Article by Suzanne Philips
Photo copyright Pollygrind film festival
In its first three years, PollyGrind Film Festival has seen more than 40 of its official selections land distribution deals, helped numerous unknown filmmakers jump start their careers, and received international coverage and praise.
Now the Las Vegas event is calling for entries in hopes that its fourth season is the year it can really make some noise.
“PollyGrind is about trendsetting and blazing trails,” festival director Chad Clinton Freeman said. “My goal is to not only find and share groundbreaking projects from emerging filmmakers, but to be able to really push them to the forefront. PollyGrind has been knocking and knocking at the door; this year the door is going to open or we are going to kick it in.”
Freeman has dubbed his latest installment PollyGrind IV: A New Hope with “May the Fourth Be With You” as one of its taglines. The event, which MovieMaker magazine named to its 2012 list of “25 festivals worth the entry fee,” prides itself on being a film festival of a different breed.
Gems discovered at past events include The Bunny Game, Slime City Massacre, Dear God No!, Daddy’s Little Girl, My Name is A by Anonymous and many more. Before Jen and Sylvia Soska’s American Mary success, their debut Dead Hooker in a Trunk won numerous awards at PollyGrind. Before Calvin Lee Reeder starred in the hit V/H/S or directed The Rambler feature, which premieres at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, he won best director at PollyGrind. Additionally, 2013 Sundance film Escape from Tomorrow was a PollyGrind 2012 official selection and after Albert Pyun’s Road to Hell had a PollyGrind record attendance of more than 200 at Rave Cinemas, it is now being converted to 3D and IMAX Digital for a national theatrical run.
Always on the lookout for talented filmmakers, the festival tries each year to spotlight as many different types of projects as it can.
“I try to learn from each festival and make sure PollyGrind evolves,” Freeman said. “When I started this event, I didn’t want to dictate what it was about each year. Some years it might be heavy on horror, grindhouse or found footage, other years it might be heavy on the arthouse side. Last year, true crime was king with our top three films falling into that category.”
In living up to the concept of constantly evolving, PollyGrind has again expanded its entry categories and now accepts screenplays, while offering special discounted categories for women and girl filmmakers, all filmmakers under 18 and Nevada filmmakers.
The festival also offers discounted entries to debut and sophomore features that have not had world premieres, as well as films that have been rejected from other festivals. Special discounted early bird prices are as low as five dollars.
“We also had some really cool stuff from filmmakers that were under 18 and some really good stuff from women filmmakers last year. So I gave out awards for best directors under 18 and 15, as well as best woman directors for features and shorts,” Freeman said. “Many times these projects might get overlooked by a lot of other festivals, so I wanted to make sure everybody knew they were welcome here. I like to say PollyGrind champions the broken, the beaten and the damned, but the truth is we champion any and all good films, no matter who made them, what they are about, what they cost to make or what rules they happen to follow or break.”
Companies that have signed PollyGrind approved works include Lions Gate, Troma Entertainment, Alternative Cinema, Chemical Burn, Wild Eye Releasing, Breaking Glass Pictures, Sundance, Showtime, Autonomy Pictures, Midnight Releasing, Modern American Cinema, Media Blasters, Maya Entertainment, R Squared, IFC Midnight, and Synapse Films.
PollyGrind selections have also screened at Sundance, Telluride, Another Hole in the Head, Fantasia, Raindance, Fantastic, Toronto International, Arizona Underground, Chicago International, Austin and more.
PollyGrind and it’s filmmakers have also been covered by Variety, Hollywood Reporter, National Lampoon, Fearnet, Fangoria, Dread Central, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Indiewire, MovieMaker and Arrow in the Head.
It’s current promo video features the likes of Herschell Gordon Lewis, Lloyd Kaufman, Ted V. Mikels, MC Randumb & Jewish Dave, The Objex, The Roxy Gunn Project, Jenny Hendrix, Monster Zero, Michael Pare, Shane Ryan, James Cullen Bressack, Dave O’Shea, Mike Davis, Honey Lauren, Brandon Slagle, Devanny Pinn, Claire St. Claire, Chris Sun, Michael Thomson, Allira Jaques, Craig Sabin, Brooke Lewis and more.
Past festival events have included concerts, burlesque and art shows, and a zombie red carpet walk. Past winners have won distribution contracts, thousands of dollars in software prizes and equipment from Sony, Red Giant, Glidecam and Final Draft.
For more information, please visit PollyGrind.com or Facebook.com/PollyGrind
Check out their promo video at https://vimeo.com/56801893 ;
