Blog: Film festivals

FESTIVAL VISION

We want to bridge emerging voices worldwide with Nigeria's creative ecosystem. More than a screening event, this festival is a visibility accelerator and a networking platform crafted to connect your work with a passionate audience and industry professionals

Exclusive Benefits for Submitted Projects

We want to ensure your project gains visibility the moment your submission is confirmed, regardless of the official selection results.

Personalized Social Media Campaigns

If you opt-in, we will promote your project across the festival's official profiles, free of charge.

Campaign Content

Dedicated posts featuring your official poster, synopsis, and director/writer credits.

Industry Reach

Your work will be showcased to an international network of filmmakers, agents, and industry press.

World-Class Projection & Venue Partnership
We know how much precision, color grading, and sound design go into your final cut. Your work deserves to be experienced exactly as you envisioned it.

Professional Live Execution

While our team brings over 6 years of international festival organization experience to curate and manage the event, the live projections and venue operations are handed over directly to Mcrystal Cinemas.

By partnering with an established, high-end theatrical exhibitor like Mcrystal Cinemas, we guarantee:

State-of-the-art projection technology calibrated for optimal brightness and color accuracy.

Immersive audio systems delivering crisp dialogue and rich sound design.

A seamless theatrical environment run by seasoned cinema staff dedicated to flawless live playback.

You focus on bringing your story to Lagos; we—along with Mcrystal Cinemas—ensure a flawless big-screen premiere.

19th INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OF THE EAST IN CONCEPCIÓN

Vitascopio 2026 Open Call: 2026 Inter-University Audiovisual Showcase

WE ARE LOOKING FOR STORIES MADE BY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS FROM COLOMBIA AND AROUND THE WORLD.

Presented by BLOODSTREAM TV, the REAPER FILM FESTIVAL is an inaugural Los Angeles horror and genre event with a single purpose: help short filmmakers reach the audiences their work deserves.

We built Reaper for the creators without the industry connections, the festival budget, or the inside track, who are making the most fearless work out there anyway.

We keep the entry low, the process honest, and we put your film in front of a room that came to be scared.

Every Official Film Selection receives non-exclusive distribution on BLOODSTREAM TV.

Your film keeps working for you long after the lights come up.


EVERY OFFICIAL SELECTION EARNS:

Your short film streaming worldwide on BLOODSTREAM TV!

ALL officially selected films will stream on BLOODSTREAM TV, non-exclusive, giving selected films a streaming home beyond festival night while filmmakers retain ownership of their work and make money back on their films.

GET SEEN

One night. Three screening blocks. A room full of genre fans who showed up specifically to be scared by your work.

GET AHEAD

The Reaper trophy, one-on-one industry consultations, featured placement, distribution opportunities, and direct interaction with filmmakers and industry professionals for the projects that cut the deepest.

TWO WAYS TO ENTER -

SHORT FILM

Horror and horror-adjacent short films under 15 minutes, including credits.

We welcome supernatural, slasher, psychological horror, folk horror, body horror, creature films, found footage, gore, science fiction, action, thriller, fantasy, and other work with a significant horror, dark, suspense, or genre component.

Completed films only.

Previously screened and previously distributed films are welcome, provided they are not currently subject to an exclusive agreement that would prevent the non-exclusive Bloodstream TV distribution associated with Official Selection.

Films may be in English or subtitled in English.

SHORT SCREENPLAY

Great horror starts on the page.

Reaper accepts original horror and horror-adjacent short screenplays of 10 pages or fewer, excluding the title page.

Every eligible screenplay is read and scored.

The Top Five Finalists receive one-on-one consultations and first-look consideration from the Reaper Film Festival team and partners.

The winning screenplay is announced live at the festival.


HOW WE JUDGE

Every eligible submission is watched or read in full, more than once, by working filmmakers and industry professionals.

No algorithms. No skim-and-score judging. Entries move through a disciplined judging pipeline, conducted blind wherever practical, so the work speaks louder than the name attached to it.

Every eligible entry is checked for category requirements before being assigned to at least two independent reviewers.

Every reviewer watches or reads the complete submission before entering a score.

Entries are scored from 1 to 10 across a defined rubric. Reviewer scores are averaged, and a significant scoring disagreement triggers an additional review so no single opinion determines a project's fate.

Top-scoring entries move to jury deliberation. Jurors may re-screen or reread contested projects, defend their selections, and must recuse themselves from projects in which they have a personal or financial stake.

Watched in full. Scored blind. Decided on the merits.

THE 2026 REAPER JURY
SCREAM QUEEN JUDGE

JENNA KANELL
Actor / Scream Queen Judge
Terrifier, The Bye Bye Man, Renfield

Who better to judge horror than someone who has survived it on screen? Our Scream Queen Judge hunts for the films that get under your skin and stay there.

HONORARY JUDGES

MARCUS J. MCGILL
Executive Producer
Terrifier

JASON NEESE
Producer
The Umbrella Academy

KIMBERLY SKYRME
Casting Director
Cut Shoot Kill

JAMES CULLEN BRESSACK
Producer
I Have Proof

JONATHAN MARTIN
Founder of FilmQuest

GIGI SAUL GUERRERO
Director
The Purge

JESSE COVE
Actor
Scream Boat

MICHAEL YEDWAB
Executive Producer
Monster Party

RACHEL PAULSON
Director
Stuck

DAVID M. PARKS
Director
Static Codes

MICHAEL PICKLE
Director
The Dead Place

JP OUELLETTE
Producer
Affection

SUNNY ZHAO
Director / Cinematographer
The Gift

More judges to be announced.


OUR PARTNERS

BLOODSTREAM TV

Founding Presenter / Distribution Partner

Bloodstream TV is the horror, thriller, and science fiction streaming service from The Horror Collective.

The platform launched with more than 1,500 genre titles and includes free ad-supported viewing, premium subscription programming, FAST channels, and direct uploads built for independent filmmakers.

Every Reaper Official Film Selection receives non-exclusive distribution on Bloodstream TV.

STUDIO DOME

Development & Distribution Partner

Studio Dome provides a direct connection to the professional development and distribution ecosystem.

Its services include VOD aggregation, global licensing to platforms including Netflix, Prime Video, and Apple TV, marketing, PR, and real-time royalty tracking.

Studio Dome was founded by industry veteran Shaked Berenson, who has released more than 1,000 films and series.

For Reaper, Studio Dome opens the door to consultations for top filmmakers and first-look consideration for screenplay finalists.

David Joshua Lawrence, Head of Acquisitions

THE NIGHT
IN-PERSON SCREENING AND AWARD SHOW AT THE EARL

OCTOBER 22, 2026

6:00 PM TO 12:30 AM

THE EARL
4408 W 2nd St
Los Angeles, CA 90004

This is not a theater full of strangers politely clapping. It is a night out in Los Angeles.

Killer horror on the screen, a drink in your hand, and a room where the person beside you might be your next collaborator, producer, actor, writer, crew member, or the reason the next film gets made.

The night includes:

Three 45-minute screening blocks
30-minute intermissions for drinks and networking
Award presentations
Winner announcements
Prize giveaways
The announcement of the Reaper Screenplay Competition winner
Dedicated networking and conversation areas
Horror atmosphere and costumed characters
A silent costume contest
Sponsor giveaways
Festival merchandise
Industry interaction
THREE ROOMS AND A PATIO. ONE ROOF.

The Earl gives Reaper a darkened screening chamber for the films, dedicated space for handshakes and war stories, another room that can open up once the credits roll, and an outdoor patio to breathe between the screams.

Seating is limited to 200.

Attendance is encouraged and celebrated, but it is never required to be judged, become an Official Selection, win, or receive applicable distribution.


COME DRESSED TO DIE FOR

The Earl does not simply host the night. For one night, it becomes part of it.

Expect horror props in the shadows, scream queens working the floor, costumed characters, and festival staff joining the atmosphere.

Attendees are encouraged to come in costume.
A silent costume contest runs throughout the night.
No stage interruption. No stopping the screenings.
Winners are selected during the evening and can walk out with:

Cash
Drink tickets
Sponsor prizes
Festival merchandise
Additional giveaways
WHO'S IN THE DARK WITH YOU?

Reaper is a real industry night wearing a horror party's clothes.

You will meet the filmmakers coming up beside you: future collaborators, producers, actors, writers, crew, and friends, alongside the people already working inside the industry.

Our founders, festival directors, jury, and distribution partners bring their circles out to watch, meet filmmakers, and spend the night with the community.

Depending on attendance, the room may include:

Studio and distribution executives
Producers
Executive producers
Development professionals
Acquisitions professionals
Investors and financiers
Streaming professionals
Established filmmakers
Actors and recognizable talent
Horror icons and scream queens
Writers and directors
Jury guests
Emerging filmmakers and creatives

One room. All night. Everybody in it.

You never know who you will end up talking to at The Earl.


THE VENUE
THE EARL

4408 W 2nd St, Los Angeles, CA 90004

The Earl is an adaptive arts and culture space in mid-city Los Angeles founded by Michael Earl. For two decades, the venue has brought intersecting communities together for creative cross-pollination across art, music, design, and performance. It offers an intimate stage, green room, multiple gathering spaces, and an outdoor patio.


FESTIVAL DIRECTORS

JUDAH RAY

Screenwriter / Director / Producer

Writer, director, and producer with more than 100 festival honors and experience participating in more than 200 festivals worldwide.

DAVID JOSHUA LAWRENCE

Distributor / Screenwriter / Actor

Distributor, screenwriter, actor, and Head of Acquisitions at Studio Dome, providing a direct connection between the festival and worldwide distribution.

CLAIRE MCLEOD HILL

Executive Producer / Producer

Executive producer and producer with multiple films distributed worldwide and an eye for genre stories worth backing.


GET DISTRIBUTED. GET SEEN. GET AHEAD.

This artistic-cultural mediation initiative seeks to bring cinema closer to people with a physical/ mental or neuro-atypical disability. As part of this festival, several documentary films (short and medium-length films) will be broadcast in connection with the experiences of these people.

Festival President and Artistic Director Gabriel Daniel Dorobantu is having the pleasure of welcoming you to The Third Edition of The Moonlight Online International Film Festival which is organized and administered by the Swedish creation, production and distribution company Dorobantu Film & Television.

The Festival aims to promote original feature films and short films of high artistic quality and to support independent cinema worldwide.

In addition to the awards, both among the films submitted to the Festival but not selected and among the films selected for Festival participation, feature films and short films with high market potential may also be selected for film sale and / or distribution agreement proposals. (In such cases, the rights holders of the respective films will be contacted by the festival management office within three months after the festival.)

The Mairena del Aljarafe Short Film Festival, Mairena Film Festival (here in after MAIFF) will be a cultural event with a program that will host different activities (meetings with industry professionals, 36h short film making rally, projections of the official section...). The festival will be held from October 9 to 17, 2026
in the Seville town of Mairena del Aljarafe.

You are invited to participate in the first *Revista El Coloso* micro-cinema festival. The event will take place on Saturday, September 26. In the days leading up to it, a poster will be released featuring the names of the selected participants, the venue, the time, and all relevant details. A brief tribute to the life and work of the great Tim Curry will also be held.

VIII INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF FILM AND SCIENCE 2026

The International Exhibition of Cinema and Science is an event that will take place at Centro Cultural Doctor Madrazo (Santander, Spain), between the 10th and 13th of November, 2026. Is admitted any work of any genre related to science and scientific divulgation.

The objective of the exhibition is to promote the production and divulgation of works that foster the positive and progressive values ​​of science and technology, and that serve as a consultation for any type of audience. The subject is totally free and can refer to own or other people's research, hot topics in the society or scientific community, personal scientific-technical passions, basic science concepts, scientific milestones, historical figures, the science of the future or past, etc.

17th Piélagos Short Film Festival "Piélagos en Corto"

The Piélagos City Council presents the 17th edition of its film festival, a showcase for local and international talent. Featuring competitive categories for Cantabria, Spain, International films, and the UNESCO Costa Quebrada Geopark, the event celebrates the finest in short filmmaking (fiction, up to 30 minutes).

Official selections will compete for awards such as Best Cantabrian, National, and International Short Film, alongside technical category recognitions and the prestigious Geopark Award, which honors works highlighting this natural heritage site.

Submissions are open until December 20, 2026, exclusively via Festhome.

The closing gala in 2027 will feature screenings, networking events, and accommodation for nominees.

An unmissable gathering for emerging cinema, where landscape and storytelling converge!

Objective

Marere Film Festival main objective is to promote and screen feature films related to art in any of its major artistic forms (cinema, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, dance, literature, and their derivatives), as well as other audiovisual and cinematic works that bring culture closer to the public.

Dates and Venue

The second edition of Marere Film Festival will be held from March 17 to 22, 2026, in Jávea. The central location will be the Jayan Cinema, located at C/ Santísimo Cristo del Mar 14, CP 03730 Jávea (Alicante).

The Huarte Tipu Films film festival aims to promote short films and establish the medium-length film as a film format in its own right, by providing a dedicated platform for screening and promotion that supports emerging filmmakers.

Only for Spanish filmmakers.

WHERE HUMAN DREAMS MEET

​Upstream Film Festival is an Estonian experimental film festival exploring how artificial intelligence is changing cinema. It is taking place in Tallinn, Estonia, for the first time. 
​
This year is experimental for us, just as AI is for the world today, so for our first year, our mission is simple: to introduce high-quality AI short films of various genres to Estonian audiences. 
​
We live in an era of rapidly changing visual effects, where it is becoming harder to tell what is real and what is generated. However, the human remains the creator, deciding what the films of the future will ultimately look like. 
​
We are open to discussion: is AI just a tool, or can it be a creator too?
​
Join us to test these new possibilities and bring your wildest dreams to the big screen!

BOYERIS International Film Festival is an independent international film festival founded in France and open to filmmakers worldwide.

BOYERIS celebrates bold works that expand cinematic language through new forms, storytelling, technology and ways of seeing. The festival is interested not simply in which tools are used, but in what new cinematic possibilities appear on screen.

The 2026 inaugural edition is held online and features five competition categories: New Cinematic Forms, AI-Assisted Cinema, Hybrid & Experimental, Vertical Cinema and Social Vision.

Filmmakers do not need to choose a competition category when submitting. Each work may be considered in one or more categories by the BOYERIS selection team.

The inaugural 2026 edition is free to enter. The Official Selection will be announced on December 6, 2026, and the awards will be announced on December 28, 2026.

The 2nd “Raíces Film Fest” Audiovisual Competition aims to identify, showcase, and celebrate the creativity of young creators connected to rural areas. We are looking for audiovisual works that explore, question, or reinterpret contemporary rural life from a free, critical, and artistic perspective, across any audiovisual genre.

LANZAROTE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2027

National Fiction Shorts
International Fiction Shorts
Animated shorts
Short Documentaries
Canary Shorts
Children's Shorts

Sección Oficial a concurso.

Official Competition Section.

The UNICINE International Film Festival celebrates national and international cinema with the aim of recognizing, promoting, and supporting audiovisual creators, as well as strengthening the dissemination, awareness, accessibility, and understanding of diverse themes of social and cultural interest among a broad and diverse audience.

The festival represents an innovative initiative designed to offer quality entertainment with social consciousness, fostering dialogue, reflection, and diverse perspectives through the language of cinema.

The festival will take place as an in-person event, enabling the participation of filmmakers, producers, students, and audiovisual professionals from various regions of Bolivia and around the world.

Registration for and participation in the Festival constitute full acceptance of these guidelines, rules, and terms established by the organizers.

All expenses incurred by participants in attending the festival, taking part in in-person activities, receiving accolades, or collecting prizes—including transportation, accommodation, meals, and other associated costs—shall be borne exclusively by the individual participants.

Once prizes have been awarded to the winners, neither the festival organizers nor the jury shall bear any responsibility regarding the use, transport, preservation, or disposal of the awards granted in each category.

Prizes will be presented during the festival's official closing ceremony; the venue, date, and time will be announced in due course via the Festival's official channels and social media platforms.

Any situation not covered by these guidelines will be resolved by the Festival organizers, whose decisions shall be final and not subject to appeal.

Since its first edition, the Santo Domingo Global Film Festival (FCGSD) has taken firm steps to grow both nationally and internationally while remaining true to its mission. The festival aims to offer Dominicans, as well as all visitors to the country during the event, the opportunity to access the unique perspective that cinema provides on "global issues" through "personal stories." In doing so, it seeks to foster learning and adaptation in a world driven by knowledge and globalization.

The festival’s mission remains to bring the best international narrative and documentary films to a diverse audience, advancing the understanding of the global challenges we face. Beyond this, it has contributed—whether significantly or modestly—to enhancing cinematic culture in the Dominican Republic and increasing interest in an industry that holds great potential for the country in the 21st century. The FCGSD serves as a platform that supports, among other areas, both local and international film production within the Dominican Republic.

Objectives:
Utilize cinema to strengthen the country’s economic development.

Enrich the cinematic culture of the Dominican Republic.

Screen films that entertain while deepening the understanding of global issues.

Attract people from different sectors and social classes to experience and reflect on films.

Increase the international visibility of the Dominican Republic in the global press.

Showcase a wide variety of films that are not usually accessible to the Dominican public.

Present films that resonate with youth while expanding their appreciation of cinema.

Promote the Dominican Republic as a desirable and viable option for the global film industry.

Bring a modern cinematic culture to schools in the Dominican Republic, using film as a tool to understand global issues, propose solutions, and foster individual opportunities.

CALL FOR ENTRIES 4RD

LESFEST LESBIAN FILM FESTIVAL OF PERU

LIMA - PERU, 2027

COMPETITIONS

Lesfest features five competitions:

- International Feature Film Competition: Productions from any country worldwide with a running time of over 60 minutes are eligible. These films must have been produced after January 1, 2025.

- International Short Film Competition: Films from any country worldwide with a maximum running time of 30 minutes are eligible. These films must have been produced after January 1, 2024.

- Lesbination – International Animation Competition: open to animated films from anywhere in the world with a maximum runtime of 30 minutes. These films must have been produced after January 1, 2025.

- International Series Competition: Series from any country worldwide with a minimum running time of 1 minute and a maximum of 40 minutes in various production formats are eligible. The episodes must have been produced after January 1, 2024.

Peruvian Competition, open to peruavian films with a maximum duration of 30 minutes. These films must have been produced after January 1, 2025.