The inaugural Anomaly - The Rochester Genre Film Festival took place Friday, November 8 through Sunday, November 10, 2019. The festival showcased new and independent “genre films” from around the world at the Cinema Theater, a one-screen neighborhood theater (with cats!) in Rochester’s historic South Wedge.

Representing work from 17 different countries and 13 female directors, the 2019 programming lineup had everything: plenty of ghosts, late-night-TV commercials, pimple-popping, zombie romance, hideous chickens, a deep-dive documentary of devious divas and dancing-debauchery, plus swords! Blood! Santa! Superheroes! And more. From Oscar-nominated actors to director’s debut films, the first year of Anomaly truly ran the gamut.

• Anomaly’s Magnus Apollo interviewed Zach Shildwachter (co-writer, “Labrys”), Vicky Mejia Yepes (sound designer, “Stari Grad”), and Jack Beck (writer/director, “Stari Grad”) after the Shocking! Spooky! Saturday Shorts program of 11 genre shorts from around the world. Zach spoke about working with his co-writer BJ Colangelo (also the short’s director) and casting; Vicky pulled back the curtain on how she created the ambient tones of an empty city using real-world, natural sounds in Canandaigua; and Jack shared stories of filming in Croatia, and how the short came to be.

• VFW co-writer Matt McArdle broke down what went into scripting a modern grindhouse action with a cast of old-favorite actors.

• Night of the Living Shred writer/director Boris Sapozhnikov and editor Mark Di Stefano talked about channeling the spirit of Romero in only a 3-day production, start-to-finish.

• Phoneprasith “Phone” Dumas and Pany Chounlapane, from Rochester’s Wat Pa Lao Buddhadham, gave an emotional reflection to The Long Walk: seeing a Laotian film on the big screen, and cultural representation.

• Deathcember filmmakers shared stories from being part of an international anthology production, and how they came to be a part of the project. Zach Shildwachter (co-writer/co-director, “The Used to Laugh and Call Him Names”) described entrail-effects; Vivienne Vaughn (writer/director, “A Christmas Miracle”) shared the joy of working with Barbara Crampton; and Andrew Scott Bell (composer) talked about writing the melody to unify a film comprised of segments from all over the world.

• A full-festival passholder happy hour at Angry Goat Pub kicked off the festival with finger food, drink specials, and badge-decoration with genuine video store stickers!

• An Opening Night After Party inside Nox Cocktail’s “secret room” with late-night food and an In Fabric themed cocktail.

• Saturday launched with Donuts & Coffee for passholders, featuring vampiric donuts from Schutt’s Apple Mill and coffee.

• Saturday Night’s Party at Skylark Lounge featured pizza, meatballs, delicious ice cream samples from the fine folks at Hedonist Ice Cream, drink discounts for passholders, a live DJ, and some VFW-inspired red-and-blue lighting.

• Sunday morning launched the Deathcember holiday spirit with ‘Nog & “Gingerdead” Cookies, created by our friends at Premier Pastry.

• Original “killer red dress” buttons at the In Fabric screening

• A video shoutout to the audience from actor David Patrick Kelly before the screening of VFW, sponsored by Fright-Rags

• A video introduction from the producers of Deathcember

• A world-premiere download of the “Deathcember Suite” from the Deathcember original score.

• Delicious vanilla pudding cups before It’s Not Custard (gulp!)

• A giveaway of Showgirls DVDs before You Don’t Nomi

• A newfound fondness for potatoes

SPONSORS & PARTNERS