The good reviews keep on coming. This one by Jason Coffman at FilmMonthly.com:

Perhaps the film’s greatest strength is in its portrayal of what ordinary people might do under inexplicable circumstances (helped tremendously by excellent lead performances by Andreev and Feeney), and its heartbreaking observation that sometimes getting what we most want may be the worst thing that can happen to us. Phasma Ex Machina is one of the best films I’ve seen this year, and is the best filmmaking debut I’ve seen in quite some time.

Read the rest of it here.

• We're happy to report that Phasma Ex Machina is an Official Selection of the Fantastisk Film Festival in Sweden! It's quite an honor to be included in a lineup that features filmmakers such as Luc Besson, Edgar Wright, Neil Marshall, among others. The Lund Fantastisk Film Fest is Scandinavia's largest festival for fantastic films and presents thought-provoking and interesting films from around the world. Phasma Ex Machina makes its European Premiere at the Kino 1 theater on September 26th at 5:30pm. Click here for the film's page.
   
• Phasma will also be joining 220 other amazing films from around the globe at the Calgary International Film Festival. Playing as a part of the American Indies series, Phasma is honored to have made it into one of Movie Maker magazine's Top 25 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee.  Catch us at the Eau Claire Market-Cineplex Odeon, September 25th @ 2:30pm and September 26th @9:00pm.  Click here for the film's page.

This one is from allthingshorroronline.com:

Unlike Tom, Cody is still mired in grief, and does not acquiesce – his goal is to bring back his parents. And maybe it worked – Cody and James are starting to hear things in the house. Footsteps. Shadows. Glimpses of people in their home. Eventually, Tom gets used to having his lovely wife back, while Cody's not so lucky. It's not his parents who are back home. It's a couple far more sinister.  Without giving anything away, there's a race to protect James, while Tom will stop at nothing to keep his wife.
... 
Phasma Ex Machina is a deftly-wrought drama with a science fiction backbone and a splash of the supernatural. There are some genuine moments of dread, and discovering these in cinema is what every horror lover lives for.

Read the full review here.

PS - Stay tuned for a couple more festival announcements at the end of the week.

Via TwitchFilm.net:

Phasma really is an excellent looking film and credit the great photography to Matt Osterman and his DOP Adam Honzl. Osterman's film finds a balance between a healthy dose of scientific theory and spooky paranormal activity with his engaging screenplay. There are also an appropriate number of chills and scares but I also appreciated the unsettling moments created by what could otherwise be looked at as blessings or miracles. Phasma is a quiet and slowly chilling ghost story that lingers around the fringes of your nerves.

This is an impressive debut feature film.

Read the full review.

FilmSchoolRejects.com
Osterman’s film focuses more on the loss and desperation one feels after losing a loved one than on the scares and terrors of their eventual return. That’s not saying Phasma Ex Machina doesn’t have it’s fair share of chill-inducing scenes. It does, and they work beautifully, but they’re not of the violent and shocking Paranormal Activity variety. These are scares of what you once had and of what you may still lose. And of what’s walking around in your basement…

Variety
The rare contemporary screen ghost story favoring a slow build and minimal violence over blunt scare tactics, "Phasma Ex Machina" reps an impressive feature debut for writer-director Matt Osterman.

TheFirstAliCat.com (Audience Member at Fantasia)
This is a first film by writer/director Matt Osterman, who hosted this World Premiere (presumably outside of his immediate family circle and a few critics here and there), and I've got to say, it's perfect. In every way, this is a perfect film - the writing, the direction, the framing of the story, the cinematography, the acting, everything.  

eFilmCritic.com
Andreev is particularly good at portraying this particular form of survivor's guilt. There's something a little deadened in his Cody, though not to the point of exaggeration. He presents us a guy who is smart, although not really obnoxious about it, and comes through just about perfectly when it's time for the logical, scientific wall to crack. He plays very well with Hauser, who makes James feel like a real kid, able to hit the lines of a wiseass teenager without contradicting the more serious moments.

Filmbalaya.com
It also has a refreshing and more true-to-life (even in the supernatural realm in which it lives) ending seldom seen in bigger budgeted more conventionalized Hollywood type films. It would be interesting to see what this young filmmaker could do if given a bigger budget. I for one am looking forward to seeing what else he has to offer.

We appreciate the Phasma movie synopsis included in the Fantasia program guide so much that we're forced to copy it here. It's easily one of the best distillations of the film we've seen of the film so far.

Matt Osterman’s PHASMA EX MACHINA is a different sort of ghost story, a story where the ghosts are symbols of loss and longing as much, if not more, than they are of anger and fear. Its hero does not attempt to exorcise or escape his ghosts but instead works obsessively to bring them back.

Matt Osterman’s PHASMA EX MACHINA is a different sort of science fiction story as well, one in which all of the technology is available at the local surplus shop and soldered together by hand in a garage. It’s not glossy or shiny but hand-assembled and cranky and frustrating.

Sasha Andreev stars as Cody, a young man so consumed by grief and guilt over his parents’ death that he descends to the brink of obsession, trying to build a machine that can bring by the souls of his lost family. In the process he teeters ever closer to forgetting that not all of his family is dead, that he is responsible now for the care of his younger brother James. As he edges closer to bringing back the past, he also moves closer to losing his grip on the present and when he finally succeeds, what comes back is not entirely what he expects.

A unique fusion of science fiction and the supernatural, PHASMA EX MACHINA will surely draw comparisons to the likes of PRIMER and other high-concept, low-budget genre efforts. The great benefit of the steady increase in quality and corresponding decrease in cost of professional-grade video equipment is that it allows directors like Osterman to shine based on talent rather than budget. It’s the sort of film that could not exist in the studio world, one that relies on character and empathy as much as—if not more than—on bumps and scares, and Osterman proves himself to be a compelling talent. With a strong performance from leading man Andreev as his base, Osterman turns in a debut film that neatly balances pathos and protons. 

—Todd Brown

And here's the link to the full page.

In preparation for the screening at the Another Hole in the Head Film Festival, Adam at filmbalaya.com recently interviewed writer/director Matt Osterman about the filmmaking process.

Q: First off, congratulations on your first full-length feature.  I particularly liked how you explored the way in which the characters in Phasma have their own ghosts to face and not just the physical ones.  Was it your intention to bring this element of the film to the forefront?

A: Thanks – it’s been quite the worthwhile marathon. And yeah, the interior motivations or regrets of the characters are much more interesting to me than any external force I could ever create.  There are certain questions about life and death that I wanted to explore and the ghost metaphor provided the perfect opportunity to dive in headfirst.   It was a lot of fun trying to balance the creepy scary stuff with the character’s internal struggles, but they were really just two sides of the same coin.

Read the entire interview here.

We had a ridiculously awesome time in Montreal. Our jaws hit the floor when we walked into the theater and saw over a hundred audience members lined up waiting to get in to see the premiere (45 minutes before the movie was supposed to begin!).  As actor Jim Westcott put it, the night of the premiere might be in the top ten fun moments of his entire life.  And if you know Jim, the guy is no stranger to fun.  We'd also like to thank the great Fantasia Festival staff.  They were completely hospitable and overly nice during our entire stay.  We truly had a great time.

A few of the Phasma boys before the premiere

UPDATE:

Music Editor Chris Harrington shot and edited a down and dirty 30 second vid of the experience.  Check it out:

We are ridiculously over-the-moon excited to announce our first three film festivals: 

#1.  Our World Premiere will be on July 16th 2010 at the awesome Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal Canada.  One of the biggest genre festivals in the world, Fantasia attracts over 90,000 attendees annually and consistently screens buzz-generating films from groundbreaking filmmakers. Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorius Basterds” had its North American premiere at Fantasia last year and we're honored that Phasma Ex Machina has been selected to join the class of 2010.  Click here for the festival page.

#2.  The US premiere will be at the ultra-cool Another Hole in the Head Film Festival in San Francisco, CA on July 24th. Featuring the best new sci-fi, fantasy, and horror films from around the world, Another Hole in the Head Film Festival shines a light on the cool dark underbelly of global cinema.  Phasma screens twice (July 24th and 28th).  Click here for to buy tickets and/or check out the festival page.

#3. Our Midwestern and Local premiere will be at the brand-spanking-new Twin Cities Film Festival. A celebration of great independent films from around the region and around the globe, the Twin Cities Film Festival will bring together film lovers and filmmakers for five fantastic days in downtown Minneapolis.  We don't have a screening date quite yet, but the dates to the festival are September 28th to October 2nd.  We're really looking forward to celebrating with all the people and organizations that supported us all the way through! Click here for the festival page.

Thank you to the entire Phasma team and everyone who has supported us along the way!

The Science of Phasma Ex Machina from Phasma Ex Machina on Vimeo.

Courtney over at HauntJaunts.net recently wrote a brave and emotional post about what draws her to the concept of Phasma Ex Machina.  It's not easy to share personal details like that and we're in awe of her openness and honesty.

I had to take care of my mom in the last months of her life. That was almost two years ago. I’m still reeling from the effects. I have a lot of regrets about how so many things went down during that time. First and foremost I’ll always regret not giving her the dying wish she wanted most, which was to just die in her own house.

And then, just five months after saying goodbye to her I was told I had that grapefruit-sized hitchhiker in my chest? I pretty much figured I was about to say adios too.

I’m not skilled enough to put into words the torment my heart felt at the thought of Death doing me part from my beloved husband Wayne way, way, WAY before I was ready. There was a lot of regret and remorse on my part for all the unspoken “I love yous” I’d withheld over the years for dumb reasons, and which I was painfully aware I might not get the chance to make up for.

And that, I have decided, is what the draw of Phasma Ex Machina is for me. It questions the “what if” and brings those answers to light in ways that only serve to emphasize how brief, fragile and precious our lives with our loved ones are –and why we should strive every chance we get to let them know how much we cherish them.

She truly hit the nail on the head.  

Thanks for fighting the good fight, Courtney!  Read her full post here.