Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival: Double Feature Competitions & Dawn of the Dead

A 45th anniversary screening of George Romero’s classic zombie film Dawn of the Dead, along with the Double Feature: Trailer Bash and Raging Pages trailer and screenplay competitions, will highlight the Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival, set for Sunday, May 19, at The Lindsay Theater and Cultural Center.

A celebration of the art of cinema and the region’s rich motion picture tradition, the event also includes a Q&A with actors from Dawn of the Dead, filmed at the Monroeville Mall and considered one of the most influential horror films of all time. 

The afternoon begins at 12:30 p.m. with the Double Feature trailer and screenplay competitions, a curated program of Official Selections of coming attractions, all of which are eligible to earn one of the premiere trailer trophies on the festival circuit—the “Tabby”—for Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Score, overall Best Trailer and the Audience Favorite award!

This event is free to the public but reservations are requested to ensure seating for all.

Then, at 1:30 p.m., in collaboration with the George A. Romero Foundation’s “Romero Lives!” series, the festival continues with a 30-min. Q&A with Dawn of the Dead actors Melissa Dunlap (“Airport Zombie Kid”), Bob Michelucci (“Scope Zombie”) and “Blond Zombie” Jeannie Jeffries, in a rare public appearance, hosted by fellow “zombie talent” veteran and director/producer Mike Ancas (Day of the Dead, Chasing Zombies).

Following the Q&A, at 2 p.m., watch Dawn of the Dead as it was intended to be seen: on the big screen. Romero’s gut-chomping, genre-defining sequel to Night of the Living Dead premiered April 12, 1979 at the Gateway Theater in downtown Pittsburgh and is rarely seen on movie screens. The plot follows two Philadelphia S.W.A.T. team members, a traffic reporter, and his television executive girlfriend seek refuge from a zombie epidemic in a secluded shopping mall 

The late critic Roger Ebert gave the movie four out of four stars and proclaimed it one of the best horror films ever made. Empire named it one of the 500 Greatest Movies of all Time in a 2008 survey.

The film also launched the career of makeup and special effects artist Tom Savini, a Pittsburgh native who went on to work on classic horror films such as Friday the 13th parts 1 and 4, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.