Sunscreen Film Festival turns 20

St. Pete event is famous for its filmmaker-friendly vibe

Exclusive to MeierMovies, April 28, 2025

The Sunscreen Film Festival celebrated its 20th anniversary April 24-27 in St. Petersburg, Florida, with lavish parties, great weather, 16 workshops/panels and 224 films (33 features and the rest either shorts or “mid-length” movies).

Held at the downtown AMC Sundial 12 Cinema, the festival enjoys a filmmaker-friendly reputation, buoyed by its great location and glorious Florida spring temperatures. It’s also organized well, with the only confusion being its recommendation that passholders reserve tickets in advance when, in actuality, they are able to walk into every screening and workshop except the few that sell out. (If you don’t have a pass, you will, of course, need to buy individual tickets.)

Led by co-founder Tony Armer (industry professional, novelist and former St. Petersburg-Clearwater film commissioner), the annual festival draws a wide variety of films and filmmakers. Attendees include students screening their first films to celebrities such as actress Tara Reid, and everyone in between. It’s a great place to people-watch and network.

Movies range from professional projects with distribution deals, to locally made debut features, to high school shorts. Just like Forrest Gump’s mother and her proverbial chocolate box, you never know what you’re gonna get. Indeed, the filmmakers behind the locally produced Jebus proudly proclaimed that Sunscreen was the only festival that accepted their stoner comedy. So if you’re a Florida production that has seen rejection from other fests, try Sunscreen. But if you’re looking for consistently high-quality offerings, you’d be better off at that other “Sun” festival out in Utah.

Thursday’s opening-night party was held at the James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art; Friday’s party was at the gloriously funky FloridaRAMA, which is sort of a cross between an indoor theme park, a museum and a soundstage; and Saturday’s awards ceremony/party (with a generous open bar) was at the St. Petersburg pier. (Go here for the winners.)

This was my first visit to Sunscreen, and I was treated well, as were, I assume, other members of the press. Regrettably, I saw only a tiny portion of the films, but let me commend two shorts: Darling, directed by Finola Hughes, and Fuel, directed by Marc Cleary.

Visit SunscreenFilmFestival.com for more information. And for a review of the British sci-fi mockumentary Time Travel Is Dangerous, which had its Florida premiere at the festival, go here.

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Photos below show the the workshop/panel on film commissions, which was held on Friday afternoon, and the interior of the AMC Sundial 12 Cinema.