At the Monday night premiere of the second annual Gen Art Film Festival, taxis and a few limos pulled up to the entrance of Chicago’s Music Box Theater and unloaded passengers onto the sidewalk and into the flashing lights of “paparazzi” cameras. But unlike last year’s festival held in New York City–which boasted appearances by Heather Graham and Alan Cumming–it was only the moviegoers that received star treatment, despite cameos by Jennifer Tilly and William H. Macy among others in the independent films screened at the festival.

A week-long event, each night of the Gen Art festival features a screening of a short film, a feature film, and of course—an afterparty. Prizes awarded to the favorite films were sponsored by Acura, who was thanked profusely throughout the course of the night.

Monday evening’s short, entitled Goldfish and directed by Joe Wein, follows the travails of two elementary school girls determined to return classroom goldfish to their natural home (a la Finding Nemo) by flushing them down the toilet. The feature film, Bart Got a Room, directed by Brian Hecker, concerns the journey of an earnest but unfortunate protagonist to find a prom date in a movie whose plot and characters will seem a little stale to anyone who’s seen American Pie, Juno, or Superbad. Following the films, the cast and crew fielded questions from the audience, addressing issues ranging from film production to how the crew managed to simulate lizard sex on screen. The rest of the week’s screenings will be held at the AMC Loews Pipers Alley.