It’s that time again!  This will be the third year in a row that I have attended the Phoenix Film Festival.  I heard about it in 2013, the first year I was here during it, and decided it sounded fun, so I volunteered in order to get a free ticket.  While volunteering was fun, it took up a lot of time and made it hard to work full-time, volunteer a total of 24 hours over the course of the event, and see all of the movies I wanted to see.  So last year I decided to try to get in as press and cover the event (and the movies) for my blog.  And I succeeded… I blogged and I tweeted and I watched and reviewed films. I also met some really cool people including another movie reviewer (Hi Caleb!) and a filmmaker and cast of one of the films.  <insert shout out to The Shower here>

This year I will be attending the Phoenix Film Festival as press once again.  I didn’t find out for sure if I would be until today, so way back last year when they had festival passes on sale for the least amount of money and I knew I wanted to go, be it as press or just a Phoenix Film Festival attendee… I bought one.  So now I have my press pass as well as a festival pass, and I’m ready to share the love and have some company and someone to discuss movies with during the fest.  It should be fun!

For those of you who have never been and love movies, I highly recommend it, even if you might normally just be an occasional movie goer.  You will find some great movies at this festival that you might have never heard about otherwise.  On top of that, a lot of the filmmakers and cast are actually there during the festival and you can meet them and ask them questions (and even drink with them!).  It’s easy to just get caught up in the “big” movies with big stars that hit theaters and miss the independent films out there.  Believe it or not, while filmmaker might sound like a glamorous title, there are those out there still trying to make it big and hoping their flick becomes a success.  I’ve gotten more insight into just what goes into making a film since I started attending the Phoenix Film Festival.

If you like movies at all, I encourage you to check out the website for the Phoenix Film Festival and stop by, even just to see one film.  I’m guessing you won’t regret it.  The festival runs March 26 through April 2, and more information about tickets can be found on their website.