International film festival of entertaining, fantastic and arthouse free genre films.
The Obscura Filmfest was founded by David Ghane in 2016 and has been run by him alone ever since. He is a passionate genre film fan since 1996, attends several film festivals per year since 2004, sometimes helps out there, acts as an extra in horror films and is an extreme film collector.
The Obscura Film Festival specializes in entertaining and fantastic films, big and small, films that almost never get a regular screening. The films shown there are mostly mainstream blockbusters or arthouse films that can be found at most other regular film festivals. Even comparable festivals are expanding their programmes to include more and more arthouse. Those who instead like entertaining, smaller and special independent films, but can also imagine bigger productions from far away countries, will find what they are looking for at the Obscura Filmfest: Films that are fun with rough edges, raw and uncompromising; from nasty little horror films to Asian battle epics, there is something for every fan, just no boredom.
It started with small, offbeat, trashy and depraved underground grindhouse films, meanwhile the Obscura also screens commercial, mid-sized films that are traded on the big film markets.
Highlights of the previous festival editions included the German premieres of the Argentinian fantasy sci fi cyberpunk action film "Daemonium", the Ukrainian thriller "Egregor", the Filipino zombie shocker "Day Zero", the Danish horror film "Finale", the ghost comedy "Deadtectives" and the two Backwoods films "What the Waters Left Behind" and its sequel "Scars" 5 years later.
The European premieres of the Indonesian comic superhero film "Valentine" and the Backwoods film "Drifter" were also screened.
Another highlight was the crazy Japanese splatterfest "Kodoku - Meatball Machine" which can look back on a long festival history including the biggest festivals of its kind, as well as the Universal/Blumhouse production "The Hunt".
With "Redbad" and "The Great Battle", two big battle epics were also screened at the Obscura.
The German premiere of the hard-hitting exploitation film "Trauma" in Hanover was even attended by visitors from the Ruhr area.
After its international premiere at the Obscura, the cowboy backwoods film "Lasso" was shown a few months later at the famous british Frightfest.
In 2022, the Obscura had its first two feature-length film world premieres with "All through the Hall" and "Hidden in the Woods II".
At every Obscura filmfest there were film guests who introduced their film in person and were available for a Q&A. They came from Ireland, UK, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Spain, Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, USA, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and of course Germany.
In 2024, there was a record number of guests from 7 different countries, as well as "The Witch. Revenge," a Ukrainian war horror film that was shot during and about the current war.
Nicobis, media center for new ideas and the cultural multi-space Casa Espejo organizes the fourteenth International Festival of Audiovisual Productions for Children and Adolescents, to be held in the city of La Paz, Bolivia, from 2 to 10 of October 2024.
The Festival aims to promote and promote quality audiovisual productions for children and adolescents, generating a space for reflection and an exchange between them and at the same time to encourage children and adolescents to make their own audiovisual productions.
Likewise, the idea is to create a national and international network to disseminate educational audiovisual productions for children and adolescents from different countries and continents.
The Wildlife Conservation Film Festival (WCFF) is a global film festival that showcases and supports independent films dedicated to the protection of wildlife and the conservation of Earth’s biodiversity through interactive and engaging events.
Founded in 2010 by award-winning filmmaker Christopher J. Gervais, the festival brings together an international community of films, filmmakers, advocates, and scientists committed to preserving wildlife and global biodiversity.
It provides a platform for hundreds of filmmakers to connect and engage in meaningful discussions with attendees from the global conservation, education, wildlife film, and travel industries.
Our mission is to inform, engage and inspire audiences about the upmost need for and importance of the protection of global biodiversity. We do this through the annual film festivals around the world, including New York, Los Angeles, Naples, Florida, and Monterrey, Mexico.
This year we will have a four day non-competitive event (June 11th-14th, 2026) at the Cape May Point Arts and Science Center, in Cape May, New Jersey, USA showcasing a selected number of nominee films before the finals event that will take place at the beautiful and prestigious Elite Cinema Theater in the City of Monterrey, Mexico (September 15th-18th, 2026).
Moreover, WCFF continues its strategic alliance with Ecoflix, the first not-for-profit streaming channel dedicated to protecting animals and the planet. This partnership offers filmmakers the optional opportunity to participate on the online Ecoflix platform, providing increased global access to submitted films and the potential to generate income through online ticket sales.
Location (2026):
● Festival Film Screenings: First stage (non competitive): The Cape May Point Arts and Science Center, Cape May, New Jersey, USA. Finals: Elite Cinemas, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
● Attendance at either venue is voluntary
● Premiere Requirements: None
A horror film contest. Prizes include promotion on the Hollywood Investigator website, award plaques, screening at fan conventions (previous screenings at World Horror Con, Loscon, Tuscon.)
Tabloid Witch founder Thomas M. Sipos is the author of Horror Film Festivals and Awards (McFarland 2012) and Horror Film Aesthetics (McFarland 2010), available on Amazon.com.
XXVII the International Short Film Show of the Bay of Pasaia, IKUSKA 2025.
The festival has an international short film competition in 5 screenings, and other parallel non-competition sessions related to the development of Basque and language coexistence (MINTZAGUN projection in collaboration with Oarsoaldea euskaltegis), Gender Equality (BEKOZ BEKO award in collaboration with the Association against gender violence Bekoz Beko), the promotion of culture in Pasaia and its surroundings, etc.
Hello there,
Coronavirus and the Covid-19 disease changed the world in so many different ways. For the last two years — 2021 and 2022 — we had our festival online, which was a new experience for us. It all went well, and instead of a small audience at one venue, we had the audience around the world! That was one big benefit, but we missed having people together, and talk about the films and make new friends.
Due to the uncertainty of the pandemic, we are still unsure of holding the 18th edition of the Free Spirit Film Festival (2022) at certain venue like in the past. If gathering still remains as an issue, we will host it online again.
If the pandemic situation changes, and we could hold the festival at certain venue, we will announce when and where once we have those finalised. Submissions will be opened in June.
Be safe!
Sincerely yours,
Lobsang Wangyal
Festival Director
The International Film Festival of Pasto (FICPA), which celebrates its 21 edition in October 2025, is a prominent competitive event that brings together the best of national and international cinema. With official categories covering a wide range of topics, from human rights to the environment, including animation and children's films, FICPA offers a unique platform for diversity and cinematic expression. Located in the picturesque city of Pasto, Colombia, globally recognized for its iconic Carnival of Blacks and Whites, the festival not only celebrates the art of cinema but also highlights the rich cultural heritage of the region. As the oldest event in southwestern Colombia, FICPA awards the coveted Sol de los Pastos (Sun of the Pastos) prize, establishing itself as a must-attend event on both the local and international cultural calendar.
We are an independent festival dedicated to bring together established musicians and filmmakers in a forum to celebrate the short films. Dublin International Short Film and Music Festival celebrates the artistic, educational and historical importance of short films and music. It gives independent film artists a platform for sharing their work and creating a dialogue with the community. It promotes the discussion and study of filmmaking.
DISFMF is the largest independent short film festival in Ireland, in 2026 we are celebrating the 15th anniversary.
In 2025 we selected over 90 short films from all over the world, the festival has brought established, emerging and award-winning filmmakers to the public attention.
Back in the cinema, the festival took place at the Cineworld, the biggest cinema in Ireland and The Sugar Club for the awards ceremony night.
DISFMF is conducted from the independent film maker point of view.
Director and producer from each film selected will benefit free entry to all the venues and screenings.
All kinds of short films are accepted. Here are some examples: Action, Adaptation, Adventure, Advertising, Animation, Art-house, Black Comedy, Children/Family, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Experimental, Fantasy, Historical, Melodrama, Crime & Gangster, Biopics, Film-Noir, Road Films, Super-Heroes, Super-Natural, Mockumentary, Independent, Music Video, Musical, Reality, Religious, Romance, Science Fiction, Silent, Sport, Student, Thriller/Suspanse, TV, Ai and more.
Cachaça Filmes has held the festival since 2009. It always brings in nationally renowned filmmakers and artists from the area, aiming to offer culture and leisure options, and to favor the region's economy. In the short term we intend to bring an “elite” audience to Vila de Paranapiacaba, and in the medium and long term to bring cinematographic productions to the region.
We also have the Short and Feature Films Contest.
Regulation:
https://www.cachacafilmes.com/regulamento-concurso-de-roteiros
In 2024, the Iquique International Film Festival (Ficiqq) will celebrate its 15th anniversary. Ficiqq is a unique event in the Tarapacá region that is financed on this occasion by the 2024 Audiovisual Development Fund, and is sponsored by SQM Yodo Nutrición Vegetal and produced by Volcánica Films.
FECIR - Rengo International Film Festival has twenty years of history, offering filmmakers from Chile, Latin America, and around the world a space for the dissemination, exhibition, and exchange of experiences and ideas. It promotes the creation of high artistic quality in cinema and audiovisual arts in all its forms, providing the commune of Rengo, the Sixth Region, and the country with a space for the appreciation, reflection, creation, training, and enjoyment of the art of cinema.
Nawada International Film Festival 5th season held on 27th October 2024 brings to its audience, acclaimed documentary works from across the world of different region. Audiences are given the chance to experience a film festival from miles away. From the peak of Everest to the penguins of Antarctica, #NIFF2020INDIA brings the Northern and Southern hemispheres together. Because the love for cinema stretches beyond borders. The focus is to showcase unseen stories from across the regions to our viewers. Rahul Verma Film Production presents this festival with Pragati Foundation, Festival Supported by SYSKA Lights PVT LTD. presents a curated selection of films acclaimed for its artistic merit.
Since 2013, the International Human Rights Film Festival – Colombia has offered audiences an audiovisual, cultural, and academic program that contributes to audience development, the strengthening of the film and cultural industries, the creation of spaces for dialogue around life, reconciliation, the promotion and defense of human rights, and the construction of ideas for peace.
The Festival is the ideal platform for Colombia’s and the international film community committed to storytelling with a human rights perspective. It serves as a key space for the promotion, circulation, distribution, and exhibition of audiovisual works with limited commercial demand due to their social and thematic focus.
The Festival takes place simultaneously in the cities of Barranquilla, Medellín, Cali, Bogotá, Manizales, Pereira and Quibdó, as well as in about twenty municipalities across the country.
The International Afro Film Festival "Ananse" aims to make visible the cultural and social aspects about the black population. Working as part of a circuit that allows alternative movement be made known to new filmmakers to make videos about the Afro-descendants in the entire world.
"Ananse" is the first festival that invites filmmakers around the country the possibility to create spaces visible productions representing the views of the black communities.
The 15th version of the Festival has as its central theme ¨Community Cinema as a generator of Social Change and Progress¨, the jury prioritizes content that has this focus, however the reception of audiovisual pieces is not closed exclusively to said theme, for Therefore, other types of content will be widely accepted.
¨Community cinema is not only an art form, but also a powerful tool to promote fundamental values of a progressive society, such as gender equality, social justice and citizen participation. It facilitates debate, plurality and solidarity, and offers a means of expression for the different groups and identities that make up the social, cultural and identity fabric of Colombia, at local, regional and national levels. ¨
It is for this reason that the Comuna 13 Film and Video Festival, The Other History in its 2025 version has decided to generate spaces for dialogue and exchange of knowledge around community cinema, encouraging the participation of the most prominent groups in the country in this modality in order to share experiences, methodologies and knowledge with the academic sector of our city (Audiovisual creation network, technical media, peace schools among others)
Bendita Tú is a film festival with a feminist and queer perspective, dedicated to the exhibition of audiovisual works, based in Spain and Argentina.
Conceived as a space for encounter and reflection, the festival seeks to build community and to give visibility to works by women directors, trans women, and non-binary people from around the world. Our curatorial line—situated and affective—is oriented toward experimental proposals in non-fiction, essay film, video art, and hybrid formats that are often left out of traditional exhibition and distribution circuits.
Likewise, we understand programming as a territory of dialogue: we articulate relationships between emerging works and films by established women directors in order to expand possibilities of interpretation, activate new forms of reception, and deepen a transfeminist aesthetic that destabilizes hegemonic ways of seeing.
At Bendita Tú, we work toward building networks among people and diverse territories, guided by an intersectional feminism that informs our curatorial decisions and reinforces our commitment to a plurality of voices, experiences, and ways of making cinema.
"Essential Horror Film Festival" by Raindance.org
"20 Coolest Film Festivals" by MovieMaker Magazine
"13 Horror Film Festivals to Die For" by MovieMaker Magazine
"Coolest Horror/Sci-Fi Film Festival" by MovieMaker Magazine
"Best Horror Film Festival" by Production Hub.com
Finalist - "Best Film Festival" by Orlando Weekly
"Love this Festival"! Robert Englund aka Freddy Krueger
The FREAK SHOW Horror Film Festival is the Largest and Longest Running Horror Genre Film Festival in the State of Florida. Located in an actual movie theater, not a convention hall!
FREAKO the Clown welcomes you to GET FREAKY with us! We are the home of the coveted "FREAKY AWARD".
Celebrate and Support the Art of Independent Horror! This international horror genre film festival is the brainchild of FEAR FILM Studios Owner Robert J. Massetti. As a veteran independent horror filmmaker, Robert wanted to make a film festival that celebrates the independent horror filmmaker by giving the artist a forum to show his or her work.
The festival is a showcase of some of the most talented, up and coming horror filmmakers in the world and tries hard to help filmmakers reach their goals with their films. This is a festival not to be missed for fun and exposure.
The Festival screens films at the Brand New EPIC THEATERS at Lee Vista! The theater features electric reclining seats, state of the art projection, Dolby Sound, reserve seating, as well as a beer and wine bar in the lobby! Located only minutes from Orlando International Airport with Hotels, Restaurants and Bars all within walking distance. Making FREAK SHOW Horror Film Festival one of the best festivals to attend in the world!
Kine exhibition is a non profit project produced independently. No prizes or award are given; the objective of the exhibition is to open cultural spaces, film clubs, etc., so that the short film has exhibition screens beyond the competition in festivals allowing access to the public that has not yet approached the work of all those dedicated to the cinematographic task of telling short stories.
Cinema transmits ideas, feelings and emotions, KINÉ believes that short films are not made to win prizes or recognition, short films are made to tell extraordinary stories that we live day by day, even at this moment, you can be living one.
Objectives:
To screen short films that, in most cases, trey're only seen in festivals competitions.
Creation of audience.
Encourage and promote the production of short films made in the city of Puebla, Mexico.
Promote local cultural venues.
The "Tels Quels Festival" will be run by the non-profit-making association "Tels Quels" in Brussels on October 2024.
The Tels Quels Festival is an event aimed at the general public, designed to promote and spread the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) Culture. In this framework, a LGBT Short Film Contest is being held.
