The Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival (PUFF) is gearing up for its fourth year in Philadelphia, PA. Last year's festival brought an eclectic mix of horror, science fiction, action, documentary and bizarre films to movie fans at the beautiful Proscenium Theater at The Drake Hotel in the heart of Philadelphia. This year we are bringing our 4 day festival to the trendy neighborhood of Fishtown and the 2223 Theater.

PUFF was founded to bring new and undiscovered genre films to fans in Philadelphia. The festival has previously featured such notable films as Tragedy Girls, Witch in the Window, Imitation Girl, and Karate Kill. We tout an excellent success rate for our selections, with 95% of our feature films from the first few years of the festival receiving independent distribution.

The festival is not only focused on only delivering an alternative film festival to the local movie fanatics of the city, but we also work to connect upstart filmmakers with distribution outlets by working with local independent film distributors.

Festival Director Alex Gardner offers a long history of film festival and horror journalism experience, working with other film festivals in the past such as Another Hole in the Head, Buffalo Dreams and the Bay Area’s SiliCon.

In addition to the annual festival, PUFF has also partnered with South Street Cinema to offer a weekly screening series, and give independent filmmakers an opportunity to showcase their films with its "PUFF Presents" series.

PUFF's aim is to grow into a multi-media experience where people can enjoy our great city while experiencing the best in new cinema, and we'd be thrilled to have you be a part of the fun. We are looking for a variety of micro-, short- and feature-length films to fill out our 2019 program.

Awards & Prizes

Win the famous PUFF tiara for Best Feature and Best Short, plus awards and prizes for Best Local Film. Judged by a panel of industry professionals. Additional prizes to be announced.

BEST FEATURE: PUFF Tiara (more prizes to be announced)
BEST SHORT: PUFF Tiara (more prizes to be announced)
BEST MICRO SHORT: PUFF Certificate
BEST LOCAL SHORT: TBA (audience award and judge's award)

Rules & Terms

An authorized representative of the project being submitted (the "Film") must agree via digital signature that the film being submitted does not break any laws, and that all necessary licenses, royalties, release forms have been obtained. By submitting to the Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival (the "Festival") you are granting the Festival the right to screen any submitted Films twice during the scheduled Festival dates. You are also granting the Festival permission to use footage, stills and/or titles, and information from or relating to the Film for promotional purposes.

Films already available on home video will not be eligible for competition, but are still invited to submit to be screened out of competition.

New films that have recently had a festival screening in the city of Philadelphia will not be eligible.

Films that have premiered before 2017 are not eligible.

If your film is accepted you must provide us with both a hard/physical and digital copy. Filmmakers are responsible for all shipping costs. Physical media submitted to the Festival will not be returned. There is a $15 service fee any Films we have to burn. Payments can be made through PayPal.

Required Film specs:

1920x1080 or 1280x720
16:9 Aspect Ratio
24FPS
Audio Sample 48 kHz
Video Bit Rate, at least 5000 kbps
NTSC
.mov container
Apple ProRes 422 or codec of similar quality

Accepted films will also need to provide images, one-sheet and downloadable links or files for all available trailers. Trailers will be uploaded to the official Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival YouTube page.

Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival reserves the right to change any rules or scheduling. All accepted entries will be notified of any changes.

Please make sure all physical copies mailed to the Festival are titled, and include running time plus contact information. Please also provide a brief synopsis of your film, genre and if you're a local or student entry when submitting.

13 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
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Networking
  • Joe Badon

    What a wonderful experience! I wasn't able to attend the festival but PUFF did a TON of online and social media blasting and got the movie reviewed and talked about on lots of great websites! And got an online magazine to interview our main actress (who was in attendance at the screening)! Thanks so much for believing in our little film! Love you guys!

    September 2018
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  • Mitch Marsico

    I had a blast! Definitely entering next year!

    September 2018
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  • J Kraemer

    Well-run festival that plays in the heart of downtown Philly to good crowds. The festival skews towards genre-based stuff (horror, sci-fi, dark comedy) and you can tell the programmers really care about those kinds of films. The staff are communicative and accommodating to filmmakers. Definitely recommend.

    September 2018
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  • Jeffrey Garcia

    10/10 Great Fest! Would attend again!

    September 2018
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  • Ed Wasser

    Great experience, great people. I would enter this festival again in a heartbeat

    September 2018
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