The South Carolina Underground Film Festival is back on Main Street this weekend, bringing three days of narrative features, experimental shorts, documentaries, claymation and even puppet shows to downtown Columbia. The festival's 12th annual edition runs Friday through Sunday, Nov. 6-8, at The Nickelodeon Theatre, with South Carolina filmmakers sharing the screen with national and international talent competing for the festival's signature SCUFFY Awards.
The gathering has become something of a fixture for the city's indie film scene, and organizers describe it as a showcase for independent cinema in the heart of downtown, according to WIS News 10. The station reports that Nickelodeon executive director Sumner Bender and featured festival filmmaker Sam Reed joined WIS to preview the weekend, with both highlighting the importance of elevating independent voices from South Carolina. According to the South Carolina Underground Film Festival's own site, moviegoers can join organizers November 6-8 at The Nickelodeon Theater in the heart of downtown Columbia.
A Weekend Built on Genre-Bending Variety
This year's slate spans narrative feature films, experimental shorts, and documentaries alongside creative niche formats such as claymation and puppet shows, per the station's report. That genre-hopping spirit isn't new for SCUFF — the festival's website notes that all genres of films have been welcomed with open arms since 2015, a philosophy that has carried through past editions as well.
Those past lineups give a sense of what Columbia audiences can expect. The 2024 festival, held Nov. 8-10 at The Nick on Main Street, presented a mix of genres including horror, comedy, animation and documentary, as reported by The Post and Courier / Free Times. A year before that, the 2023 edition returned to Columbia at Spotlight Cinemas Capital 8, with two blocks of short films made by local filmmakers alongside multiple feature films, the outlet noted in a separate piece.
South Carolina Filmmakers Get Their Own Spotlight
Local talent isn't just along for the ride this year. The festival's official schedule lists a South Carolina Shorts Block titled “Made in the South” set for 3:15 p.m., which includes the eight-minute South Carolina short Happy Pines, directed by Adam Weber, according to the festival's published schedule. That block sits alongside the national and international entries vying for the SCUFFY Awards, the honor WIS News 10 describes as the festival's signature prize.
For filmmakers eyeing next year, the window is already opening. SCUFF's submission page states that entries for the 2027 festival will open soon, and the same page lays out how the process works: submissions are screened and evaluated by the SCUFF Preview and Selection Committee, appointed by the festival's steering committee, with judges' decisions final. The festival also reserves the right to refuse any submission it deems overly offensive, violent or racist, and participation authorizes SCUFF to use entered films for internet and television promotion of current and future festivals, per the site's submission terms.
For now, the focus is on this weekend's three days of screenings along Main Street, where Columbia's underground film community will once again take over The Nickelodeon Theatre for a celebration of independent storytelling in all its odd, handmade and heartfelt forms.
