Beyond Fest at the Los Feliz 3 Deserves Your Attention. Here’s Why • Living-Dead

Beyond Fest at the Los Feliz 3 here in Los Angeles deserves your attention. Never heard of it? Read on for why you should attend.

I have lived in Los Angeles for about fifteen years now. Throughout my career as a film journalist, I’ve covered every festival, from Sundance to SXSW, Fantasia, Fantastic Fest, and so many more. Yet, to this day, a personal favorite remains Beyond Fest, found right here in my (now) home city.

Presented by Mubi and in partnership with the American Cinematheque, Beyond Fest is the highest-attended genre film festival in the U.S. From what I can tell based on experience and my own eyes, that’s a fact. Every screening is packed with die-hard horror and cinema fans alike. It’s a community. A church gathering where praise is given to the movie gods. The motto recited before every screening? Burn, Hollywood, burn.

Beyond Fest has no time for the politics of the industry. At the festival, it’s all about indie genre cinema, blood, guts, and the passionate filmmakers behind the movies.

So, why does it matter?

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Since its creation, Beyond Fest has strived to establish itself as an incubator for discovering new talent through both features and shorts. And with their programming at the Los Feliz 3, located near the heart of Hollywood, they’ve done just that.

These are just a few of the filmmakers who debuted shorts at Beyond Fest through their shorts blocks and went on to direct feature films:

Shannon Kohli — Hunting Season (Beyond Fest 2019) → All Joking Aside (2020)
Brock Bodell — Grief (Beyond Fest 2019) → Hellcat (2025)
Russell Goldman — (Beyond Fest 2022) → (2026)