Screamfest® Horror Film Festival (23)

Festival start: 10 October 2023      Festival end: 19 October 2023

Calling all independent filmmakers! Screamfest® Film Festival is back for its 23rd annual 10-day event, showcasing the best in horror cinema from around the world. Held this October at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Los Angeles, our festival is a must-attend event for horror fans and industry professionals alike.

Don't just take our word for it - some of the biggest horror publications have dubbed us the 'Sundance of Horror.' Our festival has also been featured in Moviemaker Magazine's lists of 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee for 2023, 50 Best Genre Fests in the World 2021, 25 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee & 13 Film Festivals to Die For, and 30 Bloody Best Genre Fests in the World 2019.

As the largest and longest-running horror film festival in the United States, we have a proud history of discovering and showcasing groundbreaking films. Paranormal Activity, for example, was discovered and premiered at our festival in 2007.

Join us for a spine-tingling lineup of new genre films and premieres, including past hits such as Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, Dead Ant, Trick 'r' Treat, 30 Days of Night, The Human Centipede, and American Mary. And don't forget to check out our YouTube channel at https://bit.ly/2MYvdFt, where you can view past Screamfest® short films. Submit your work now for your chance to be a part of the legacy!

A stunning, 24 carat gold-plated skull designed by the legendary Stan Winston himself.

Thank you for considering Screamfest® Horror Film Festival as the venue to showcase your film. We are excited to announce that the 2023 film competition is now open to receive new features and short films from all around the world. The deadline for submissions is August 15, 2023, and films must have been completed after January 1, 2022.

Premiere status will be taken into consideration when deciding a film's (shorts & features) inclusion in the festival. For feature-length films, including international features, a World, North American, US, West Coast, or LA County premiere is preferred. Short films must be an LA County premiere.

To be eligible for the festival, feature films must not have had any public or festival screenings in the Southern California region, and both feature and short films must not have had any commercial theatrical, television, or online play in the US. If your film is in a language other than English, please ensure it is subtitled for festival presentation.

Films should be submitted based on their length, with feature-length fiction and documentary films being 36 minutes or longer, super short films being less than 10 minutes, short films between 10-25 minutes, and extended-length short films between 26-35 minutes.

If your film has been submitted in previous years, you may resubmit it only if significant changes have been made to the film, with a detailed list of changes included in the submission packet.

Please refrain from emailing us links to new versions of your film after submitting. We will only judge ONE version of each film. For submission purposes, online screeners may be works-in-progress, films with temporary soundtracks or digital outputs. Rough cuts and works-in-progress can only be submitted in the FINAL deadline and if the completed film will be available by September 15th, 2023.

We will notify you of acceptance via email or phone. If your film is accepted, a complete press kit will be requested, and a feature film trailer for promotion is mandatory. Acceptable screening formats are DCP.

All entries selected for Screamfest® will grant us the right to use any footage from the preview screener and all submitted publicity photos and any other materials sent to us pertaining to this entry for promotional purposes, without limitations. All prints must be picked up after the screening and signed for by the filmmaker.

For screenplay submissions, the early deadline is January 15, 2023, the regular deadline is March 15, 2023, the final deadline is June 2, 2023, and the extended deadline is June 15, 2023. Screenplays must be submitted on the Screamfest® festival website, as Festhome is unable to host different final deadlines on their site. Screenplay file names should be saved in this format: Title_Lastname.pdf. Feature film screenplays should be at least 75 pages and not over 130, and short screenplays are not accepted. If you submit a screenplay to Screamfest, you will have the option to receive brief feedback outlining the strengths and weaknesses of your work.
Please include a title/cover page with your screenplay title, author name, WGA registration number and/or copyright information. The title page will not count towards the overall script page count.

We will announce the screenplay finalists in October, with the winning screenplay announced at the festival closing night awards ceremony. The screenplay finalists will be announced in an email from Screamfest® and posted on our website's front page.

Please add our email address to your email safe senders list, address book, or contact list to ensure that any correspondence from Screamfest® is not blocked or filtered into your bulk folder.