A new Utah based film festival is set to make its debut on Sept. 24 at the Megaplex Theaters in Vineyard. The festival is named the Orem Film Festival, also known as OFF.
“I’m really passionate about creating an in-person community experience,” OFF director Trevor Allen said.
Allen began planning the Orem Film Festival in December 2024. He used connections with other people who are passionate about film to put together a team of volunteers to help run the first Orem Film Festival.
“I feel super lucky and privileged that the people I’m already kind of friends with are also passionate about film, also passionate about design and, you know, want to be involved in the community,” Allen said.
However, Allen said putting the festival together came at a personal cost.
“I’ve had to kind of ask for every favor that I’ve got in the bank trying to make it happen,” Allen said.
Allen is also self-funding the entire event, including the cash prizes. In the future, he hopes to be able to secure sponsorships to help fund the event.
“Right now, I am just funding everything. This is my big passion project. I want to, you know, put my money where my mouth is,” Allen said. “I have a couple sponsors I’m talking to right now, so maybe in the future that’ll change, where I have some support that come cover it with me.”
OFF will have three cash prizes available for winning filmmakers in three different categories. Each prize will be $1000 and is being directly funded by Allen.
The Audience Choice award will be awarded to the film that resonates the most with attending viewers. The Jury Prize for Best Short will be awarded to the winning film based on the opinion of industry professionals and will be judged on originality, technical execution, narrative strength, emotional impact and artistic vision. The Emerging Filmmaker award will be awarded to an early-career, Utah-based filmmaker.
Allen said planning the event has taken a lot of work and has a lot of details to manage.
“The most challenging part is there’s just a billion moving pieces,” Allen said. “My brain feels like it’s about to explode.”
While planning all the specific details has been a lot of work for Allen, he said the most difficult part is choosing what films to feature.
“We still have another month of open submissions, but we got some, like, really, really strong films,” Allen said, “We’re only going to showcase 10 short films at the actual festival itself … We got like, maybe 30 great films, and I don’t know how I’m gonna narrow it down to 10.”
Allen said he’s been very impressed with the submissions so far.
“I’ve been really impressed with submissions. It’s been very exciting and very humbling to see the phenomenal work that Utah’s producing right now,” Allen said.
Allen wants to select and feature mostly Utah-based filmmakers. The films are being selected largely based on the short films’ originality and their stories over technical prowess and production quality.
“I’d much rather have, you know, a really entertaining iPhone video then, I don’t know, like a slog of a film, you know, that looks nice,” Allen said.
The lineup of featured films will be officially announced on Aug. 24.
OFF will also be hosting a free outdoor movie night at the Orem Classic Fun Center where attendees will be watching “Sing Street” on Aug. 22. OFF will also be hosting a summer concert series at the same location on July 11 and Aug. 1, 15 and 29.
Allen wants the Orem Film Festival to become a community staple that sticks around for years to come.
“I want this to be a yearly thing until I die and hopefully after that too,” Allen said.
Tickets for the festival will be $5.
