Philadelphia Unnamed festival sets dates and venue, accepting submissions

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

The brainchild of genre aficionados Madeleine Koestner and Alex Gardner, the Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival (a.k.a. PUFF) is returning for its third consecutive year, having announced its dates and venue. The start of the festival is just seven months away, as it has been set to run from Thursday, September 6th through Sunday, September 9th at the Proscenium Theater at the Drake in Center City, Philadelphia.

The festival aims to offer four full days of "strange, sordid, and spectacular offerings from international and regional independent filmmakers", and now it's seeking the films that will fill those four days. In addition to the established feature and short film categories, the third annual PUFF will mark the debut of a micro-shorts category that will spotlight unique and experimental short-form films from emerging digital platforms.

Early submissions are open for filmmakers who want to send in their features, shorts, or micro-shorts, with special low-rate entry fees for submissions during the month of February. Standard rates commence on March 1st, with the late submission period beginning on June 16th. The submission period ends on July 15th.

All films playing in competition will be eligible for three different awards, represented by a tiara: Best Feature Award, Best Short Award, and Jury Award. A new figure in the indie genre scene will also receive a Legacy Award.

When not assembling the four day festival, PUFF also collaborates with Philadelphia's South Street Cinema for a weekly screening series. The festival will also be branching out to the West Coast for a collaboration with the Bay Area's Overlook Theatre. Next month, the Unnamed Film Festival will showcase two days (March 24th and 25th) of found footage horror at San Francisco's Historic Balboa Theater.

If you would like to submit a film to PUFF3, head over to the festival's pages on FilmFreeway and WithoutABox.