PollyGrind Film Festival: Las Vegas horror and grindhouse fest
The PollyGrind Film Festival is a Las Vegas event for horror, grindhouse and underground independent film, founded in 2010 by filmmaker Chad Clinton Freeman. Its second edition (October 7–16, 2011) gave The Bunny Game its Las Vegas premiere and awarded it the top jury prize.
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- Established
- 2010
- Location
- Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
- Country
- United States
- Full name
- PollyGrind Film Festival (second annual edition billed as 'PollyGrind2: Return of the Grind')
- Founded
- 2010 by filmmaker Chad Clinton Freeman, who serves as founder and director
- Programming
- Horror, exploitation, grindhouse, arthouse and underground independent film — features, shorts, trailers and music videos
- Second annual edition
- October 7–16, 2011, Las Vegas
- Top jury prize
- The Biggest Baddest Mother of the PollyGrind
- 2011 top winner
- The Bunny Game (Adam Rehmeier) — top prize plus Best Sound Design, Best Cinematography, Best Editing; Rodleen Getsic won Best Overall Individual Performance
- Recognition
- Named to MovieMaker Magazine's 2012 list of "25 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee"
Overview
PollyGrind Film Festival is a Las Vegas festival devoted to horror, grindhouse and underground independent film, founded in 2010 by filmmaker Chad Clinton Freeman (Horror Society). Its second annual edition ran October 7–16, 2011, and gave Adam Rehmeier’s The Bunny Game its Las Vegas premiere before awarding it the festival’s top jury prize, “The Biggest Baddest Mother of the PollyGrind” (JoBlo; Dread Central).
A Las Vegas festival for cinema’s underdogs
PollyGrind began in 2010 as a home for films that mainstream festivals would not touch — horror, exploitation, grindhouse and arthouse independents, from features to trailers and music videos (Horror Society). The filmmaker-friendly reputation stuck: by the fourth annual edition in 2013, the festival drew a record 777 entries and screened more than 100 films from 13 countries, with 18 world premieres, at the Theatre7 venue in the Las Vegas arts district (Horror Society). Selections went on to land distribution deals from outlets including LionsGate, Showtime, IFC Midnight, Alternative Cinema, Troma and Autonomy Pictures, giving the small festival outsized influence as a launchpad for outsider cinema (Horror Society). The recognition was external too: MovieMaker Magazine named PollyGrind to its 2012 list of “25 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee,” and its readers voted it into the magazine’s 2013 Top 5 Coolest Experimental/Underground Film Festivals (Horror Society).
The 2011 edition: The Bunny Game’s sweep
The second annual edition — billed by Freeman as “PollyGrind2: Return of the Grind” — ran October 7–16, 2011, in Las Vegas, with world premieres including Finger Bang, The Gruesome Death of Tommy Pistol and Dear God No!, plus a slate of Las Vegas premieres headed by The Bunny Game (JoBlo). At the awards, Rehmeier’s film dominated: it took the top jury prize, “The Biggest Baddest Mother of the PollyGrind,” along with Best Sound Design, Best Cinematography and Best Editing, while star Rodleen Getsic won Best Overall Individual Performance as Bunny (Dread Central). Dread Central described PollyGrind as quickly becoming “one of the up-and-coming premiere genre fests,” and Freeman called The Bunny Game “the epitome of what PollyGrind is about” — a one-man-crew production he found stylistic, brutal and thought-provoking (Dread Central). Other 2011 winners included The Super (Best Horror Film, Best Director, Best Overall Cast), Dear God No! (Best Exploitation Film, audience favorite feature) and Ratline (Best Crime Film) (Dread Central).
The 2011 jury awards at a glance
| Award | Winner | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The Biggest Baddest Mother of the PollyGrind (top prize) | The Bunny Game (Adam Rehmeier) | Written by Rodleen Getsic & Adam Rehmeier; produced by Getsic, Sarah Rehmeier and Adam Rehmeier |
| Best Horror Film / Best Director / Best Overall Cast | The Super (Evan Makrogiannis, Brian Weaver) | — |
| Best Exploitation Film / Favorite Feature (audience) | Dear God No! (James Bickert) | — |
| Best Sound Design / Best Cinematography / Best Editing | The Bunny Game (Adam Rehmeier) | — |
| Best Overall Individual Performance | Rodleen Getsic as Bunny in The Bunny Game | — |
| Best Screenplay / Best Actress | Butterfly (Edward E. Romero; Mandi Kreisher) | — |
| Most Outrageous / Best Actor | The Gruesome Death of Tommy Pistol (Aramis Sartorio) | — |
Frequently asked questions
When did the second PollyGrind Film Festival take place? The second annual edition, dubbed “PollyGrind2: Return of the Grind,” ran October 7–16, 2011, in Las Vegas, with kickoff programming during the arts district’s First Friday event. The lineup mixed world premieres with Las Vegas premieres of films like The Bunny Game, The Super and Ratline.
Who founded the PollyGrind Film Festival? Filmmaker Chad Clinton Freeman founded the festival in 2010 and serves as its director. Horror-industry press consistently identifies him as the festival’s founder and programmer, and he announced each year’s lineups and winners through the genre press.
What did The Bunny Game win at PollyGrind? At the 2011 edition, Adam Rehmeier’s The Bunny Game won the top jury prize, “The Biggest Baddest Mother of the PollyGrind,” plus Best Sound Design, Best Cinematography and Best Editing, and its star Rodleen Getsic won Best Overall Individual Performance for her role as Bunny.
What kinds of films does PollyGrind show? Horror, exploitation, grindhouse and underground/arthouse independent film — features, shorts, trailers and music videos. The festival also stages side events like burlesque shows, art exhibits and zombie red-carpet walks, and gives out more than $30,000 in prizes and swag per year.
Is PollyGrind still running? This profile could not verify the festival’s activity after 2014 from a full-read source. Its documented editions run 2010–2014, with MovieMaker recognizing it through that period; later status is listed as an open item rather than asserted.
Timeline
- 2010 — Chad Clinton Freeman founds the PollyGrind Film Festival in Las Vegas for horror, grindhouse and underground independent film (Horror Society).
- 2011-10-07 to 2011-10-16 — the second annual edition runs in Las Vegas; The Bunny Game gets its Las Vegas premiere (JoBlo).
- 2011-10 — the 2011 jury awards are announced: The Bunny Game takes the top prize plus three craft awards, with Rodleen Getsic winning Best Overall Individual Performance (Dread Central).
- 2012 — PollyGrind is named to MovieMaker Magazine’s “25 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee” (reported by Horror Society).
- 2013-10-09 to 2013-10-13 — the fourth annual edition screens 100+ films from 13 countries after a record 777 entries (Horror Society).
What this profile does not claim
- It does not claim PollyGrind is still active: no full-read source in this pass confirms any edition after 2014.
- It does not give screening dates for the 2010 or 2012 editions — only the 2011 and 2013 dates were verified.
- It does not repeat unattributed superlatives about the festival’s influence; the distribution-deal claims are those reported by Horror Society’s 2013 coverage, not independently re-verified title by title.
What we could not verify
- The festival’s post-2014 status: whether any edition took place after 2014, and whether the event still exists in 2026.
- The exact dates and venues of the first (2010) and third (2012) editions.
- The title-by-title accuracy of the distribution-deal list reported in Horror Society’s 2013 article (LionsGate, Showtime, IFC Midnight and others were cited as examples, not exhaustively audited).
Sources
- Dread Central — Exclusive: Second Annual PollyGrind Film Festival Announces Winners (tier2; 2011 awards and festival identity)
- JoBlo — EXCLUSIVE: Details and line-up for 2nd Annual Pollygrind Film Festival (tier2; 2011 dates, lineup, Las Vegas premieres)
- Horror Society — PollyGrind Film Festival of Las Vegas to world premiere 18 films, screen more than 100 in October (tier2; festival history, 2013 edition, MovieMaker recognition, distribution track record)
Timeline
- 2010
- Chad Clinton Freeman founds the PollyGrind Film Festival in Las Vegas as a festival for horror, grindhouse and underground independent film.
- 2011-10-07
- The second annual edition, PollyGrind2, opens in Las Vegas, running through October 16. The lineup gives The Bunny Game its Las Vegas premiere.
- 2011-10
- The 2011 jury awards are announced: The Bunny Game takes the top prize, "The Biggest Baddest Mother of the PollyGrind," plus Best Sound Design, Best Cinematography and Best Editing; Rodleen Getsic wins Best Overall Individual Performance as Bunny.
- 2012
- MovieMaker Magazine names PollyGrind to its 2012 list of "25 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee"; readers later vote it into the magazine's 2013 Top 5 Coolest Experimental/Underground Film Festivals.
- 2013-10-09
- The fourth annual edition, "POLLYGRIND IV: A New Hope," draws a record-breaking 777 entries; more than 100 films from 13 countries screen, with 18 world premieres.
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- Activity after 2014: MovieMaker's 2014 "50 festivals worth the entry fee" list reportedly included PollyGrind, but no full-read source in this pass confirms any edition after 2014. The profile does not assert the festival is still active.
- The precise screening dates of the first (2010) and third (2012) editions were not verified from full-read sources in this pass; only the 2011 and 2013 edition dates are asserted.
Sources
3 sources (3 tier 2), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Every source is independent of the subject; no first-party material is cited. See the source policy.
Built from three tier2 sources read in full: Dread Central (the 2011 awards announcement), JoBlo (the 2011 lineup and dates), and Horror Society (the 2013 edition preview with festival history). Wikipedia was used only as a lead index and is not cited; a 2011 PRLog press release from the festival's own staff was surveyed but not cited, since the independent sources carried all load-bearing claims. The festival's exact activity after 2014 was not verified in this pass.
- Supports: 2011 second-annual edition held in Las Vegas; Chad Clinton Freeman as the 'madman behind the scenes'; full 2011 jury awards list — top prize 'The Biggest Baddest Mother of the PollyGrind' to The Bunny Game, Best Sound Design/Cinematography/Editing to The Bunny Game, Best Overall Individual Performance to Rodleen Getsic, plus all other category winners; Freeman and Adam Rehmeier quotes on the festival and the film Open original source
- Supports: Second annual edition dates October 7–16, 2011; The Bunny Game among the Las Vegas premieres; world-premiere titles; ticket/pass pricing; prize and distribution packages; described as 'Las Vegas' premiere underground film festival' Open original source
- PollyGrind Film Festival of Las Vegas to world premiere 18 films, screen more than 100 in October Tier 2Supports: Festival founder and director Chad Clinton Freeman; founded in 2010; The Bunny Game won the top award in 2011; 2013 fourth-annual edition ('POLLYGRIND IV: A New Hope') with record 777 entries, 100+ films from 13 countries, 18 world premieres, October 9–13 at Theatre7; MovieMaker 2012 '25 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee' mention; distribution deals from LionsGate, Showtime, IFC Midnight and others Open original source
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