Experimental PollyGrind Film Festival of Las Vegas announces Official 2014 Call for Entries

March 2, 2014 - PRLog -- PollyGrind Film Festival director Chad Clinton Freeman says winning films and filmmakers of the 2013 event have just started making noise, but as they do, he is looking forward to his festival’s next installment.

Freeman is launching PollyGrind’s Official 2014 Call for Entries, inviting filmmakers around the world to submit feature films, documentaries, shorts, medium films, trailers, music videos, promos and screenplays of all genres.

“PollyGrind turns five this year,” said Freeman on Oscar Sunday during the 86th Academy Awards. “I feel each year of this festival is important, but the fifth edition of any new annual event is sort of a mini milestone, so I hope we can make this one very special.”

An international film festival steeped in artistic freedom, PollyGrind – currently nominated for Best of Las Vegas’ Reoccurring City Event - celebrates individuality, diversity, creativity, and empowerment by showcasing the work of filmmakers with defiantly independent visions.

“Each year the quality of the projects we screen gets better and better,” Freeman said. “Almost all 18 of the feature films screened in October 2013 have gone on to play other events, win awards or nab distribution. I am so proud that PollyGrind is an event that helps true independent films get exposed like this.”

Rob Grant's feature Desolate, the festival’s big winner; Chandan Gupta's Sacrifice: In the Name of Goddess Gadhimai, winner of Best Documentary; and Jennifer Campbell's short Bruised, winner of Best Horror Short and Best Short Film Director, will represent PollyGrind at this year's RxSM Self-Medicated Film Expo in Austin.

As part of the Film ExChange, an international network which includes seven film festivals such as Independent Film Awards Berlin, Art of Brooklyn Film Festival, South Texas Underground Film Festival and PollyGrind, RxSM puts the films sent in by the festival directors in competition for the Crossroads Award that is given away in Victoria, Texas in April. A total of 18 films compete to be nominated for the finals, and those 3 films share a cash prize of $5,000. Those three films travel to Victoria in April and the Crossroads Award winner will be announced on April 6.

In addition to the three films nominated, PollyGrind films Jeff Wedding’s A Measure of the Sin, Joshua Staley’s Smoked, Adam Rehmeier’s Jonas, and Julian Grant’s A F’ Load of Scotch Tape also play the festival, which coincides with South By Southwest.

Aside from RxSM, PollyGrind also offers input to the Etheria Film Festival and the Mascara and Popcorn Film Festival.

In other big news regarding PollyGrind films, 2013 Best Drama winner Boys Cry, a previous winner at the African Oscars, won Best Film at the Liberian Entertainment Awards in February, while 2013 Audience Choice Favorite Feature winner Truth or Dare has played a slew of festivals and won 18 international awards.

“I always like to joke that attending PollyGrind is like having your own time machine,” Freeman said. “You get to hear about and see a lot of films at the festival of a different breed before the masses.”

Christopher Sun was the festival’s big winner in 2012 with his sophomore film Daddy’s Little Girl. The film is currently featured on most video on demand platforms and hits DVD on March 25. Around the same time it hits DVD, Sun goes into production on his third film Charlie’s Farm with Tara Reid and Kane Hodder.

Named one of 2012's “25 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee” by MovieMaker Magazine and voted by readers to the magazine’s 2013 Top 5 Coolest Experiemntal/Underground Film Festivals, PollyGrind has seen its official selections earn distribution deals from Lions Gate, Alternative Cinema, Showtime, IFC Midnight, Wild Eye Releasing, Hannover House, Phase 4 Films, Brink, Unearthed Films, Whacked Movies, Troma, Synapse Films, Cult Epics, Autonomy Pictures, Origin Releasing, Chemical Burn, Breaking Glass, MVD Entertainment, Indican Pictures, Brain Damage Films, R Squared, Midnight Releasing, Asylum Home Entertainment, Apprehensive Films, Epix, Seminal Films, Maxim Media, Acort International, and a slew of other outlets, and can be found via Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon Prime, Redbox and many other places.

Distribution contracts and consultations were awarded to winners in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Freeman is currently working with a number of distribution companies this year including Beneath the Underground, Wild Eye, Apprehensive Films and Whacked Movies, and hopes to have a couple of them on board to award contracts to winning films in 2014 as well.

Upcoming and recently released on DVD or recently signed films that played the festival include Frankie in Blunderland, Barbazul, 25K, Rage, 13/13/13, To Jennifer, Legend of the Hillbilly Butcher, Play Hooky, Final Entries: The Video Diary of Madi O, Nightmare Factory, I Am a Ghost, A Measure of the Sin, Another Zero in the System, Nightmare Box, Desolate, The Cohasset Snuff Film, Dry Bones, Sweet Leaf, Blood Soaked, Fat Cat, Blackface Killer, My Name is A by Anonymous, Coyote, Johnny Ghost, The Turnpike Killer, President Wolfman, China White Serpentine, Beast: A Monster Among Men, The Black Dahlia Haunting and more.

PollyGrind, which will be featured in the next issue of Weng’s Chop,  and it's filmmakers have been covered by Variety, Hollywood Reporter, MovieMaker, Diabolique Magazine, HorrorUnlimited.com, National Lampoon, Fearnet, Fangoria, Dread Central, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Indiewire, Macabre Theatre, Vegas Seven, Las Vegas Weekly, Las Vegas Review-Journal, BadLit.com: The Journal of Underground Film, ArrowintheHead.com, 28 Days Later Analysis, Vampires.com, Examiner.com, FearZone.com, Geek Files, Robin Leach’s Luxe Life, Mail Order Zombie, Podcast From Hell, Fox News, Pretty Scary, Horrorphilia, Planet Etheria, CouchCutter.com, Pulp Movies, Ain't it Cool News, MTV, Horror Society, Wired Magazine, Double Down Radio Show, BeneaththeUnderground.com, KNPR, Rue Morgue, The Beverly Hills Outlook, Film Threat, and more.

PollyGrind selections have screened at Sundance, Telluride, Another Hole in the Head, Cannes Independent Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Fantasia, Raindance, Fantastic Fest, Bare Bones Film Festival, Toronto International, Arizona Underground, Chicago International, Austin Film Festival, Cinema Wasteland, Freakshow Horror Film Fest, Tromadance, Chicago Horror, Boston Underground, Unreal Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, Germany After Dark, Macabre Faire, Jennifer's Bodies, AFI Fest, Sydney Underground, Rotterdam Film Festival, New York Film Fest and many more.

For more information on PollyGrind, visit http://www.PollyGrind.com or http://www.Facebook.com/PollyGrind.