It's year three of the Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival! Last year's PUFF brought an eclectic mix of horror, science fiction, and bizarre films to the genre fans at the beautiful Proscenium Theater at The Drake in Philadelphia.

2018 aims to be the biggest and boldest year yet for the festival, which has previously featured such notable films as Tragedy Girls, We Go On, Imitation Girl, and Karate Kill. This year PUFF is looking for more feature films and shorts to fill our International, Bizarre, and Local shorts programs. Additionally, we've added a Micro Short category for films under 5 minutes.

PUFF was founded to bring the best new and undiscovered genre films to fans in Philadelphia. The festival is not only be focused on only delivering an alternative film festival to the local movie fanatics of Philadelphia, but also connecting upstart filmmakers with distribution outlets by working with local independent film distributors. PUFF touts an excellent success rate for their selections, with almost all feature films from the first two years of the festival receiving independent distribution.

The festival directors offer a combined ten years of film festival and horror journalism experience, working with Fangoria, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Another Hole in the Head, Buffalo Dreams, the Bay Area’s SiliCon, and more.

The festival directors also look forward to working with local filmmakers, artists and other venues to create a great festival where movie lovers can gather once a year to celebrate film and socialize.

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 it.

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.

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.

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.

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.

6 Reviews
Overall Rating
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    Jes Vasquez

    PUFF2 was a great time. It was relaxed and inviting with vendor tables outside of the theater to enjoy between shows. The theater was a great size for the local block, the audio was great, and we were surrounded by other filmmakers and their friends and family who were all happy to attend!

    November 2017
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    Logan Fry

    Now entering its third year, the Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival is one of the best around. A great city, a great venue, wonderful organizers and - terrific films. It's worth the trip just to see the films, and to have your film among them - priceless!

    October 2017
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    Matt Spade

    I love the idea of this new festival which includes a healthy mix of local and national films. The hosts are amazing and I look forward to next year's event!

    October 2016
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    Curtis Jaeger

    Great people and a fantastic selection of films. Probably the first festival I've ever been to where even the bad films were highly entertaining at a minimum. Clearly some fun minds behind it.

    My film had a couple big problems in screening. They neglected to mention they did not have a 5.1 system and when transcoding my film knocked out 5 of the 6 channels, leaving only dialogue. They also cropped my film from 2:35 scope to 16x9 HD. I was very embarrassed during my screening. They were very understanding and apologetic but it was impossible for me to watch my own film. I chalk that up to first year growing pains and despite all that I'd definitely love to be a part of it again. What a show!

    October 2016
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    Dom Hilton

    Great screening for the Local Shorts selection, made good use of a smaller venue with friendly, fun hosts - hope to get selected again.

    October 2016
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