The Phoenixville Film Festival just concluded its third annual edition in downtown Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Festivals this young usually have significant growing pains and issues to overcome if they are to become bigger, more prominent festivals. Bearing in mind, of course, that doesn’t have to be the intended goal of a festival.
That said, the Phoenixville Film Festival feels like a festival in its tenth year, doing all the big things right, with room to grow. Screenings take place exclusively at the Colonial Theater downtown. If you didn’t know, this is the theater immortalized in The Blob (1958) as the location where (67-year-old spoiler alert!) the titular blob terrorizes a moviegoing audience. The way the theater embraces that history sets a fun, quirky tone for the festival as well. The screened shorts are a thoughtful mix of genres and showcase varied technical abilities. For filmmakers, the panels are few but refreshingly informal and relaxed.
From a festival-goer’s perspective, the biggest obstacle to this event growing is something beyond their control: parking. Converting one of the surface lots into a multi-level garage could dramatically improve the visitor experience. I assure you, one garage won’t diminish the small-town charm!
For filmmakers, solid afterparties, and the small town feel offer a lot of opportunities for networking, and I suspect the value of having your project selected for this festival will only increase in the years to come.
Next year’s edition of the festival is already scheduled for September 17-20, 2026.
Leave a Reply