Hal Astell Interview | Apocalypse Later International Fantastic Film Festival |

The Two Gay Geeks are pleased to publish this press release and interview for the Apocalypse Later International Fantastic Film Festival. We spoke to Hal about his background and how he got into programming a film festival. He also fills us in on some specifics of the film festival.

We hope you enjoy the interview below and plan to attend the film festival over the weekend.

Let us know what you think in the comments section below. As always, we welcome your feedback and input on all of our published content. Thank you.

Phoenix, AZ. Release: October 1, 2019. For Immediate Release.

The fourth annual ALIFFF, the Apocalypse Later International Fantastic Film Festival, will take place on its regular weekend, October 12-13, 2019, at its regular venue, the Phoenix Center for the Arts. It’s a genre film festival, covering all the fantastic genres: horror, sci-fi, action, crime, fantasy, etc.

This year’s line-up includes 6 features and 51 shorts. ALIFFF’s 7 sets of short films are more than any other genre film festival in state. Selected films hail from 20 different countries and all non-English language films will be subtitled. Most are premières for Arizona, if not wider. Many filmmakers will be in attendance to take part in Q&As.

This year’s judges are Mark Ciccarone, Kevin R. Phipps and Dineta Williams Trigg. Ciccarone is the owner of Blood Bound Books, a genre publishing company. Phipps is a writer, producer and director, as well as an in-demand Meisner acting coach. Williams-Trigg is an actress and director who runs the Night of Misfit Films, a two day film festival focused on films that don’t make it into other festivals.

The panel of judges will choose the winners of the short film awards: Best Horror, Best Sci-Fi and Best Other. The audience will vote for the winner of Best Feature. The Festival Director’s Award is a special award given by Hal C. F. Astell, the festival’s founder and director. The awards are each one of a kind creations commissioned from local artist Tom Deadstuff.

Interested parties can find the full line-up of films online at the festival’s website, alfilmfest.com, as well as archives of each previous year.

Full event passes are only $50 in advance at the festival website or $60 at the door. They cover entry to all films over the two days. Parking and popcorn are free. Doors open at 10.00 am on each day, with the first films at 10:30.