Our goal is to provide a venue for filmmakers who care about individuality and libertarian ideals. We are an integral part of FreedomFest, “the world’s largest gathering of free minds.” We invite the best and brightest thought leaders to address us about geo-politics & finance, history & philosophy, science & technology, art & literature, healthy living– and movies, of course!
About
July 12-15 / Memphis, Tennessee
Experience Individuality. Embrace Accountability. Champion Choice.
The Anthem Film Festival
Never a Dull Moment
Filmmakers have a blast at Anthem. They go to yoga classes in the mornings, listen to fascinating speakers during the day, watch and comment on each other’s movies, network with filmmakers and potential producers, and celebrate at our Gala Awards Banquet and dance. When your film is accepted, you will receive two tickets to FreedomFest and two tickets to the Gala Banquet, worth $1,500.
FreedomFest attendees pack the 250-seat theater for nearly every film, and they stay for the panel discussions about the films’ topics. One of the advantages of partnering with FreedomFest is that we can enlist popular speakers such as Steve Forbes, Nick Gillespie, Spike Cohen, Li Schoolland, David Boaz, Lana Link, Kerry McDonald, Matt and Terry Kibbe, and others to sit on our panels and talk about your film’s topic.
Films That Inform and Inspire
While most festivals tend to overlook short films, at Anthem we give shorts the attention they deserve. Our attendees love spending an hour with a meaningful documentary or narrative, followed by an insightful Q&A with the filmmaker and discussion with the panelists.
Our moviegoers are serious about civil liberties, and they love a good feature or documentary. Expect insightful questions from thoughtful viewers. You might even meet the executive producer for your next film in the audience—that has happened several times at Anthem!
Our History
Anthem began in 2011 as a small festival inside a conference room on the 26th Floor at Bally’s Hotel, Las Vegas. Our goal was to provide a venue for filmmakers who care about individuality and libertarian ideals. Soon our films were screening to standing-room audiences as we moved to the Sin City Theater at Planet Hollywood and later to the Versailles Ballroom at the Paris Resort. In fact, as many as 1,500 viewers have attended our opening night screenings, projected on three screens simultaneously. Enthusiastic Q&A’s have lasted for nearly an hour after each of those events, with red carpet interviews before the screenings and autograph opportunities afterward. We screen one film at a time, so directors do not compete with one another for audience share.
Why Anthem?
An anthem is a choral composition that stirs its hearers to action. We consider our Anthem to be a similar voice of warning, one that stirs viewers to action against tyranny and mediocrity.
Anthem is also the title of Ayn Rand’s second novel, and when it comes to pure storytelling, it is her best book. Set in a dystopian future when the concept of individuality has been completely stamped out, it tells the story of a man who discovers the suppressed truth that all humans ought to be free to think and act for themselves. Written in 1937, Anthem was a precursor to such great warning voices as George Orwell’s 1984 (1948) and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (1953).
