Whether someone is an independent filmmaker trying to make a name for themselves or just making cheesy, low-budget movies with friends and family for fun, the submission period for the fourth annual Northwest Flying Saucer Film Fest is now open, according to the festival’s FilmFreeway account.
As long as that submission is a film that is in some way science fiction related to UFOs and flying saucers, extraterrestrial abduction or invasion, or Men in Black, it is welcome in the festival.
And, as usual, Bigfoot is allowed, too, “but he better be flying a spaceship!”
The film festival kicks off the sixth annual Chehalis Flying Saucer Party and is scheduled for Sept. 11 at The Chehalis Theater in the Mint City’s downtown district.
Up for grabs again will be the prestigious Orby trophies, along with a $300 cash prize for the audience choice winner.
While submission award categories include the same ones from previous festivals — best film, best documentary, best animation, best music video, best alien, best first-time filmmaker and audience choice — organizers have added a new category for folks who have real footage of UFOs, or as officials from the U.S. Department of War’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office now refer to them as, UAPs (unidentified anomalous phenomena).
“Real UFO footage submissions will be featured in a special ‘REAL UFO’ block during the film festival,” organizers said online. “Real UFO footage submitters hereby grant the Northwest Flying Saucer Film Fest permission to edit their footage down for length.”
All other short films submitted must be 20 minutes or less, and any films not in English must have English subtitles. Filmmakers are also asked to keep their work “family friendly,” or at least adhere to a PG-13 rating with no depictions of sex or nudity, excessive cursing or violence, racism, sexism, homophobia or transphobia.
“We ultimately just want everyone in the audience to feel welcome,” organizers said.
Previously, filmmakers had been residents of the Pacific Northwest region, but submissions are now being accepted from filmmakers worldwide.
However, Pacific Northwest filmmakers will receive priority consideration when deciding which films will actually be screened at the festival.
“Additionally, the top four or five non-Pacific Northwest submissions will be featured in a special ‘WORLD INVASION’ block during the film festival,” organizers added.
The Chronicle spoke to Lewis County Historical Museum Executive Director Jason Mattson, one of the organizers, earlier this week, who said five films have already been submitted.
There are no production date limits for submissions, but there are three submission deadlines with different submission fees. The first is the early bird deadline on June 24, with a $25 submission fee, then the standard deadline on July 15 with a $30 fee and the final late deadline on Aug. 4 with a fee of $40.
The submission fee for real UFO footage is $10 all the way up to Aug. 4. Films can be submitted at the festival’s FilmFreeway page at https://filmfreeway.com/NWFlyingSaucerFilmFest.
Filmmakers whose submissions are accepted will receive free admission to the fourth annual Northwest Flying Saucer Film Fest along with an all access pass to the Chehalis Flying Saucer Party the next day.
And for the audience choice winner, their film will be screened the next day at The Chehalis Theater during the Flying Saucer Party’s “classic flying saucer feature film” showing. This year’s classic flying saucer feature film has yet to be announced, but previous movies chosen have included Men in Black and Mars Attacks!
Previous audience choice winners have been:
—Stuck In Orbit, which features the late John Henricksen under the moniker “Burt Burtson,” who claims to have been abducted, as he attempts to get people to believe him. Henrickson made the film with his family, including his grandson Enoch Lui who directed. Stuck In Orbit can be viewed here https://vimeo.com/868014471.
—Regoob, directed by Doug Lee Gardner, which tells the story of brothers Doug and Steve as they attempt to film Bigfoot investigation content for their YouTube page, but encounter extraterrestrial beings instead — along with an extraordinarily runny nose. Regoob can be seen online at https://tinyurl.com/3r4662p5.
—The Curse of the Were-Alien, which tells the story of a pair of friends, Shawn and Grant, who encounter a were-alien while exploring the woods one day and have to deal with removing its curse. It was directed by and produced by Grant Marshall and Katie Wallen as their first film made after graduating from Eastern Washington University.
Links to other entries from the previous Northwest Flying Saucer Film Fests can be found at https://tinyurl.com/bdhx2mdy, https://tinyurl.com/4pacnc36 and https://tinyurl.com/5e4w3ebe.
Both the Northwest Flying Saucer Film Fest and Chehalis Flying Saucer Party celebrate the anniversary of Idaho pilot Kenneth Arnold’s historic 1947 flight which sparked the famous “Summer of the Saucers” after he took off from Chehalis on June 24, 1947, in what was supposed to be a routine flight from Chehalis to Pendleton, Oregon, in his single-engine CalAir A-2 airplane.
While making his way toward Yakima to refuel about 20 miles west of Mount Rainier near Mineral, he saw a bright flash in the northeast. Initially, Arnold thought it was light reflecting off the metallic wings of another aircraft, but after more flashes appeared, he got a better look and quickly realized he wasn’t witnessing any known conventional craft.
Arnold saw nine metallic objects flying in an echelon formation stretching nearly 5 miles. From his observations, each object appeared to be circular, roughly 100 feet in diameter, with no discernable tail matching conventional aircraft. The objects periodically performed various aerial maneuvers including flips, banks and weaves.
Though it was only an estimate, Arnold knew the distance between Mount Rainier to Mount Adams and timed the objects as they traveled between the volcanoes. He calculated their airspeed to be an estimated 1,500 mph, more than twice as fast as any aircraft of the time.
In fact, the sound barrier had yet to be broken still until later that year in October when Chuck Yeager exceeded it for the first time flying his Bell X-1 at 767 mph.
To this day, nobody knows what Arnold saw in the skies above Mount Rainier, which eventually came to be known as “flying saucers” after an East Oregonian article used the words “saucer-like aircraft” to describe them the day after Arnold’s sighting.
Chehalis residents began celebrating Arnold’s sighting with a “saucer drop” during the Krazy Days festival in the 1960s and 70s, but the tradition was forgotten until the Chehalis Flying Saucer Party revived it in 2019.
Aside from the Northwest Flying Saucer Film Fest and saucer drop event, the Chehalis Flying Saucer Party features speakers from throughout the paranormal investigative world along with special UFO-themed displays at the Lewis County Historical Museum.
For more information on the Chehalis Flying Saucer Party, visit its website at https://www.flyingsaucerparty.org/ or follow the party on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/flyingsaucerparty.