FilmQuest’s 13th edition opens with “Whiskey Throttle” in Provo

By Elena Vasquez

FilmQuest 2026, the festival’s 13th edition, opened on Oct. 22 with “Whiskey Throttle,” a Utah-made motorcycle action feature at the Velour Live Music Gallery in Provo. The festival lasts 10 days.

One audience member set the tone: “Motherfucking Utah, let’s go!” The Velour’s auditorium had spooky decorations and a strong popcorn aroma. New friendships and potential collaborations formed around the crowd. Vintage 1980s trailers for “Masters of the Universe” and period toy commercials played before the screening.

Festival founder and director Jonathan Martin acted as a one-man cheerleading squad for Utah filmmaking and genre fare. He traded friendly barbs with the room over Sundance’s departure from Utah and with neighboring Idaho.

Opening announcements also stated that no festival film used AI. The announcement drew applause from the indie creatives in attendance, who regard the technology as a threat to their jobs and to artistic quality.

The opening established local labor, Utah locations and audience enthusiasm as the festival’s strongest shared themes.

What made “Whiskey Throttle” a local event?

Jacob Schwarz directed “Whiskey Throttle” as a pursuit story. A biker gang hunts a mysterious rider who killed a cartel leader and stole his crypto wallet. The audience cheered the film’s explosions, desert motorcycle camerawork and practical stunt work.

The production combined family participation, Utah locations and practical action, giving its road-movie premise a clear regional identity within a feature made by a closely connected Utah team.

Producer Dave Hunter discussed that local scale after the premiere. He produced the film through his new Utah-based Intension Industries banner and said: “My entire family is involved. All of my kids were the stunt riders … We had everybody that we knew involved in this film.”

Utah Film Commission Production Manager Derek Mellus highlighted the state’s range of locations. “If you have a road movie, you should be shooting it in Utah,” Mellus told Variety. “Whether it’s going to higher elevation or to the deserts or to southern Utah, Red Rocks, we have it all here.”

Utah supplied both the participants and the terrain behind the feature’s local identity.

How did the two shorts expand the opening program?

FilmQuest traditionally pairs the main screening with thematically related shorts. Two shorts preceded “Whiskey Throttle,” extending the night beyond a single action feature.

“Relict” came from Brigham Young University’s Department of Theatre and Media Arts. Twin brothers Andrew and James Harker wrote, directed and shot the atmospheric film as their senior thesis. It follows an anthropologist obsessed with photographing a mysterious creature.

Variety described the result as visually arresting, especially given its status as a senior-thesis production. Martin said during the Q&A that the Harkers also had a feature-length script they would like to make.

“Marv,” an Australian short, offered a different register. Writer-director Andrew Gardner parodied the “Saw” series with a titular clown who tortures a man and his family, then realizes his mistake and may need to stop the traps early.

The assessment likened the result to a gore-filled episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” praised Gardner’s comic timing and proposed that he could helm a “Scary Movie” installment.

The shorts gave the program both student visual storytelling and Australian genre comedy.

What follows the opening night?

After the Q&A, the crowd remained energetic and eager to talk. Martin moved the conversations outside so the packed late show of “Whiskey Throttle” could enter and keep the Utah-filmmaking celebration going.

The immediate test will be whether the late-show turnout and the Harker twins’ feature-length script can convert opening-night enthusiasm into sustained local filmmaking activity beyond one night.