Arizona Underground Film Festival is Arizona’s premier genre cult film festival, and one of the most recognized underground film festivals in the country! We make it our sole mission to showcase the work of filmmakers with defiantly independent visions. We are on a quest to represent every genre of independent film from across the world celebrating the artist, and their work.

Its our 18th year presenting some of the best in films from categories of Narrative, Horror, Documentaries, Experimental, and Animation. Join us in the underground!

WHAT CRITICS ARE SAYING ABOUT AZUFF

“It’s got the vision and confidence of fests that have been around a lot longer.” - Filmmaker Magazine

“Prestigious festival” – The Huffington Post

“Unbeatable!” - Arizona Daily Star

“Truly Amazing” - Tucson Citizen

“AZUFF shed(s) light on the underground network… bringing independent films into the lime-light” - Yahoo News

“A Top-Notch Film Festival” - Trashwire

“A Real Powerhouse of a Festival” - Underground Film Journal

“A Wild Ride to the Edges of Visionary Independent Cinema” - Film Festival Examiner

Awards & Prizes

We will be giving out awards to the Best Feature and Short for
Narrative
Horror
Experimental
Animation
Documentaries
Exploitation
Audience Award
and Director’s Award

Rules & Terms

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Foreign language films must be dubbed or subtitled in English. You can include press kits or any other materials for your film. We have no film premiere requirements or date of completion requirements. Over 60 minutes for features and under 60 minutes for shorts. The festival selection committee makes all programming decisions. If accepted we will notify filmmakers by email by August 28th, most times earlier.

39 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Mike Madigan

    Thank you for featuring our short "Carissa Tells It All" as part of the film festival season!

    November 2024
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  • Cassandra Sechler

    I feel honored to have had my short The Return of the Nacken included this year’s AZUFF. I applaud this festival for their great communication, quality program, and marketing. While I couldn’t attend, I could feel a sense of intentionality, inclusion, enthusiasm, community, support for filmmakers, and passion for underground film through their social media posts. It was so nice to see all the pictures posted from the festival—I truly wished I could have been there! <3

    October 2024
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  • Antonio Piccillo

    Love this festival!! Thanks for having me!

    October 2024
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  • Pirie Martin

    Excellent festival, and a very helpful and communicative team. I was thrilled to be a part of it!

    January 2024
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  • Anders Elsrud Hultgreen

    I had a great experience of be selected to this year Arizona Underground Film Festival.
    I was not able to go there in person, but I won the award for best horror short film.
    The dialogue with the festival was great and the festival did a good promotion of my film.

    November 2023
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