Following the great success of the First and Second Edition of the Asylum Fantastic Fest, which in 2019 saw over 2,500 admissions, over 30 Italian and international guests, about 300 films sent for selection, and in 2020, over 70,000 contacts in streaming, the 'Department of Culture of Valmontone and the OutOut Art Workshop open the selections for the Third Edition.
Born from the idea of the Founder Claudio Miani, it is located in the heart of Lazio, in Valmontone, to become a reference point at national and international level for lovers of the genre, in a vision of long-term cultural project capable of bringing further emphasis , prestige and tourism to the entire territorial area.
An Art Festival as a "living cultural" project, where we do not just want to understand the culture in which we live, the actualization of the theme and the expressive form linked to the world of Horror and Fantastico, but with a wider range, all those experiences with their own roots and those evolutions developed by them, which in the positive sense of globalization interchange themselves in new cultural realities. It is therefore a question of interpreting a world by giving it a new form, perceiving its contents and aspirations in order to manifest them and communicate them through cinema, literature, music, performing arts, comics, animation and live contests. A research full of stimuli and hints, of new linguistic compositions and symbolic horizons, which are best expressed in a visual, narrative and structured diegesis, able to offer new genre perspectives.
The main purpose of the Asylum Fantastic Fest is to provide real visibility and support to the excellence of horror creativity, promoting realities and works that are able to provide new content readings and above all to confront the new 2.0 languages. The search for new trends and the opening up to currently non-standardized basins, allows us to guarantee the realization of a Festival capable of acting as a multi-year point of reference for a current that has always been looking for stimuli and developments. An event that wants to be an opportunity to stimulate collaboration between young Italian and international artists, offering moments of meeting and exchange for the sections present at the Festival.
Contamination is the word that contains sufficiently and clearly the importance that the Asylum Horror Fest reserves in this first edition and will reserve in those to come, the encounter between the different artistic forms. Working in a non-formal environment, where all the entities involved will be jointly responsible for the organization, it will be possible to reach the common goal of creating an expressive context where each of the participants can express their creative potential.