This past weekend saw the 2019 edition of the STARBURST International Film Festival take place at MediaCityUK, and boy was it a weekend to remember.

In amongst the madness feature films and shorts played across three rooms over the Friday and Saturday, with genre icons Lloyd Kaufman (and his good wife The Commish, of course!) and Luigi Cozzi on hand to take in an event brimming with positivity, with likeminded souls, that had some seriously talented people showcasing their work, and that, yes, had a well-positioned bar to hand.

As is always the case with the STARBURST International Film Festival, the event came to a close with the famed STARBURST Fantasy Awards in which the highly coveted (don’t let us see those on eBay!) Roboto statues were up for grabs.

With five features and 17 shorts in consideration for the STARBURST Fantasy Awards, the winners were:

Best Screenplay: Robert Duncan (Revenant Relocation Officers)

Best Short: Terminal (director Cal O’Connell, writer Max Gee)

Best Director: Lawrie Brewster (Automata)

Best Performance: Scarlett Rayner (Indweller)

Best Feature: Clickbait (directors Michael J. Epstein & Sophia Cacciola, writers Jeremy Long & Michael J. Epstein)

Independents Day Award: David Gilbank

Hall of Fame Award: Lloyd Kaufman

Seriously, we try not to toot our horn too much here at Moonbase Alpha, but what a weekend that was. On behalf of the STARBURST team, we would like to extend a huge thank you to everybody who attended the STARBURST International Film Festival. For the readers of our magazine, thank you for your continued and passionate support. For the filmmakers and talent who attended or submitted content, thank you for providing such a ridiculously high quality of films and shorts for us all to enjoy. For the crew who helped make sure that the event went off without a hitch (something that still feels weird saying…), thank you for being nothing short of flawless and fantastic.

Now while we enjoy the fallout of the 2019 STARBURST International Film Festival, that’s not to say we’re going to be resting on our laurels. Oh no, we’ll be back again in 2020 and we’ll be tasked with somehow topping what was the quintessential genre weekend for independent film. Again, we thank you all for making this weekend so special, and we hope to see you again next year.