PopHorror Let's Get Scared
The 2020 Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival was held from March 4-8, 2020 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, NY. The eighth annual event featured a lineup of screenings, premieres, panels, virtual reality demonstrations, and a new screenplay competition. The festival recognized nine films and three screenplays for outstanding filmmaking and storytelling.
Read on for the list of winners!
BEST PHILIP K. DICK FEATURE
Majic (2019)
Director: Erin Berry
Run Time/Country: 82 min, USA
Synopsis: In Washington, DC on the eve of the 2008 presidential election, Bernwood, an anti-conspiracy video blogger meets with an old man claiming to have worked for the legendary Majestic-12 (aka “Majic”), a secret U.S. spy agency created after the UFO incident at Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. So begins her trip down the rabbit hole looking for answers as reality as she knows it, or knew it, begins to unravel.
BEST DRAMATIC FEATURE
Imperial Blue (2019)
Director: Dan Moss
Run Time/Country: 93 min, UK/Uganda
Synopsis: Hugo Winter, a roguish American drug smuggler is on a quest for a mysterious African drug called Bulu which gives the user the powers of prophecy. In Uganda, he meets two sisters who can help him find the source of Bulu, but they have competing agendas. Kisakye, a devout Christian, wants to sell the drug to save her village, whereas Angela, a criminal hustler, is only interested in getting rich quick. As Hugo follows them deeper into the jungle, he begins to doubt whether his prophetic visions are leading him to death or glory.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
A Brief History of Time Travel (2018)
Director: Gisella Bustillos
Run Time/Country: 68 min, USA
Synopsis: There’s one thing that Star Trek and Doctor Who fandoms have in common: time travel. This documentary takes you on a journey through the evolution of time travel from its origins and influence in science fiction to the exciting possibilities technology could yet uncover. Featuring interviews with Dr. Ronald Mallet (How To Build a Time Machine), Bill Nye(Bill Nye the Science Guy), Ted Chiang (writer of Story of Your Life), and Wanda Gregory (Director of Digital Technology and Culture at the University of Washington).
BEST PHILIP K. DICK SHORT
Beyond the Door (2018)
Director: Hekla Egilsdottir
Run Time/Country: 13 min, Iceland
Synopsis: A stagnant young couple named Noi and Irma are dealing with Irma’s depression. Noi buys Irma a cuckoo clock, reminiscent of the one her mother used to have when she was a child, in an attempt to cheer her. Irma’s monotonous, stay-at-home life takes a sudden turn with the introduction of her newfound friend, the cuckoo. Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick.
BEST SCIENCE FICTION SHORT
Wide Awake in Bridgewater (2018)
Director: Erik Lee
Run Time/Country: 15 min, USA
Synopsis: In 1968, 18-year-old Michael Gates and Monica Dupré are enjoying an afternoon in the countryside when she disappears. Fifty-one years later, elderly Michael starts receiving phone messages from her, and he discovers what happened on that fateful day.
BEST HORROR SHORT
Love Bite (2019)
Director: Charles de Lauzirika
Run Time/Country: 15 min, USA
Synopsis: Taking refuge in an abandoned cargo truck during the Zombie Apocalypse, a dysfunctional couple and their dog find their lives on the line when they make a deadly bet over how the undead virus spreads. Is a simple love bite now a death sentence? And how far will someone go to be proven right? Directed by the producer of Blade Runner: The Final Cut (2007).
BEST WEB SERIES
SIL and the Devil Seeds of Arodor (2019)
Director: Keith Barnfather
Run Time/Country: 15 min, UK
Synopsis: A web series based on concepts from the BBC series Doctor Who. SIL is worried, very worried, which doesn’t keep his reptilian skin in the best condition. Confined in a cold detention cell on the moon, awaiting a deportation hearing for trial on drugs offences on Earth, he faces a death sentence if the application is successful and he is found guilty.
BEST ANIMATION
Eli (2019)
Director: Nathaniel Milton
Run Time/Country: 15 min, USA
Synopsis: A 15-year-old musician believes he has an extraterrestrial implant in his ear. This is a true story based on the filmmaker’s experiences within the realms of High Strangeness, Magical Thinking and Manic Delusion.
BEST TRAILER
Outer West (2019)
Director: Jake Leister
Run Time/Country: 2 min, USA
Synopsis: West Coast pace prompts a travel nurse to accept a job in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Looking for the capital city’s postcard artistry and ease, he is instead greeted by another, entirely unexpected world…Outer West.
BEST SCI-FI SCREENPLAY
Egghead
Writer: Andrew Pelosi
Synopsis: A desperate halfwit attempts to cheat on an exam in a future where IQ testing determines who lives and who gets turned into chalk.
BEST SCI-FI PROTOTYPING SCREENPLAY
Rain
Writer: Andronica Marquis
Synopsis: A young Earth City girl, Rain, a Red by birth, marked, starving and desperate, seizes an opportunity to escape to Meccanda, a planet rumored to hold a cure, that she might save her young brother, Walker, the last of her family, who struggles against the symptoms of The Touched. The price of starship passage? Her virginity to the ship?s captain.
BEST SUPERNATURAL SCREENPLAY
House in Haunted Woods
Writer: Drew Henriksen
Synopsis: A young couple buys an abandoned house as an investment with plans to live by their agoraphobic uncle. After the purchase, the house seems to improve on its own. As people begin to disappear in the woods surrounding it, the ghosts make their presence known.
Congratulations to all of the 2020 winners! We’re looking forward to checking out all the winning entries. We can’t wait to see what next year’s Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival brings!
What do you think? Have you seen or read any of this year’s winning entries? Tell us in the comments!
