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2019 Knoxville Horror Film Fest FIRST WAVE!
PRESS RELEASE FOR 2019 KNOXVILLE HORROR FILM FEST
The Knoxville Horror Film Fest returns October 17-20, 2019 for its eleventh annual weekend of movie madness at Knoxville’s Central Cinema and beyond! This year’s festival will build on 2018’s newly expanded format, offering KHFF’s signature mix of premiere indie horror features, underseen treasures, and top-notch short films from across the region and around the world.
The first wave of feature announcements for this year’s festival includes the “hallucinatory hellscape” of Bliss, the latest adrenaline rush from low-budget auteur Joe Begos; razor-sharp haunter The Girl On The Third Floor, the writing/directing debut of notable genre film producer Travis Stevens; Keola Racela’s uproarious satanic sex-ed gorefest Porno; and Adam Egypt Mortimer’s imaginary-friend-gone-wrong thriller Daniel Isn’t Real, starring Patrick Schwarzenegger. (A second wave of features, including this year’s repertory picks, will be announced in September.)
As always the festival’s feature screenings will be complemented by an extensive short film competition, featuring local productions alongside a selection of the year’s best touring horror shorts. (Submissions for both categories remain open through a late deadline of September 20.) The weekend will also feature a number of parties and other special events, including the cursed fruits of the ninth annual Grindhouse Grind-out filmmaking contest, which gives teams of local filmmakers six days and sixty-six minutes to produce a trailer or short in an ultra-specific genre chosen draft-style at the competition kickoff. (Competition dates will be announced in early September.)
This year’s festival will once again run Thursday through Sunday, using Central Cinema (1205 North Central St) as its home base while expanding to other area venues (TBA) for special screenings and events. Full festival and VIP passes will be available in early September, with daily and individual screening passes to follow.
The Knoxville Horror Film Fest is the city’s longest-running film festival, which has grown from a single-block short film program to become one of the southeast’s most notable genre-oriented film fests, offering low-key premieres, one-of-a-kind-events and a celebrated curator’s eye for unexpected fun. In August of 2018 the festival’s creators opened Central Cinema, a community movie house in North Knoxville’s Happy Holler neighborhood offering a year-round selection of new and classic films; among the venue’s regular series is a monthly KHFF Presents spotlight screening.
