How Mammoth Film Festival still feels like an 'underground secret,' with impressive talent

While filmmakers. journalists and movie enthusiasts lust after festivals like the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Sundance Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, SXSW and more, Tanner Beard and Tomik Mansoori's Mammoth Film Festival continues to be a filmmaker favourite, that still feels like a unique "underground" event.

"I have heard people say this festival feels like it's kind the underground secret," Beard told Yahoo. "And I know that those kinds of things don't last forever, eventually the word gets out and it becomes more corporate, but a lot of people really do say that this captures the spirit of a lot of early festivals that we look at, ... the early Sundance, the early TIFF, the early [SXSW]."

"Back in the '90s you would have on a panel, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and Richard Linklater sitting there, and they were youngsters. I feel like we're going to go back and look at some of our panels, or some of our judges, and be like, 'Wow look at who was here five years ago and look at what they're doing now.' ... We're a six year film festival competing with 40-year-old film festivals, and in a big way."

To date, stars like Josh Duhamel, Joel David Moore, Lena Headey, Brittany Snow and Bella Thorne have shown their movies at the Mammoth Film Festival.

The actors involved in films that were part of the 2024 Mammoth Film Festival included Tim Blake Nelson, Joel McHale, Shelley Hennig, Zach Braff, Vanessa Hudgens, Amber Heard, Jon Heder, Emma Roberts, Ron Perlman and Dennis Quaid, to name just a few.

'It is a business'

But while the festival is filled with opportunities for filmmakers to show their work and connect with each colleagues in their industry, from panel discussions to a bowling tournament, the Mammoth Film Festival's founders stressed that it's still very important to be a marketplace.

"Look for filmmakers, they're happy to just go out there and show their movie on the big screen with their friends, their family, their cast and their crew. And that's great," Mansoori said. "But you make those films for a reason, especially if it's a feature, you spend all the time and resources, and you're borrowing money from your uncle and an investor, you want to make that money back, you want a larger platform than just a theatre with 100, 200 people in it."

"You want it to be on Netflix, on Hulu, on Tubi, whatever that platform is. So it's important to have that marketplace because when they're done celebrating their movie, they can now go sell it. The financial part of the business, because it is a business."

The 2024 Mammoth Film Festival movies that were sold include Phil Volken’s Flycatcher, Nadine Crocker's Continue, Shaun Hart's The Fall, Brittany Snow’s Parachute and the documentary Ice Cross.

While Beard and Mansoori have a lot of highlights from this year's festival, they're particularly proud of Fluxx, a filmed the also worked on as producers.

"We were very proud of Fluxx," Beard highlighted. "To see it come from its inception to getting to see it on the big screen, that sold out two theatres."

"Also [The Invisible Raptor], was really great. Lena Headey's The Trap was really great. Bella Thorne had this amazing short, [Paint Her Red]."

2024 Mammoth Film Festival Winners

• Best Picture - Feature Asleep in My Palm, Henry Nelson

• Best Picture - Short - We Have Notes, Jordan McKittrick

• Best Actor - Feature - Tim Blake Nelson, Asleep in My Palm

• Best Actor - Short - Akil Jackson, Don’t Worry About Tomorrow

• Best Actress - Feature - Shelley Hennig, Fluxx

• Best Actress – Short - Lauren Noll, The Heart of Texas

• Grand Jury Award - Feature - The Trap

• Grand Jury Award - Short - Two Shovels And A Will

• Audience Award - Feature - The Fall

• Audience Award - Short - We Have Notes

• Best Documentary - Feature - Ice Cross, DJ Kilpatrick, Brittan Morris

• Best Genre Film - Feature - Fluxx, Brendan Gabriel Murphy

• Best Genre Film - Short - Howl At the Dead, Greg Bishop

• Best Episodic - Puncher’s Chance, Garland Scott, Johnny Rey Diaz

• Best Action Sports - Ice Cross, DJ Kilpatrick, Brittan Morris

• Achievement in Filmmaking Feature - Director - Continue, Nadine Crocker

• Achievement in Filmmaking Short - Director - Paint Her Red, Bella Thorne

• Achievement in Filmmaking Feature - Writer - The Invisible Raptor, Mike Capes & Johnny Wickham

• Achievement in Filmmaking Short - Writer - Children’s Book, Nino Mancuso

• Achievement in Filmmaking Feature - Cinematography - Fluxx, Kieran Murphy

• Achievement in Filmmaking Short - Cinematography - Ellie, Neil Watson

• Achievement in Filmmaking - Music - In The Fire

• Achievement in Filmmaking - International - French Girl

• Achievement in First Time Filmmaking Feature - Nadine Crocker, Continue

• Achievement in First Time Filmmaking Short - Lodestar, Ryan Vincent