Screamfest
Enter Now
Enter on or before June 2nd to save $15
Apr 14th
Open
Jun 2nd
Final
Jun 15th
Extended
Screamfest
Screamfest
Screamfest 2025
Active Since 2001
Screamfest Horror Film Festival is the largest and longest running horror film festival in the United States.
Accepting Features
Enter Now
Enter on or before June 2nd to save $15
About
Screamfest Horror Film Festival is the largest and longest running horror film festival in the United States. Paranormal Activity was discovered and premiered at the festival in 2007. Some of the largest horror online publications have called it the "Sundance of Horror".
The 2025 Festival will be held at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on the 3rd floor of the Hollywood & Highland Center in eclectic Hollywood, California.
Screamfest, America’s largest and longest running horror film festival premieres and showcases new work from American and international independent horror filmmakers. Many of the filmmakers have garnered distribution and representation as a result of the festival. Screamfest launches careers.
Film entries are accepted in the categories of Best Feature, Directing, Cinematography, Editing, Special Effects and Musical Score. In addition, there are special categories for Best Animation, Best Short, Best Documentary and Best Student Film.
Screamfest was formed in August 2001 by film producers Rachel Belofsky and Ross Martin in order to give filmmakers and writers in the horror/sci-fi genres a venue to have their work showcased to people in the industry. We are very proud that the majority of the films showcased now have distribution.
--“Deciding to enter my project into Screamfest was one of the
best decisions I’ve ever made. Because of my success in the screenplay
competition, I was able to land a manager, get meetings with big name
production companies, and my screenplay is now in development! I can’t thank
Rachel and the rest of the Screamfest team enough for helping change my
life.” - Jake Moses -Fragments (2023 Screamfest winner)
Prices & Deadlines
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Jun 2nd
Final
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Jun 15th
Extended
|
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|---|---|---|
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Feature Length Screenplays
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$62.00
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$77.00
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Benefits
- $1,000 cash prize
- Our prestigious skull award designed by the legendary Stan Winston.
- 10 free pitches on VPF, the platform for TV/Film professionals seeking scripts and writers to represent. With VPF, writers can submit written pitches to 500+ networks/studios, producers and agents with the assurance of a guaranteed response. One prize per entrant, not per entry.
- 3 months of Roadmap Writers On Ramp program and 2 Open Pitch Sessions. Value $337
- General meeting with literary managers/producers.
- Movie Magic Screenwriting software.
- Winner will receive a 4-month InkTip Pro Membership. As an InkTip Pro Member, thousands of filmmakers can find and read your scripts, and you'll be able to pitch directly to production com-panies every week. With over 3,000 options and 400 movies made, InkTip is the place for inde-pendent film.
- Winner receives a year of Scriptation’s premium toolkit - Scriptation Industry Pro! Revolutionize your workflow with Scriptation, the Emmy® Award winning app that instantly transfers your notes into new drafts in seconds. Scriptation allows you to digitally mark up scripts, separate notes into layers, track changes across revisions, generate breakdown reports, and so much more. Whether you’re in the office, on set, or on the go, Scriptation makes it easy to collaborate and stay connected with your team. For iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
- Winner receives a free half-hour phone consultation with Coverage Ink senior partners. Talk about the script, your next move, or how to take your career to the next level --it's your time. Since 2002. CI has been the industry leader in screenplay analysis, development and editing - and they're also indie horror producers. Visit https://coverageink.com.
COVERAGEINK.COM PRIZE: Coverage Ink is offering three free half-hour phone consultations with their senior partners for the Screamfest top three (includes the winner). Talk about the script, your next moves, or how to take your career to the next level -- it's your time. Since 2002, CI has been the industry leader in screenplay analysis, development, and editing - and they're also indie horror producers. Visit https://coverageink.com.
Top 5 Finalists Prize:- 5 free pitches on VPF, the platform for TV/Film professionals seeking scripts and writers to represent. With VPF, writers can submit written pitches to 500+ networks/studios, producers and agents with the assurance of a guaranteed response. One prize per entrant, not per entry. Winning screenplay does not receive this prize in addition to the winning prize.
- Movie Magic Screenwriting software.
- 1 Roadmap Writers On Ramp program Open Pitch Session. Value $175
- One full festival pass to Screamfest 2023, including all screenings and parties,
- Read by leading industry managers/producers. Past judges included Ghost House Pictures, Hulu, Impossible DreamEntertainment, Gotham Group and more.
- Winners will receive a 4-month InkTip Pro Membership. As an InkTip Pro Member, thousands of filmmakers can find and read your scripts, and you'll be able to pitch directly to production com-panies every week. With over 3,000 options and 400 movies made, InkTip is the place for independent film.
- 1 free pitch on VPF, the platform for TV/Film professionals seeking scripts and writers to represent. With VPF, writers can submit written pitches to 500+ networks/studios, producers and agents with the assurance of a guaranteed response. One prize per entrant, not per entry.
Announcements
Oct 1st
Finalists
Oct 16th
Winners
Rules
- Feature film screenplay length should be at least 75 pages and not over 130.
- Short screenplays are not accepted.
- Writers who submit screenplays to Screamfest will have the option to receive feedback from our readers. The feedback is very brief, generally three to five sentences outlining the strengths and weaknesses of your screenplay. The feedback option is located on the submission form.
- You may enter your logline or paragraph synopsis on the online submission form. You do not need to include one with your pdf.
- We strongly suggest you register your screenplay with the US Copyright Office.
- 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.