B-Movie Film Festival

The Scare-A-Con Film Festival (formerly the B-Movie Film Festival) is an annual film festival held in Syracuse, United States.

The festival was founded in 1999 by local filmmaker Ron Bonk to promote the art of B-movie making. It was canceled in its third year due to the effects of September 11 attacks. It then existed primarily online or as a much smaller event for several years (during which it was profiled by the Wall Street Journal,) and only restarted as a live event at the Palace Theatre in 2005.

Many of the films entered are made on minimal budgets. Screenings can feature full-length films, documentaries, and shorts. Various genres are included, and selected films are usually reviewed for possible distribution. The festival defines a B-movie as "a production whose entertainment and artistic value exceeds the limitations of its budget." The festival's "Killer B" or "Tor" awards are sought after and prominently displayed by the winners. One film maker described being nominated for a B-Movie Film Festival award "like heaven to the world of independent filmmaking". It averages a B in reviews.

"Killer B" awards are given out in Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Foreign Film and other categories. A B-Movie is defined as "a low-budget film which provides a level of entertainment and/or artistic value which rivals or surpasses big-budget mainstream pictures." Feature films, documentaries and short subjects are open for consideration.

Hosted by B-movie star Roxanne Michaels. I Woke Up Early the Day I Died a 'dialogue-free comedy' based on an unproduced Ed Wood screenplay, won Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Set Design, Best Director (Aris Iliopolous), Best Actor (Billy Zane), and Best Star Cameo (Christina Ricci). Other awards were Best Actress to Karin Viard for The New Eve, Best Screenplay, for Pep Squad, by Steve Balderson, and Best Documentary for Memories of the Soil.

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