Red Rock Film Festival

Red Rock Film Festival

Red Rock Film Festival is an independent, juried film festival held each fall in Southern Utah. Its roots go back to 2004, when commercial director Matt Marxteyn and Derek Horne launched a screening series called Zion Flix; the event became an annual competition under the Red Rock name in 2007. The festival describes its own mission as encouraging film and media "that portray the human race in a positive light" and rewarding original work that "redefines media through innovation, creativity and sensitivity" — language drawn from the festival's own stated mission, not outside marketing copy.

What Screens and Who Judges It

Entries are open to filmmakers anywhere and submitted through the festival's own online portal, judged across parallel tracks: feature and short documentary, feature and short narrative fiction, animation, music video, and experimental work. A Grand Jury scores each Official Selection on direction, screenplay, acting, and production value to pick a best film per category, and an Audience Award runs alongside it, so a film can win on craft even if it isn't the crowd favorite, or the other way around. A separate Young Filmmaker track is reserved for entries directed, shot, and edited by students still in grade school, middle school, or high school — a lower bar to entry than the adult competition, and a sign that the festival is built to develop beginning filmmakers as much as showcase finished work.

The Performing Arts Campus

The festival lists the Performing Arts Campus at 905 South Main Street for its St. George screenings — a former Cinema 6 multiplex converted into a cluster of studios and a screening hall, and home the rest of the year to St. George Musical Theater. It's a single-building venue rather than a convention center, which fits the festival's own description of itself as an "artist's retreat" more than a red-carpet event.

Filmmakers in the Room

Beyond the screenings, the festival runs Q&As, panels, and workshops built around the films in competition, and has paired its screening slate with the Utah Film Market, an industry-facing sidebar that draws working producers and distributors alongside the filmmakers themselves. That combination is what makes the festival function as a retreat as much as a public screening series — directors are generally on hand between blocks rather than flying in for a single premiere and leaving.

Who Should Go

This is a small regional festival, not a red-carpet spectacle, and that's the appeal: a smaller, more conversational crowd where an audience member can talk to a director after a short film rather than watch one from a distance. Late-September afternoons in St. George still run hot, and a program of indoor screenings is a straightforward way to fill that stretch — see St. George's other hot-weather indoor options for more of them. An evening screening block also works as an easy date night alternative to dinner and a conventional movie, and the festival's arts focus pairs naturally with a stop at the St. George Art Museum or an afternoon in Historic Downtown St. George, both a short drive from the venue.