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LEHI — After having to turn people away at the door two years in a row, the “It’s Only a Movie” short horror-film festival is upgrading its location.
Joseph Winter and his wife Vanessa started the competition five years ago while they were in the film program at Brigham Young University. Winter had always loved horror films and Halloween, so he wanted to create a rare opportunity for filmmakers to play their own movies on a real movie theater screen while providing an excuse to get dressed up at the same time.
The festival was held at the theater on BYU’s campus until the Winters graduated, after which it moved to a movie theater in Spanish Fork. This year, it will be held at the Thanksgiving Point Megaplex on Oct. 29 at 7:30 p.m.
“We had to turn people away (at the Spanish Fork theater), which was unfortunate, but it was really cool having a packed house with people wearing costumes and being enthusiastic about the films,” he said.
The “It’s Only a Movie” festival is an audience-choice competition. Local filmmakers can submit films that are under 5 minutes long until midnight on Oct. 15 for the chance to win a cash prize of up to $300. An additional award will be given for the best costume.
The only requirement for the competition is that the film pertains to the horror genre or Halloween some way, according to Winter. Between 16 and 20 films are selected for the competition every year. Audience members are given time to vote after each film.
“We value creativity over production value,” he said. “In the past, some of the best films we’ve had were filmed on cell phones and what made them good were that they were very unusual concepts just full of heart and creativity. People really connected with them.”
Winter said one example that stood out over the years was a short made by a former BYU film student who used a low-quality camera, but "blew people’s minds. Called “Where?”, it was a funny but scary film that told the story of where a boy found a dollar.
“A mom and her baby made a film by themselves, and it was awesome,” he said.
Wednesday, Oct. 29 at 7:30pm
Megaplex at Thanksgiving Point, Lehi
Admission: $5
Wear a costume
Submissions and highlights from previous years of the festival can be viewed online. Tickets to the festival are $5 and can be purchased at the door or online when the event gets closer. Updates about the competition are posted on Facebook.
“It has been really cool to see the power of word of mouth with this event,” he said. “We never had a budget to advertise for it. We’ve never even put out very many flyers. It’s just on Facebook, with people networking and saying ‘people should come watch my film’ and bringing people to the event. It’s filled seats in the past two years just by word of mouth.”
