Films - Calgary Underground Film Festival

WINNER: Jury Award: Best Documentary Feature

Alien On Stage An amateur group of UK bus drivers spend a year creating a stage adaptation of Ridley Scott’s ALIEN and eventually take it to London's West End.

Bad Attitude: The Art Of Spain Rodriguez An exploration of the controversial art and life of the legendary underground cartoonist Spain Rodriguez, through the lens of his wife.

Bloodthirsty An indie singer struggling to write her sophomore album heads to the secluded cabin of a mysterious producer and begins a deep transformation of both body and mind in this Alberta werewolf thriller.

Censor After viewing a strangely familiar 'video nasty', Enid, a film censor, sets out to solve the past mystery of her sister's disappearance, embarking on a quest that dissolves the line between fiction and reality.

Coming Home In The Dark A school teacher is forced to confront a brutal act from his past when a pair of ruthless drifters take him and his family on a nightmare road trip.

Cryptozoo Cryptozookeepers try to capture a dream-eating hybrid creature of legend, and start wondering if they should display these beasts or keep them hidden and unknown in this feature from world-renowned animator Dash Shaw.

End Of The Line: The Women Of Standing Rock Indigenous women risk their lives to stop the oil pipeline construction that desecrated their ancient burial and prayer sites and threatens their land, water, and very existence.

Fearless An intimate portrait of a boxing gym in a small town of Conroe, Texas, exploring the challenges faced by the boxers – people of colour and immigrants in the United States.

First Date After being conned into buying a shady ‘65 Chrysler, Mike’s first date plans with the girl next door spiral out of control when he finds himself targeted by criminals, cops, and a crazy cat lady.

Found Footage Festival: Tape Trading Classics Hosts Joe Pickett (The Onion) and Nick Prueher (Late Show) take you back in time to the pre-internet 90s to resurrect the best "tape traded" videos passed from weirdo to weirdo on VHS.

Frank & Zed The lives of two reclusive monsters are shattered when a power-hungry magistrate deceives his village into attacking their desolate castle, fulfilling a gruesome prophecy: The Orgy of Blood!

Fully Realized Humans With less than a month until the birth of their first child, Jackie and Elliot embark on a madcap mission to break their cycles of dysfunction with the goal of becoming the world's greatest parents.

GEORGE A. ROMERO DOUBLE BILL: THE AMUSEMENT PARK & NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD A double bill from the legendary horror filmmaker George A. Romero! First up see the new 4K digital restoration of Romero's long-lost THE AMUSEMENT PARK (1973) followed by his classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968). See 2 films for the price of 1!

Golden Arm Opening Night Film! With the help of her best friend, a small-town baker from Kansas trains for the Ladies Arm Wrestling Championship in this offbeat comedy.

Heartworn Highways (1976) - Re-Release A newly-restored documentary of the cult classic about the radical country artists that changed the course of country music history. Presented by Sled Island.

Hobo With A Shotgun - National Canadian Film Day A homeless vigilante blows away crooked cops, pedophile Santas, and other scumbags with his trusty pump-action shotgun in this cult classic presented as part of National Canadian Film Day.

Itchy Fingers An aspiring teenage comedian joins a community theatre and is cast to play a school shooter.

WINNER: Audience Award: Best Documentary Feature

Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story After his 1986 album "Keyboard Fantasies" is rediscovered, a black transgender musician emerges from years in isolation to an enraptured crowd.

Kid Candidate The story of 24-year old Hayden Pedigo and his unlikely run for Amarillo, Texas city council after his Harmony Korine inspired spoof campaign video goes viral.

Laughter As a civil war shakes the province of Quebec, Valérie is the sole survivor of a mass execution in this powerful Canadian film on the edge of science-fiction and realism.

Live Script Reading: Hurt Them Join a cast of actors for a live script read of the feature revenge thriller HURT THEM.

PANEL: PUPPETRY IN (STOP)MOTION Take a strange ride on the freaky side of puppetry with the filmmakers behind CUFF 2021 selections FRANK & ZED and THE OLD MAN MOVIE in a candid discussion about the literal blood, sweat and tears put into making these ambitious puppet projects.

WINNER: Jury Award: Best Narrative Feature

Playdurizm When a teenager finds himself caught in a glitchy-glitzy reality with his on-screen male idol, he does all he can to be possessed by this man and ignore the violent clues of how he got there.

Range Roads Television actor Frankie King struggles to confront the past when she returns to her hometown in rural Alberta after her parents are killed in a tragic car accident.

Recovery Two directionless sisters brave a cross-country road trip to rescue their grandmother from a COVID outbreak at her nursing home.

WINNER: Audience Award: Best Narrative Feature

Riders Of Justice The latest collaboration from Danish filmmaking icon Anders Thomas Jensen and Mads Mikkelsen follows recently-deployed Markus, who is forced to return home to his care for his teenage daughter after his wife is killed in a tragic train accident.

Saturday Morning All-You-Can-Eat-Cereal (At Home) Cartoon Party! In this all-new program, you’ll see both faves and obscurities spanning the '60s through the '90s, all punctuated with vintage commercials, PSAs and station IDs!

#Shakespearesshitstorm Two decades after TROMEO AND JULIET, Lloyd Kaufman and The Troma Team adapt "The Tempest" – Shakespeare has never been this raw and unfiltered.

Shaturday Morning Cartoons w/ Nick & Joe In celebration of CUFF, Found Footage Festival hosts Nick & Joe will be joined by Lead Programmer Brennan Tilley for their weekly ritual.

SHORTS PACKAGE: BE TRUE TO YOURSELF Profiles of free spirited non-conformists. Whether a one-man band, a conspiracy theorist or a couple adjusting their haunted house to pandemic protocols, there are the fascinating people we would love to chat with at a party.

SHORTS PACKAGE: LATE NIGHT CRAVINGS Satisfy your desires with this package of short films. Getting what you want may involve giving something in exchange.

SHORTS PACKAGE: QUINTESSENTIAL QUIRK A mixed bag of oddities that CUFF's audience has come to expect. Join us on this journey through the weird and wild.

So Late So Soon A half-century into their marriage, two Chicago artists look back at their life together as they contend with the deterioration of their bodies and beloved home.

SPIRAL: FROM THE BOOK OF SAW A criminal mastermind unleashes a twisted form of justice in SPIRAL, the terrifying new chapter from the book of Saw.

Summertime Over the course of a hot summer day in Los Angeles, the lives of 25 young Angelenos intersect – through poetry they express life, love, heartache, family, home, and fear.

The Last Matinee As customers seek refuge in an old cinema a murderer is on the loose in this love letter to Giallo.

The Old Man Movie Three children must aid their deranged grandfather in recovering his prized cow to prevent a rural cataclysm in this surreal and hysterically scatalogical stop-motion comedy.

Together Together When a young loner becomes the gestational surrogate for a single man in his 40s, the two strangers come to realize this unexpected relationship will challenge their perceptions of connection, boundaries and the particulars of love.

Vicious Fun A horror film critic accidentally stumbles into a secret underground self-help group for serial killers.

Vinyl Nation A deep dig into the crates of the vinyl record resurgence to discover what an old technology says about our relationship to music and each other in a divided time in America.

Workhorse Queen After an unlikely casting onto a reality television show, 47-year old suburban telemarketer Ed Popil leaves his job to pursue a full-time entertainment industry career as his drag queen alter ego, 1960’s era housewife Mrs. Kasha Davis.

A Hole The world is about to be swallowed by a black hole. The world turns to a wealthy entrepreneur whose “Escape Lottery” offers the only chance at continuing the human legacy.

Another Man's Treasure A Calgary man finds a unique musical instrument and wants to return it to the rightful owner.

Aquatic Bird Ah Shui (Aqua) and Zhang Niao (Bird), a cross-dressing girl, get tangled up in each other’s worlds because of a green dot of light. This green dot becomes their guide, allowing them to meet in their dreams.

Asparagus 2 A doctor informs his patient that when he thinks he’s eating asparagus he is actually smoking an entire pack of unfiltered Cuban cigarettes. The next great American asparagus movie.

Boneyard Racers When a teen couple accidentally stumbles upon a ghoulish party on Halloween night, they’re challenged to a supernatural drag race with the highest stakes.

Bubble On an ordinary night, a man eats a lot of herbal plants in front of a woman, transforming himself into the woman’s food.

Bump A young man's unwillingness to let go of a trivial encounter leads him to seek retribution.

Do You See What I See? From illustrating for SESAME STREET to exposing the New World Order, this is the story of the controversial and recently departed David Dees, unofficial artist of conspiracy theory culture.

Feed Your Muse Andrew is an aspiring novelist, plagued by writer's block. Inspiration soon hits, but so too does nightly sleep paralysis, and terrifying visions of a creature that comes to life in order to feed on Andrew's blood.

Feeling Sexual Frustrated by her inability to properly communicate her wants and needs with sexual partners, a high school senior recruits the town therapist to beat some self-love into her.

Forgive Your Father The curious story of a little girl struggling with her father's unnatural transformation.

God Lady A door to door evangelist is unwittingly doomed after soliciting to a household inhabited by strange cloistered women.

It'S Rocket Science This portrait documentary looks at Ky Michealson, the self-named, but fully-earned "Rocketman" and how his struggle with dyslexia and dropping out of school pushed him to forge his own unique future.

WINNER: Jury Award & Audience Award: Best Canadian Short

Joe Buffalo Joe Buffalo is an Indigenous skateboard legend. He’s also a survivor of Canada’s notorious Indian Residential School system. Following a traumatic childhood and decades of addiction, Joe must face his inner demons to realize his dream of turning pro.

Lucky Feet 2000 A woman get a supernatural pedicure.

Meat Lovers To satisfy her appetite, a young woman must juggle dealing with her salacious lover and a mysterious pizza order.

Monique'S On 4Th - The Music Video Lethbridge's matron drag queen, Didi d'Edada and her son Castrati can't find a dress for Mama to wear to the music video launch. When a tornado strikes they are whisked away to a magical land and all their fashion dreams come true.

No One Will Know Trapped in a house during a blizzard, two childhood friends try to convey their feelings to one another while being hunted by a group of ruthless scavengers in a never-ending winter blizzard.

Peaking After a long day on set, a sound recordist starts to hear more than just toxic conversation, leading her on a descent into horror. Room by room she searches for the source of an ominous sound she can’t escape from.

Peter The Penguin Nigel is on his way to meet his partner's daughter Emily for the first time. With high expectations in tow, he's hoping to make a great impression.

Poor Glenna When her mutant son develops a taste for human flesh, a timid mother must find a victim to satisfy his ravenous appetite.

Revelations A high school filmmaker wins the heart of a troubled young woman, only to lose her during a psychedelic experience that forces him to confront life truths that are both beautiful and painful.

Rklss Tank, a natural artist who is always drawing, runs into trouble with the law with his gang of friends. He discovers his own native spirituality while in jail, and through his art, finds a way to be in the world, and to reflect on his own reality.

Snowy This short documentary is both an investigation into animal happiness and an intervention to improve one turtle’s life.

Spooky Town A couple rebrands their struggling haunted house business amid the pandemic.

WINNER: Audience Award: Best International Short

Stuck A gymnastics coach must deal with a man who has taken an interest in the young girls she coaches.

Stump The Guesser "Stump the Guesser" works at a fairground and can guess anything for a fee. After his tricks suddenly stop working and he unwittingly falls in love with his sister, he sets out to scientifically disprove the theory of heredity and marry his beloved.

Supermalo As the walls of Cuba's ageing infrastructure continue to crumble, a burgeoning street art scene is born in Havana. Murals of hand-painted masked character – Supermalo – with the tag “2+2=5?” have begun to appear in seemingly every corner of the heavily foot trafficked city.

The Ballad Of Sharkasaurus When Albertan miners dig too deep they unleash Sharkasaurus, a half t-rex half megaldon monster and it's up to Betsy Tyrell to send him back to hell or die trying.

The Curse When a young girl becomes jealous of her little brother for receiving money from the tooth fairy, she hatches a peculiar plan to cash in.

The Dangerous Type A mechanic in a small midwestern town would do anything to leave her boring life behind. One day a mysterious stranger's car breaks down while passing through and boy does he have a great car – and an empty passenger seat.

The Maroon Bomber Four siblings delve into the love they share for the family’s old, beat-up truck. This love gets tested.

The Ranch Not the Netflix show. Based on a true story.

Throwback Diz and Max used to spend their carefree middle-school summers playing video games, but as they’ve gotten older life has become predictably complex. After finding a coveted video game in a second-hand store, Diz is sent into a nostalgic tail-spin that only Max can pull them out of.

Tired Eyes Rose, Mitch, and Trevor make up the lo-fi rock band Tired Eyes. When the trio has to schlep their gear from Brooklyn to Manhattan for a gig, they discover that the city has a way of making even the simplest of tasks absurdly difficult.

Today, Or I'll Die After a month of texting, Zoe has organized a perfect first date with Marc. Their expectations will be tested by reality.

Trashed An uptight woman returns home to find her kitchen trashed and her cleaning woman passed out drunk on the pantry floor.

Trash Scab An aspiring actor becomes a makeshift entrepreneur during a pandemic trash strike.

Wichita Sara is in bed with her lover when her husband calls. When he asks for something in his sock drawer, she runs home, stalling for time, asking endless questions about Wichita, Kansas.

With Pleasure Cherry Blossom’s burlesque bar is a mystical haven in which people speak in proverb and poetry. Inside this mysterious fruit-themed bar, couples both confess their love as well as say their goodbyes.

You Wouldn't Understand An idyllic picnic of one is upended after the arrival of a stranger.

19th Calgary Underground Film Festival

9th CUFF.Docs Documentary Film Festival

Past Festivals

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Past Festivals

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