Past years have seen the world premiere of Hobo With A Shotgun, along with early screenings of critical and fan darlings The Woman, Blue Ruin, Amer, John Dies At The End, The Cooridor, Manborg, Cheap Thrills, Goodnight Mommy and many more. It’s the only festival I know where Saturday Morning Cartoons from the 70s and 80s are followed up by with balls to the wall kung fu masterpieces.
Though it only gets a fraction of the hype that a Fantastic Fest gets, it shares the Texas festival’s obsession with turning over every stone and searching all four corners of the globe when it comes to delivering the goods. The mark of any great film fest isn’t just loading it with the obvious choices that play dozens of festivals, but discovering the gems that no one in the audience was expecting. The same year (heck maybe the same day) I was raving about the awesomeness of Cheap Thrills with everyone else, i was choking back tears during a screening of the suicide drama Love Eternal, despite never hearing a lick about it before taking my seat. This will be the seventh BUFF I’ll be attending, and I’ve been fortunate enough to fall in love with dozens of films and their filmmakers that would have fallen completely under my radar otherwise.
As always, the bulk of the Kickstarter rewards net contributors tickets to the event. A $25 contribution gets you two tickets to a film and a poster, while festival passes start at the $125 donation level, and come with more swag including a poster. An extra $25 on top of that gets you the pass, the poster, a BUFF tee shirt and an invite to their filmmaker reception party.