We are extremely happy and honored to announce the winners for our inaugural year's Festival. Please join us in congratulating the following films :

Best Feature: Strigoi

Best Animation Short: Enter the Sandbox
Best Fantasy Short: Hart
Best Horror Short: Death In Charge
Best Sci-Fi Short: The Kirkie

No matter what happened throughout the year and with all of our worries, the event came together solidly. There were butts in the seats. People were laughing, gasping or slightly disturbed by what they saw. The volunteers who showed up were fantastic and attentive and got the chance to meet all of the filmmakers who came through, as well as see all of the smiling faces of the attendees as they came in and out of the fabulous SIFF Theater, really a one-of-a-kind venue that I am looking forward to being at next year.

Thanks goes out to the volunteers:
Aimee, for her pre-festival help.
Angelina and Walli, for being my dedicated volunteers throughout the entire weekend.
Special thanks goes out to Cindy for not only volunteering but putting me up for the night so I didn't have to drive home to Tacoma each night and letting me in the door after staying out late every night.

Thanks goes out to SIFF:
Randy and Jody for being so great, attentive and helpful at the front before, during, and after the film festival.
To the three dedicated volunteers who come back to SIFF theater events and came in at the last minute to help MIFFF.
The day and night projectionists whose assistance with microphones and lighting were on the ball and spot on each time.
To Kat for all her help in putting together a fantastic web interface for selling and advertising our films on the SIFF site.

Thanks goes out to all of the great filmmakers who showed up to MIFFF and are dedicated to attending the festivals where their products went out to! Good luck on your future film festivals in the upcoming year! I look forward to seeing your next film ventures at MIFFF in the future, especially next year!

Thanks goes out to the sponsors:
The Dreaming, one of Seattle's best comic shops for years.
Field of Screams, one of the most professional, scariest and incredible haunted house type events in a field that you will ever go to. Ever.
Crypticon, Seattle's first choice in horror conventions.
Hen Da Ne, Inc., Vendor of only the finest Japanese doujinshi, found only at anime conventions, check your local listings for the next anime con in your area that they are at.

And last, thanks goes out to every single member of the Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival board that I had the pleasure of helping put together this inaugural year:

Board Secretary, Dan Doody -- Without your work and your contacts, we would not have gotten into such a beautiful venue so easily, nor had all of our questions answered so well and thoroughly. Your knowledge and selfless assistance in getting this film festival get started helped us demonstrate what will become in the continuing years. Thanks, Dan!
Board Treasurer, Marth Christensen -- Your bookkeeping kept us on track and you needled in questions that needed to be asked at every meeting you could be at. Dedication to the details are part of what paid off big time in the end.
Director of Guest Relations, Jon Tomhave -- Being one of three people on the board with film festival experience, both competing and arranging, you were great to have on board. Taking up the slack wherever you could, I appreciate the work that you put in. I am sure Adnan had a fantastic time because of you as well. Thanks, Jon!
Director of Publications, Rick Tillman -- Spot on fantastic website and a really great layout and design for all of our posters, business cards, and especially, programming guides. You put in more work than I can count and enjoyed what you were doing. Professionally done, professional looking. Thanks, Rick!
Vice President and Director of Programming, Eric Morgret -- What a fantastic film selection! It really came together so well. All of the hard work over the past year and then some for you really paid off. This started off as your baby and you man-birthed it the whole way through on that last push this weekend. Thanks, Eric!
Director of Publicity, Isaac Alexander -- If it had not been for you, I would never have gotten the chance to work with such a great crew on a great event in the first place. Your work from the east coast was invaluable. Your energy and dedication to the cause was more than helpful. The only thing that we would need more out of you is for you to live on this side of the nation. Thanks, Isaac!

And to all the film lovers who came this year and made our inaugural year a great one. THANK YOU! It is for the lovers of film, especially genre film, that made this year an outstanding one and will make next year one for the books as well. We will see you next year to get MIFFF'd at the movies!

Gabe

We are happy to announce that Weekend and Day Passes for the festival are now available through the SIFF Cinema ticketing outlet. Individual show tickets will become available after the schedule has been finalized. For more information, please see our Tickets page or visit the SIFF Cinema directly to purchase your passes.

We are delighted to announce that we received hundreds of excellent submissions from all genres (Animation, Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction).   We are now in the process of finalizing our selections and creating the schedule for the festival. For more information of the selected films, please see our Films page.

Subject: MIFFF Debuts the Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival

Seattle Genre Film Festival To Open This September

Seattle, March 31, 2009 - The Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival (MIFFF), a three day international showcase of animation, fantasy, horror, and science fiction cinema, is pleased to announce its inaugural launch September 18-20th, 2009 at the SIFF Cinema at McCaw Hall in Seattle, Washington USA.

As a genre film festival in Seattle, MIFFF (www.mifff.org) is a unique entity. The Seattle Metropolitan Area is home to one of the largest film attending populations in the country. MIFFF is a venue that gives a voice to genre film fans through a wide spectrum of films and related programming.