But it wasn’t always this gratifying to be a filmmaker in Phoenix. Eight years ago, there wasn’t a decent venue to showcase independent flicks. That’s when local filmmakers like Chris Lamont began organizing the festival, which has since grown tremendously.

“The first year of the festival was three days long, and we prayed for 500 people, and got 3,000,” Lamont says. “Now, eight years later, we run for eight days, and last year had 22,000 attendees. We keep growing because everyone loves the movies.”

Lamont, who is now the festival’s executive director, contends that the festival is about more than watching movies; it’s more of a focus on creating a community of film. Unlike Sundance and other festivals, all of the screenings are held in one location instead of several scattered sites. Outside the elegant Scottsdale 101 Cine Capri, where the festival is located, organizers will erect a massive party tent where industry and audience converge.

“It’s magical,” Lamont says of the tent’s atmosphere. “Everyone is talking about the films, and the filmmakers appreciate meeting all the other filmmakers at the festival. It’s earned us a national reputation for everyone having a great time.”

Reputed nationally or not, the festival’s organizers have not forgotten about their comrades in the Valley, reserving slots in the festival for local filmmakers. One such director, Tempe resident Bruce Dellis, finds local festivals to be a vital part of a filmmaker’s success.

“The Phoenix Film Festival is critical for local filmmakers because it provides an opportunity that might ordinarily be closed to us—namely getting our films up on a big screen in front of a receptive audience,” Dellis says. “It also gives us a chance to meet other filmmakers, which is always encouraging and eye-opening.”

Dellis will be showing his short film, titled Michael’s Hearing Problem, about a man who only hears what he wants to hear—a method Dellis won’t employ when getting criticism from fellow directors at the festival. Everyone there, he says, is more than willing to share their opinions and give immediate feedback that is more “visceral” than You Tube comments. Dellis also says that the number of filmmakers in attendance makes quite a bit of the feedback extremely helpful.

To Dellis and other Arizonans who work in the movie industry, the Phoenix Film Festival signifies the strength of their film community. “For years, the assumption was that local filmmaking folk needed to head to L.A. to find a creative environment for film,” Dellis says. “So it’s gratifying to discover that there is a pool of talented filmmakers, actors, and technical folks right here in Arizona who are capable of creating top-notch independent films.”

This is not to say that a part of Los Angeles won’t be represented in Phoenix. April’s festival will be a first for Los Angeles-based director Rodger Grossman, who will be screening his first feature-length film, What We Do Is Secret, which is the story of the infamous rise and fall of Darby Crash, vocalist for the L.A. band The Germs. To Grossman, the festival’s reputation was enticing, and although screening his film in Phoenix could help Grossman land a big distribution deal, he asserts that the festival has a greater importance in evaluating a film’s merit. If the films never are viewed, he says, he won’t have any idea of their effect, and the connection to the audience holds more honor for Grossman than any other prize the festival could award him.

“I didn’t set out to win awards—I set out to make a great film about a piece of history,” he says. “This will be a great opportunity to see if I did.”

The films are judged by members of the Phoenix Film Critics Society, a group comprised of local film critics. To David Ramsey, the society’s president, the festival has a true importance in the Valley, and he looks forward to it.

“It gives the community the opportunity to support the arts,” he says. “It’s [also] an opportunity to see some truly amazing films that are not dumbed down for a wide audience. It reminds everyone that film is art and encourages young filmmakers.”

And that is the main character in this story: the independent filmmaker, whose struggle is to create artful cinema without the A-list actors or massive marketing budgets afforded to Hollywood directors. Who needs those things when you have a festival like this?

The Phoenix Film Festival takes place April 3–10. For passes or other information on the festival, visit phoenixfilmfestival.org.