Movies Matter: The Heart of the Chattanooga Film Festival

Badges and tickets to one of the coolest film festivals in all the land (which happens to be run by the coolest, kindest, most genuine team) are selling out quickly. Consider this your clarion call to

With a hashtag like  #respectcinema  (I need that tattooed on my body), you know this a fest committed to giving cinephiles what they crave and deserve.

What began as a DIY guerrilla film club dedicated to bringing more great movies to Chattanooga by any means necessary, the Chattanooga Film Festival (CFF) quickly grew into an all-out obsession to expand the city’s indie film exposure and provide valuable film education. A series of successful themed events like the Frightening Ass Film Festival eventually blossomed into a full-scale, multi-day film festival that is today’s CFF.

This isn’t a money-making venture; this is a calling, a passion, an absolute bloody devotion to the art of film and the community of film lovers. CFF is a non-profit organization. Every dollar raised through donations, grant support, and ticket sales goes directly into keeping the festival alive and helps the organization keep its supplemental classes and workshops free to attend. Every dollar raised helps them bring some of the most unique, profound, educational, and entertaining films to their home in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

However, these homegrown heroes also care about the film community at large, which is why much of their truly exceptional programming is available to audiences everywhere through their virtual offering.

Film fests are always a special and unforgettable experience in person, and it’s hard to duplicate the kinetic energy and joy of connecting with fellow film lovers you get from being in the heart of the action. However, not everyone has the means or ability to travel for these great fests, and it’s phenomenal to have the opportunity to see some of these remarkable films from the comfort of home.

Chattanooga Film Festival has shown a renegade tendency to push things as far as it can with its jam-packed, thought-provoking, wildly original, and must-see programming. The 2024 edition may be their best yet. There’s so much cool content that it’s almost overwhelming.

1. Video Vision

First up is the World Premiere of Michael Turney’s RetroTech Romance VIDEO VISION, filled with the kind of VHS worship practically guaranteed to worm its way into the hearts of the festival’s loyal fans. In the film, a woman unlocks a dark dimension through an old VCR, combining romance, horror, and analog technology in unique and spellbinding ways.

Video Vision, in both vibes and execution, perfectly embodies the genre-blending spirit of the Chattanooga Film Festival and serves as its opening night film selection for the year.

2. The Fix

Closing out the fest is writer/director Kelsey Egan’s THE FIX. In the dystopian future of Egan’s film, the air is toxic. A troubled young model (Grace Van Dien) takes an illicit new drug at a party and suffers a shocking transformation. She attempts to reverse the effects of the drug, only to discover her mutations may be the key to saving the human race. Throw in some wildly cool effects, the presence of Clancy Brown, and a jaw-dropping third act, and you’ve got yourself a film tailor-made to find its way into the hearts of the festival’s longtime attendees.

3. Somnium

Also world premiering is the debut feature of an exciting new voice in genre cinema, writer/director Racheal Cain, whose SOMNIUM acts as the centerpiece of the CFF’s opening weekend. Starring the always awesome Chloe Levine (The Ranger) Cain’s beautifully shot mind-bender takes place at an experimental sleep clinic, Somnium, where your dreams are made real. Side effects may include hallucinations, confusion, paranoia, sleep paralysis, detachment from reality, loss of sense of self, and permanent nightmares.

4. Sleep, Wake, Forget

After hotboxing festival goers’ brains with last year’s bodacious bong-load of hemp horror TRIM SEASON, filmmaker Ariel Vida a two-time festival alum well-anchored in the psyches of CFF audience returns with the World Premiere of a profoundly personal feature years in the making. In SLEEP, WAKE, FORGET, years after civilization has fallen and the infected roam the world, two brothers survive because of a unique skill — the ability to look into the minds of others.

5. Sweet Relief

ART BRUT FILMS will be presenting a special screening of a unique take on the slasher genre: filmmaker Nick Verdi’s SWEET RELIEF, a film that feels more than a little infused with the hangout DNA of early Richard Linklater films while still delivering a story that will resonate with genre fans.

6. Ghost Game

Presenting another buzzed-about special screening for attendees is DREAD. DREAD will bring the thrills of another longtime fan-approved CFF alum filmmaker, Jill Gevargizian’s (The Stylist) latest feature, GHOST GAME, to the festival. The film also boasts a screenplay by CFF guest author/screenwriter Adam Cesare.

7. In the Name of God

From Swedish director Ludwig Gur comes IN THE NAME OF GOD. After the wife of Theodor, a 40-year-old priest, falls seriously ill, he seeks guidance from his old mentor, who convinces him he has been chosen by God to rid the world of sinners to bring new life to true believers. He then commits his first murder, convinced it is a necessary sacrifice in service of his divine mission. At the moment of the murder, his wife’s health improves, and the congregation starts referring to him as the “miracle priest,” knowing nothing of his horrible act. But lurking in the shadows is a disbelieving man who begins to uncover the bloody traces of the priest’s unholy deeds.

8. Canvas

From directors Kimberly Stuckwisch and Melora Donoghue comes the spell-binding psychological drama CANVAS. Pitted against each other since youth and raised to believe true artists are only formed through suffering, two sisters reunite after years of estrangement. One sister learns authenticity and the other regret, but neither escapes the sins of their father.

9. Carnage for Christmas

Early in her new film’s festival run is the wildly talented and prolific CFF alum Alice Maio Mackay, who takes holiday set horror to twisted new places with CARNAGE FOR CHRISTMAS. When true-crime podcaster and sleuth Lola visits her hometown at Christmas for the first time since running away and transitioning, the vengeful ghost of a historical murderer and urban legend seemingly arises to kill again. Lola must solve the case before her community is slaughtered. She’s up against not only a psychotic killer but a town haunted by secrets.

10. The Lonely Man With the Ghost Machine

From actor, filmmaker, and indie icon Graham Skipper (Sequence Break, The Leech) comes his latest, THE LONELY MAN AND THE GHOST MACHINE. A haunting, beautiful, and deeply personal work, the film centers around the last man on Earth after a global catastrophe, who finds himself questioning his purpose and sanity as both his dead wife and a mysterious stranger confront him with his past, his present, and whatever future might remain in the wastes of a dead world.

11. Red Rooms

The Canadian psychological thriller film from Pascal Plante, RED ROOMS, is being hailed as an icily effective chiller. The high-profile case of serial killer Ludovic Chevalier has just gone to trial, and Kelly-Anne is obsessed. When reality blurs with her morbid fantasies, she goes down a dark path to seek the final piece of the puzzle: the missing video of a murdered 13-year-old girl to whom Kelly-Anne bears a disturbing resemblance.

If all these films weren’t enough, Chattanooga Film Festival has announced that one of the undisputed hits of its 2023 edition returns. The delicious maximalism of the RED EYE block features a seven-night series of secret screenings exclusive to the festival’s virtual platform. Guests can expect forgotten gems, special anniversary screenings of cult classics, and indie rarities that won’t come to a streaming service near them anytime soon.

With its commitment to audience and filmmaker accessibility, its warm-hearted southern hospitality, and its consistently surprising and eclectic programming, the Chattanooga Film Festival has, in just 11 years, been chosen as One of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World (MovieMaker Magazine), as well as One of the Best Genre Film (MovieMaker) and Horror Festivals (Dread Central), and was recently hailed as “the gold standard on how to run a welcoming, unpretentious, no-bullshit film fest for folks who want to hang out and have a good time together” by legendary cinema publication FANGORIA.

This year’s Chattanooga Film Festivalwill occur from June 21-28, 2024. As in its 10th edition, the festival will be presented in a hybrid format, with in-person and virtual programming available. The festival’s in-person dates, June 21-24, will again be staged at Chattanooga’s historic haunted hotel, The Read House.