Diverse Programming and Attending Filmmakers Make for a One of a Kind Western New York Film Festival Experience
Buffalo, New York – Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival has announced its most ambitious lineup yet for its 2017 season: 110 films will screen over 11 days. The multi-genre festival, spotlighting the best independent films from around the world, runs Thursday, Nov. 2nd – Thursday, Nov. 9th at Dipson Theaters Eastern Hills Cinema in Williamsville, and Nov. 10th – 12th at the Screening Room Cinema Cafe in Amherst. The festival is the largest of its type in Western New York. One half of the 40 features screening are in the horror genre, with action, animation, comedy, documentary, drama, experimental, family, foreign, science fiction and thriller films represented among the rest
Highlights among this year’s slate include two documentaries from the festival’s Filmmaker of the Year, Adrian Esposito: the Buffalo-Niagara film festival premiere of Diffability Hollywood and the world premiere of Greetings from Tromaville!; the East coast premiere of Lloyd Kaufman’s Return to Return to Nuke Em High aka Vol. 2, filmed in Niagara Falls; the New York State premiere of Buckout Road, Matthew Currie Holmes’s Canadian film about a legendary haunted road in upstate New York; cult filmmaker Brett Kelly’s Countrycide; the film festival premiere of Todd Sheets’s werewolf epic Bonehill Road; Jon Keeyes’s sophiosticated horror thriller The Harrowing; Stephen Biro’s gory exorcism flick The Song of Solomon; and Black Fawn Films’ return to Buffalo with the its latest horror offering, The Heretics.
Festival co-founders Gregory Lamberson and Chris Scioli have scheduled “A Salute to Fred Olen Ray and Chris Olen Ray,” back-to-back screenings of Fred Olen Ray’s classic 1988 cult film Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers and Chris Ray’s recent terror fest Circus Kane. The father and son duo among the most prolific filmmakers in Hollywood, and have played an instrumental role in transforming Buffalo-Niagara into the most active area for film production in the state outside of New York City. The Rays will each do a Q&A.
This year the festival expands its weekday matinee selection of foreign films aimed at the Eatsern Hills Cinema’s regular arthouse crowd, with the exotic thriller You Go To My Head from Belgium/Australia/Germany; the political drama Palyadawasi from India; the coming of age musical All Because of Love from Taiwan; the fantasy Dominika from Russia; and the shot-in-one-take drama Immortality from Iran. Also aimed at the Eastern Hills crowd is the award-winning U.S. documentary Pieced Together, about quilt trails across America and the inspiration they have provided, directed by Julianne Donofrio, who will attend.
Other foreign films at Buffalo Dreams embrace the dark side, like the revenge thriller Offensive and the sensory horror film The Darkest, both from France. Montrak, a vampire/action film having its US premiere, and the action film One Shot Left, are both from Germany. The festival’s final stretch at the Screening Room includes a day of Canadian horror films (the anthology 3 Dead Trick or Treaters, the wilderness slasher film The Lone Paddler, and the psychological thriller Art of Obsession). The closing day is comprised of four outstanding features from the UK: the animated paranormal docudrama Borley Rectory; the dark fantasy The Gatehouse; the supernatural thriller Charismata; and Dogged, a feature film derived from a proof of concept short which screened at the festival last year. Filmmakers from many of these selections will attend, creating a truly international film going experience.
Buffalo Dreams Family Film Festival presents two blocks of programming, Saturday Nov. 4th and Sunday Nov. 5thm at 11:30 am. On Saturday, writer Chris Parish (The King of Queens) presents Thrill Ride, a family adventure ala The Goonies based on stories written by his son. The musical fantasy Princess Sparkly Butt and the Hotdog Kid screens on Sunday Nov. 5th. Both films will be preceded by shorts, some of them produced by young students. All seats for the family films are only $5.
Other World Premieres include the comedy 666 PM, from the team behind last year’s Massacre on Aisle 12, and the locally produced drama Good Times Never Come. Admission for Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival is $10 per film/block ($7 for students, seniors and military ID), $20 for a Day Pass, and $100 for an All Festival Pass. Tickets will go on sale next week on the Dipson Theaters website, and the full schedule will soon be available at www.buffalodreamsfilmfest.com
Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival
11 Days, 110 Films
40 Features, 70 Shorts and Short Features
Nov. 2nd – 9th at Dipson Theaters Eastern Hills Cinema
Nov. 10th – 12th at The Screening Room Cinema Cafe
Features (40)
3 Dead Trick or Treaters – Horror Anthology, Canada – Buffalo-Niagara Premiere
The 60 Yard Line – Comedy, US – Buffalo-Niagara Premiere
666PM – Comedy, US – World Premiere
All Because of Love – Musical, Taiwan – US Premiere
Art of Obsession – Psychological Horror, Canada – US Premiere
Blessed Are the Children – Horror, US – Buffalo-Niagara Premiere
Bonehill Road – Horror, US – Film Festival Premiere
Borley Rectory – Animated Paranormal Docudrama, UK – WNY Premiere
Buckout Road – Horror, Canada – NYS Premiere
Charismata – Horror/Thriller, UK – WNY Premiere
Circus Kane – Horror, US – Chris Olen Ray Salute
Countrycide – Horror, Canada – NYS Premiere
The Darkest – Horror, France – US Premiere
Darken – Science Fiction, Canada – NYS Premiere
Diffability Hollywood – WNY Documentary – Buffalo-Niagara Film Festival Premiere
Dogged – Horror/Thriller, UK – NYS Premiere
Dominika – Fantasy, Russia – WNY Premiere
The Gatehouse – Fantasy, UK – East Coast Premiere
Get My Gun – Revenge Thriller – Buffalo-Niagara Premiere
Good Times Never Come – WNY Drama – World Premiere
Greetings from Tromaville! – WNY Documentary – World Premiere
Hablar Con Los Muertos (Talk to the Dead) – Film Festival Premiere
The Harrowing – Horror/Thriller – NYS Premiere
The Heretics, Black Fawn Films – Horror, Canada – NYS Premiere
Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers – Cult Classic – Fred Olen Ray Salute
Immortality – Drama, Iran – US Premiere
The Lone Paddler – Horror, Canada – US Premiere
Mercy Christmas – Horror/Comedy – East Coast Premiere
Mickey Reece’s Alien – Experimental Drama – WNY Premiere
Montrak – Action/Horror, Germany – US Premiere
Offensive – Revenge Thriller, France – NYS Premiere
One Shot Left – Action, Germany – NYS Premiere
Palyadawasi – Drama, India – NYS Premiere
The Phoenix Incident – SF, US
Return to Return to Nuke Em High aka Vol. 2 – Horor/Comedy, US – East Coast Premiere
Six-Pack Sam – Action/Crime/Thriller, US – World Premiere
The Song of Solomon – Horror, US – NYS Premiere
Thrill Ride – Family Adventure, US – NYS Premiere
The VelociPastor – Comedy, US – World Premiere
You Go To My Head – Thriller – Belgium/Australia/ Germany – East Coast Premiere
total
Short Features (4)
Pieced Together (Documentary, US)
Princess Sparkly Butt and the Hotdog Kid (Family, Canada)
Tangent Room (Science Ficton, Sweden)
The Outlaw 7: Death of SIXX (Fantasy, WNY)
Animated Shorts (5)
Fierce (France)
Light Sight (Iran)
Murder Zone (WNY)
The Pine Tree Villa (Germany)
The Servant (Iran)
North American Shorts (19)
2BR02B: To Be Or Naught To Be
Banshee
Breaker
Bride of Frankie
The Call of Charlie
Candyland
Chronoception
The Eliminadora
The Hobbyist
Icarus
Imbroglio
The Last Hurrah
Once Upon a November
Off the Rails
Scraps
Slapface
The Tinwife
Walking Supply
Walk of Shame
International Shorts (16)
2AM (Australia)
Acheron (Germany)
Alfred J. Hemlock (Australia)
Black Ring (Turkey)
Blood Shed (UK)
Desfunctionary (Spain)
Einstein Rosen (Germany)
An Eldrich Place (Belgium)
Go Paul (Germany)
Hada (Spain)
Julkita (Mexico)
Near Keplar (Germany)
The Peculiar Sensibilities of Mr. Mahler (Germany)
Rahowa (Canada)
Strangers on the Road (Spain)
Zona-84 (Spain)
Western New York Shorts (9)
Punch Andy
Filling In
Hunted Pride
In the Death Room
No One Has to Know
The Pearl of Tia Megdelena
Tales of Darkened Light: A Friendly Wager
Venatus Mars
Wait
Micro-Shorts (11)
Daddy’s Girls (Canada)
Es Rever (US)
Ghoulish (Canada)
Metube2 August sing Carmine Burana (Germany)
Monster (US)
Mrs. Rafferty’s Red Roses (Canada)
Paul’s Bad Day (US)
Punch Andy (WNY)
Red Maze (US)
Still (UK)
The Summit (US)
Young Student / Student (6)
A Boy Named Sue (WNY)
Gone (US)
Greatest Zombie Movie Ever (US)
Sleeptalker (US)
Lily Hits the Road (Canada)
Human Outbreak (Australia)
Feature Film Premiere Status
World Premieres (5)
US Premieres (5)
East Coast Premieres (3)
New York State Premieres (10)
Western New York Premiers (3)
Buffalo-Niagara Premieres (4)
Film Festival Premieres ( 2 )