“Festivals enhance the cultural life of a city. We have judges and special guests who fall in love with Memphis and want to come back. It’s a pattern we see over and over.”

Erik Jambor, executive director of Indie Memphis, said these words as part of his presentation Thursday morning to the Greater Memphis Chamber’s Breakfast Forum.

Read Joe Boone's story in the Daily News here.

John Michael McCarthy - aka the Godfather of Memphis indie film - is one of the instigators of the upcoming tribute to Sivad (see posting below).

Here's a link to Les Smith's story and video on Channel 13/MyFox Memphis on JMM's re-creation of one of the Fantastic Features episodes from those black-and-white days of yore and gore.

The made-in-Memphis production "$5 Cover" has been nominated for two Streamy Awards, an event that honors excellence in original web television programming and those who create it.

The Craig Brewer project has been nominated for Best New Web Series, and for Best Editing in a Web Series (Nathan Black, Morgan Jon Fox, Josh Swain).

Here's the Streamy Web site. Winners will be announced in April.

Local film fans and pop-culture enthusiasts -- including director Mike McCarthy and The Commercial Appeal film critic John Beifuss -- have organized a festival honoring one of Memphis' most entertainiing characters. "The Sivads of March" celebrates the role played by Watson Davis as the vampiric host of WHBQ-TV's "Fantastic Features" in the 1960s and early '70s. Davis, the Malco ad executive, played Sivad, "the Monster of Ceremonies," and was host of the "Fantastic Features" horror movie program on WHBQ-TV Channel 13 from 1962 to 1972.

The Commercial Appeal has more information here.