Our good friends over at the Alamo Drafthouse run one of the best festivals anywhere. And we’re not the only ones who think so – Variety called Fantastic Fest “Geek Telluride,” and also named it one of the “10 Festivals We Love”. In previous years, Fantastic Fest has hosted surprise premieres for such films as “There Will Be Blood,” “Apocalypto,” and “Pan’s Labyrinth.”

As great as Fantastic Fest is, this year it just got a little better. We are all atremble here at B-Side with excitement over the launch of Fantastic Fest Online. In partnership with sponsor AMD, B-Side is streaming 10 films from Fantastic Fest 2008 from Saturday, 9/14 through Saturday 9/20 at http://fantasticfestonline.bside.com – absolutely free. And we’re not talking festival rejects – these 10 films are all official selections to Fantastic Fest that were hand-picked to represent the festival worldwide.

Audience members who watch films online are eligible to vote for the ‘Online Audience Favorite’ awards, which will be presented to the winning feature and short film on Monday, September 22 as part of the official 2008 Fantastic Fest awards ceremony. Co-sponsor AMD will be providing cash and technology prizes for the winning films.

In their official announcement, Alamo founder and Fantastic Fest director Tim League explained the motivation behind FF Online:

As 2008 Fantastic Fest badges are sold out and some folks don’t have the money to travel to Austin for the festival in the first place, we have teamed up with two of our festival sponsors, AMD and B-Side, to give everyone a taste of the fun for free.

I am personally very excited to be working with these filmmakers, B-Side and AMD to provide this unique new experience for genre film enthusiasts across the globe. Utilizing technology to provide simple and free access to great new film talent, Fantastic Fest Online may very well be paving the way to redefining what the term ‘film festival’ means in the future.

We are thrilled to be working with Fantastic Fest for the 3rd year in a row, and are excited to be helping them pave the way.

Check out the list of films and watch now: http://fantasticfestonline.bside.com/2008/films

Questions about how to use Fantastic Fest Online: http://www.bside.com/help/ffonline