# Festivus Film Festival

The Festivus Film Festival is a Denver, Colorado-based annual film festival held in November. It features independent films at historical venues in the Denver Highlands, including the Bug Theatre and the Oriental Theater. The Festivus Film Festival was founded in 2008, suspended operation in 2013 due to budget constraints and relaunched in 2019 after getting support from the Denver art centre and other NGOs. The festival lasts for five days and plays a variety of films including features, short films, animation and music videos. It is the largest independent film festival in Denver.

## History

The festival was named after Festivus, a holiday celebrated on December 23 which was introduced in the 1997 Seinfeld episode The Strike. The festival founders liked and adapted the Festivus motto: "Festivus for the rest of us". The Festivus Film Festival was started to promote high-quality independent films in Denver, and provide an intelligent, "indie-friendly" audience for filmmakers.
The Festivus Film Festival expanded considerably since its inaugural year in 2008. In 2009 it expanded to a four-day event and added a filmmaker/VIP lounge at each venue. In 2010 the festival featured 12 world premieres, and had filmmakers from as far as Turkey and Australia attend to present their works. The subsidiary Laugh Track Comedy Festival was created in 2010 as a spin-off from Festivus' comedy shorts block (also called Laugh Track.) Also in 2012, MovieMaker Magazine named the Festivus Film Festival one of the "20 Coolest Film Festivals" in the country.

## Previous winners
### 2020

Best Editing: I will be back
Best Cinematography: The Web
Best Animation: Kitchen Duties
Best Music Video: Twice as Tall
Best Short Short: Hibiscus
Best Experimental: Renege
Best Documentary Short: I am just Black
Best Documentary Feature: Soldiers In the Artic
Best Narrative Short: Why
Best Narrative Feature: Fly Away

### 2012

Best Editing: A Finger, Two Dots, Then Me
Best Cinematography: Ghosts of Old Highways
Best Animation: 999.999.999
Best Music Video: 100 Monkeys for Modern Times
Best Short Short: Halbschlaf
Best Experimental: Self-Sabotage
Best Documentary Short: The Forgotten Fruit
Best Documentary Feature: Facets of Winter
Best Narrative Short: Science of Death
Best Narrative Feature: Searching for Sonny

### 2011

Best Editing: Calling on Others (Scott LeDuc & Andrew Matthews)
Best Cinematography: Brant Hadfield for The Last Legend
Best Animation: Noella Borie's The Face Shop
Best Music Video: Evan Nix for Tour Life (Total Ghost)
Best Short Short: Joe Petrilla's THE LINE
Best Experimental: Adam Badlotto's Only in Dreams
Best Documentary Short: Robert Sickels' Walla Walla Wiffle
Best Documentary Feature: Awakening the Skeena
Best Narrative Short: Marisa Brown's Rain for Morgan
Best Narrative Feature: Boy Wonder

### 2010

Best Editing: The Ballad of Angel Face
Best Cinematography: Stoney
Best Animation: Little Old Ladies
Best Music Video: The Atro-City Sleepers
Best Short Short: Black Ops Arabesque
Best Experimental: The Magnitude of the Continental Divides
Best Documentary Short: Between the Lip and Nasal Passageway; A Modern Account of the Moustache
Best Documentary Feature: Rouge Ciel
Best Narrative Short: The Godmother
Best Narrative Feature: Racewalker

### 2009

Best Editing: And What Remains
Best Cinematography: Placebo
Best Music Video: Mr. Bungle - Retrovertigo
Best Experimental: Railed
Best Animation: Gerald's Last Day
Best Short Short: Interpretation
Best Doc Short: Reefer Madness
Best Documentary: The Cost of Oil
Best Narrative Short: Compact Only
Best Narrative Feature: The Project

### 2008

Best Narrative Short: Partially True Tales of High Adventure!
Best Short Short: The Seed
Best Experimental: Standing on a Whale
Best Music Video: DeNardo
Best Animation: Hope Springs Eternal
Best Documentary Short: In Times of War: Ray Parker's Story
Best Feature Documentary: Beauty24
Best Narrative feature: Wasting Away