bad year or if everyone else is reviewing a different festival.
The first red flag came when the night before the festival, we noticed our film was not on the schedule and the director's name was not in any of the Q&A panels. While it remains frustrating, I will say they fixed the issue very quickly before the day of the show.
The screenings were delayed right from the start while the host took photos with everyone. But I'm going to let that slide, it didn't seem too weird yet.
Technical issues plagued the start of the show. Several films were presented with terrible audio. They would then stop in the middle of the film and instead of restarting it, resume playing. I feel very bad for the creators of those films.
One idea for how to stall for time was to do the first Q&A session early. Before the films had been played. There were people kind enough to ask questions about a film that had to be described to them, but that was inexcusable.
Our film was played and the issues had been fixed by then. I'm grateful that this happened, but can't imagine the frustrations of those who weren't so lucky.
The real kicker was finding out that we were not even listed on the ballots for the audience to fill out. That's about when we left. Why would we hang out with this dude who doesn't even respect the other filmmakers at his event. The whole thing just seemed to be a vanity project for himself.
The next day, we find out that none of our red carpet photos were posted (thanks for that).
Needless to say, we have no intention of submitting to this festival again and everyone else should certainly think twice as well.