2023 Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival: Thriller Picture Show

Regular admission is $15 for all seats and all shows. An ALL-FESTIVAL PASS is available for $45.

The Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival: Thriller Picture Show is the cinematic celebration of the macabre, the exciting, the bizarre, and the mysterious.

Film Screenings

In partnership with the George A. Romero Foundation (GARF), the Thriller Picture Show is also home to the Romero Lives commemorative event. Romero Lives 2023: The State of Nature showcases two George A. Romero classics that exemplify Hobbesian maxim that life in the state of nature can be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”: Day of the Dead and the 50th anniversary of The Crazies.

Day of the Dead (1985, 102 min)

Saturday, Oct. 7 at 5 p.m.

Day of the Dead, the third film in George A. Romero’s seminal Living Dead series, presents a world where zombies have been on the rampage for so long that there are very few humans left alive. Trapped in an underground missile silo in Florida, a small team of scientists, civilians and trigger-happy soldiers battle desperately to ensure the survival of the human race, but tension inside the base is reaching breaking-point. Romero describes it as a “tragedy about how a lack of human communication causes chaos and collapse even in this small little pie slice of society.”

The Crazies (1973, 103 min)

Sunday, Oct. 8 at 8:30 p.m.

Cynicism about the military industrial complex wasn’t exactly a fringe position in 1973, but George A. Romero’s The Crazies is scathing nonetheless. When a military plane carrying a secret bioweapon crashes near the sleepy town of Evans City, Pennsylvania, the unsuspecting locals watch in terror as their formerly friendly neighbors turn into homicidal maniacs. Amid the mayhem, a pair of firemen (and, significantly, Vietnam War veterans) named David and Clank lead a small band of survivors attempting to escape both the growing number of infected townspeople and the military’s doomed, scorched-earth attempts to control the contagion.

Official Selections

The Thriller Picture Show proudly presents a handpicked selection of imaginative horror, thriller, science fiction, and dark comedy films crafted by visionary independent filmmakers from around the world. Every film is a testament to the boundless creativity of the cinema of thrills. From takes on classic favorites to original masterpieces, you’ll witness the full spectrum of independent filmmaking.

Program A: Sunday, Oct. 8 at 4:30 p.m.

Bedtime Story by Jake Jackson

Knife-Bricker by Jack Culbertson

Red Image by Alex (Jinwoo) Kang

To Moher by Max Levine

Dark Side of the Moon by Lincoln Reed

Bandaid by Jack Paluka

Now is Not the Time by Matthew Garvin

Greed & Gore by Adam Kirkey

–5:30 p.m., approx.—

Fire by Wes Fisher 

Bill Murray Lost in Berlinale by Ana Trkulja

Golden Shopping Arcade by Neri Ricci

You’re Early by Felix Wollner

–6:30 p.m., approx.—

Sunset Drive by Michael Thomas DeLano

Scarpedicemente by John Vamvas & Olga Montes

Program B: Monday, Oct. 9 at 4 p.m.

Snaggletooth by Scott David Lister 

Ultrapolice by Thibault Fauconnet

Enter the Room by Harry Waldman

Waiting for Galdot by sheri ratik stroud; Deryl Davis; E. Stuelke; Mark Ricche; Catherine Bobalek

A Deer Caught in the Headlights by Anil Wagemans

The Search for Alexander by Zach Garrigus

Cake by Grace Clemmensen

Rats by Alexis Caro

Picturebox by Eric Vincent 

–6 p.m., approx.—

Killer in a Small Town by Ben Zuk

The Perfect Man by Andrew McGreevy

–7 p.m., approx.—

Hopeless by Mark Galliano

Two Chairs by Wes Fisher 

**Awards Ceremony at 8 p.m.**

–8:30 p.m., approx.—

The Final Interview by Fred Vogel

Agatha by Ronald Becerra

Awards

Join us in honoring the finest cinematic achievements during the awards ceremony near the conclusion of the festival on Monday, Oct. 9. Celebrate with filmmakers, actors, and fellow attendees as we applaud the works of independent horror filmmakers that have left an indelible mark on our festival.

Genre Categories

• Horror
• Science Fiction
• Thriller
• Dark Comedy
• Special Categories (Fantasy, Comedy, Documentary)

Award Categories

• Best Narrative Feature & Best Short Film (30 minutes or less) in each category 
• Individual Acting Performances
• Directing
• Editing
• Cinematograhy
• Score

Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival

The Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival celebrates both the art of cinema and the rich motion picture exhibition tradition of Pittsburgh. Early in the 20th century, Pittsburgh was a worldwide manufacturing leader in iron and, later, steel. The labor requirements to produce such output was enormous, with much of the manpower being supplied by the immigrant populations living in and around the mills. Due to the lack of leisure activities and the need to live close to the mills, local movie theaters emerged to offer a brief respite from the mundane mill-to-home routine. By 1914, it was estimated that there were approximately 200 movie theaters in the Pittsburgh region.

The Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival honors Pittsburgh’s rich film heritage by showcasing features and short films from around the world and providing a theatrical opportunity for independent film in a setting that reflects both the history and the prestige of cinematic exhibition.

Image987 Productions

Image 987 is a Pittsburgh-based film production company. Home of the Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival