FEATURE SCREENPLAY COMPETITION 2026 WINNERS
Winner: DEVIL’S DISCIPLE: THE NIGHT STALKER (written by Chad Ferrin)
The life and crimes of Richard Ramirez.
1st Runner up: REJECT (written by Eric Silvera & Sean Kenealy)
A washed-up director who runs a horror film festival is terrorized by an amateur filmmaker after rejecting her movie.
2nd Runner up: NIGHT GAMES (written by Ryan Jackson)
After a med student traveling to see her sister during a blizzard witnesses a car crash, she and the unconscious victims of the accident are taken to a woman’s shelter run by a former nun to wait out the storm. But when the woman passenger comes to and tells her hosts that the driver is a psychopath who kidnapped her, the women discover that he too is now conscious and somewhere in the house, which sets off a deadly game of predator versus prey. But this house also holds an ancient secret that if unleashed not even their hunter is safe…
SHORT SCREENPLAY COMPETITION 2026 WINNERS
Winner: THE STAIN (written by Phil Bucci)
After discovering a new clue in her mothers missing persons case, Nina returns to her childhood home where a phantasmal predator transports her to another realm.
1st Runner-up: EYE OF THE BEHOLDER (written by Aidan Jones)
A chance encounter with a famous artist takes a dark turn when it becomes clear that his work no longer fits within the bounds of the law.
2nd Runner-up: DEATH IMMINENT (written by Kevin Hosey)
A woman is willing to do anything to save her dying mother. Even trust an affiliate marketer from hell.
FEATURE SCREENPLAY COMPETITION FINALISTS 2026 (alphabetical order)
BAR HOPPING FOR ASTRONAUTS (written by Leo X. Robertson)
An aging astronaut clings to his faded glory, drifting through dive bars in the space suit that once made him a legend. But when a violent encounter leaves it in tatters, his long-estranged child steps in to help. As they navigate their fractured bond, both must confront the pains—and possibilities—of change at any age. A film about nostalgia, human connection, and the courage to grow.
BLOOD ON MARS (written by Scott Quinn)
Spenser, a disillusioned NASA accountant, is forced onto a mission to observe a passing comet—a corporate scapegoat sent to the edge of space. When the shuttle malfunctions and crash-lands on Mars, he awakens to a red wasteland teeming with life: an alien civilization that has been abducting humans from Earth for generations and draining their blood for survival…
CHEMICAL MESSIAH (written by Stuart Alan Pollack)
A writer tries to piece together an obscure comic book series about a mutant man created by a mad scientist to save the world
CUNNING FOLK (written by Jae Teliczan)
A Selkie rises from hibernation to shed her skin and taste the human world in a rural Ozark lake town. But when a troubled local man discovers her secret, the mythic shapeshifter must fight to survive both a crumbling body and the brutality of a love she knows will change her.
ECCLESIA: COLD SUN (written by J. Patrick Nunn)
Ecclesia: Cold Sun- In the final winter of 1941, a Romani girl fleeing Nazi slaughter seeks shelter in a forgotten mountain church—only to discover it’s built atop a sealed gateway to Hell. As possessed nuns, resurrected demons, and SS occultists unleash apocalyptic forces, she must wield an ancient amulet of Christ's blood to survive the night and close the gate—before the Morningstar rises again.
FLOATERS (written by Steven Raney)
When an optometrist begins noticing impossible coordination in his patients’ eye floaters, a quiet San Francisco neighborhood transforms into a synchronized mass migration, forcing him to confront a biological awakening spreading through the city.
PAPER CUTS (written by Dutch Godshalk)
When a down-on-his-luck news reporter murders a personal rival, he sets off a chain of events that puts the staff at his small-town newspaper in danger from the victim’s well-connected family.
PHRENIC (written by Tyler Schultz)
A gifted therapist with the ability to enter her patients’ minds must confront her own buried trauma when a demonic force threatens to consume a mute young woman’s soul—and her own.
REPERTOIRE (written by Mark Jonathan Landau & Ali Reza Tafreshi)
Compelled to change his form every few days, a shapeshifter is drawn into a labyrinth of ego, corruption, and underground science. His transformations drive him to confront the true nature of identity itself.
SHADOWS (written by Michael H. Moore)
A terminally ill neuroscientist manipulates her husband into a fatal procedure to preserve her consciousness, only to find herself trapped in fractured memory loops of her own design. To escape her prison of recursive realities, she must finally confront the choices that orphaned the daughter she sought to protect.
SHORT SCREENPLAY COMPETITION FINALISTS 2026 (alphabetical order)
BOY-ARACHNID VS. THE OCTARIAN (written by anonymous)
In 1950s Los Angeles, a young vigilante celebrated as a heroic savior hides a sinister secret, and when a monstrous scientist emerges from the sewers, he must confront her—only to reveal that the city’s beloved “hero” may be far darker than anyone realizes.
CHILD SUPPORT (written by Mannie Rivera)
On a sweltering summer day in 1992, two friends sneak into one of their dad's locked rooms hoping to find a stash of porn—but instead, they uncover something far more disturbing.
CLASSIFICATION: HUMAN (written by Michael H. Moore)
In a future where emotions are systematically assigned and regulated, a scarred man must express empathy to prove he's human — confronting the haunting repercussions of his childhood.
HOW TO GROW AN EGG (written by Ankit Dhame)
After tragically losing his life while working hard, Dani, is reborn and provided a second chance to meet his true unmet potential. In his new life, he is tasked to prove that he wants to reach his true potential while serving his new employer, with the promise of reuniting with the love of his life.
MICHAEL AKA MICHAEL MYERS (written by Charles Dillon Ward)
On Halloween, an ambitious junior executive must fire a scary co-worker wearing a Michael Myers costume in order to get a promotion.
ONE FOR THE BOX (written by Kevin Machate)
A reserved ventriloquist and his glamorous, sharp-tongued puppet take the stage for an intimate performance, but beneath the spotlight and sequins, nothing is quite what it seems.
THE WARDEN (written by Korea Black & Gianna Rose)
During a lunar expedition, a wormhole was discovered near the dark side of the moon. This wormhole was later named “The Looking Glass” and is connected to an Earth-like planet called Naraka. This strange and remarkable world was considered one of the greatest discoveries in mankind’s history due to its vast amount of natural resources. Naraka was an unforgiving and perilous venture, that would be known as “The Light at the End of the Tunnel Where Demons Dwell”.
ZIKA BABY (written by Johnmichael McCaffrey & Bruno Rinaldi)
FEATURE SCREENPLAY COMPETITION SEMI-FINALISTS 2026 (alphabetical order)
AMERICAN FAIRYTALES (written by A. S. Templeton)
At the dawn of the twentieth century, a pampered young American girl has her life turned upside-down by a series of harrowing encounters with fantastical characters.
ANGELS DESIRED (written by Lukas Scheja)
In this "Fantastical Mythical Comedy" among the Minotaur-legend, the actress Iznasha, as the protagonist of a film production, dreams of her unknown parents in a living relationship making an impossible film within an ensemble of artistic friends.
AN OUNCE OF VIOLENCE (written by Tyler Schultz)
After his father’s death, a man’s buried trauma surfaces as two sinister personas, forcing him to confront his fractured psyche before losing his career, relationships, and sanity.
AT THE MERCY OF FAITH (written by Samuel Taylor)
When a devout young preacher's faith is shattered by a traumatic childhood tragedy, his attempts to rebuild his life as an adult are upended by haunting visions, supernatural warnings, and the reemergence of unresolved guilt, forcing him to confront the demons of his past... before they destroy his family.
BARRY THE HUMAN (written by Mark Nesheim)
Gina, a newly turned zombie, reunites with her family and discovers a talent for luring humans to the family. On the hunt, she bumps into her ex bf, Barry, who is still human. Feelings that aren't supposed to be there are rekindled and she must choose between her new zombie life and her old love while dealing with rival zombie gangs, mischievous skeletons, and antagonistic birds.
BLOOD$UKER (written by Kayne Gorney)
In the year 2000, siblings Reagan and Connor Blessing fight a take-over of their suburb by a vampiric televangelist.
CARTOON MAN (written by Miguel del Campo & Fatima Abdulaziz Alshamsi)
After a tragic prank, a reclusive teenager is mysteriously resurrected by his childhood cartoons—returning as a grotesque half-human, half-animated monster fueled by vengeance. As his former bullies die in disturbingly cartoonish ways, his estranged brother must confront the guilt of doing nothing—and face the violent consequences of nostalgia turned sour.
DANGEROUS FRUITS (written by Amanda Holland)
When Alice’s husband comes back from World War 2 as a monster, she and her pal, Judy, have to take care of the problem by killing him. With a fresh body on their hands, they decide to puppet his corpse in an effort to finally achieve financial freedom in the 1940s.
DECAYNE, MN (written by AE Eugene Stueve & Kitty Bardot)
DeCayne, MN is a company mining town in the North Woods. It is a quiet place where everyone knows everyone else. The citizens of DeCayne live their day-to-day lives mostly unaware of and unconcerned with the wide world. For most of them, this is usually a blessing. But today, when a derecho blows through and awakens an ancient evil that had been hiding below tons of iron ore, all of that changes.
DIRT CHEAP ANGEL (written by Stuart Alan Pollack)
After her unexpected death and mystical resurrection, Raven Wills, an outsider tax attorney with deep-rooted traumas, returns to life believing she's been granted the mantle of an angel. Initially celebrated in her small-town Pennsylvania community for her miraculous healing powers, Raven soon realizes her transformation is darker than anticipated as she morphs into a demon. Abandoning her family, she relocates to New York City, where she becomes entangled with the son of a crime boss. Embracing her demonic nature, Raven ascends in the criminal underworld and discovers her true role serving the Devil's eternal corporation, launching a complex exploration of power, identity, and the blurred lines between good and evil.
DREAM THIEVES (written by Karl Redgen & Michael C Redgen)
Brilliant but disgraced scientist John Hobson flees The States for Thailand, where his dream recording invention is stolen by a ruthless hacking syndicate. As dream recordings explode across the black market, turning minds into currency, John is dragged into a dangerous underworld to stop his creation before it destroys him.
ECHO HILLS (written by Scott Thomas Jessick, Mark Daniel Johnson)
When Sam moves into his late uncle’s house in rural Iowa, his friends Emily and JD come out to help him settle in and get a break from their own lives. The weekend feels like a reset - until the woods around the house start to feel heavier and hum.
FAIR DUBS (written by David Chambers)
Planetary marbles becomes a frightening reality when alien assholes filch Earth for their game.
FAIRYLAND 2.0 (written by A. S. Templeton)
Tweenage girl-boy twins and their Army-vet mother are duped into playing what was supposed to be a super-immersive VR game, only to find themselves trapped in a fantastical microcosm, shadowed by a vengeful presence from their ancestral past.
FORGIVE THEM, FOR THEY ARE YOUNG (written by Meg Miller)
Witchcraft! Violence! Crude humor! Betrayal! Sex! Vintage pulp paperback-selling couple Roger and Marianne resort to witchcraft after another failure to conceive. Marianne's cousin Michael struggles with his body issues after receiving a lewd compliment from the mysterious and beautiful bookstore clerk Zoe. Fellow co-worker and friend Ryan is on the case to find out who is sabotaging his friends' (and bosses') pregnancy journey while hiding his own depraved secret life.
GODHOOD (written by Walter Maduro)
Godhood is an animated sci-fi & dark-fantasy epic about Raiko, an exiled, wooden-skinned God seeking acceptance and purpose. He teams up with Higgs, a skeptical scientist, to uncover his origins and confront a menacing resurgence that threatens the delicate balance between Gods and mankind, in which secrecy and fear conceal the absolute truth.
HOLYWOOD CREATURES (written by James Callaway)
A burnt-out ex-detective is drawn back into the shadows when a boy’s disappearance ties into a plot to derail the Hollywood Freeway.
IMMOLATION (written by Jonathan Lane)
After her best friend is brutally murdered, a college student joins a pack of sadistic frat boys on a vengeful hunt for the local legend they believe to be the killer.
JEREMIAH, OHIO (written by Avi Sol)
An aimless academic and a crazy drifter who believes himself a prophet go on a rambling journey across America with vague intentions of saving the world.
LIGHT KEEPERS (written by Duncan B Putney)
A lighthouse keeper and a photojournalist separated by 140 years fall in love.
THE LOVERS TURNED THEIR EYES written by Amelia Stastney)
Amaya, a young college student from Wisconsin, falls in love with Justin, a car mechanic, but their relationship is tested when Justin is convicted of a murder he did not commit, in this modern retelling of the Orpheus & Eurydice myth.
LUX (written by Rebecca Potters)
A hopeful team of amateur criminals think they have their first heist in the bag, but an unexpected threat lurking among the hostages has much more radical plans in store for the day.
MARTHA (written by Anthony Francis Cuomo)
A couple separated by alternate realities must find a way to be together again. In order for reality not to fall apart.
MERRIWEATHER HALL (written by Christopher Swider)
A pregnant teenager is taken to a facility for unwed mothers that turns out to be a house of horrors.
NECROTICA (written by Wesley Steven Drent)
Years into the Zombie Apocalypse, a suicidal widow must reconcile with her murderous brother to protect an orphaned child as the undead become the least of their concerns and the corrupted world descends into literal Hell on Earth.
ODIOUS (written by Tyler Schultz)
At an exclusive writer's retreat, five authors’ imaginations take a terrifying turn as their stories come to life, targeting them one by one. With reality unraveling, one writer must face the horrifying possibility that his pen holds the key to survival—or destruction.
THE PERSON YOU WERE BEFORE (written by Mark Jonathan Landau & Ali Reza Tafreshi)
The Person You Were Before is a semi-autobiographical medical drama with sci-fi elements that acts partially as an exposé of the daily life of healthcare workers. The lofty ideals that may have initially attracted well-meaning individuals to become physicians belie the dark reality of medicine. The broken healthcare system molds the psyche of those who engage in it, both patient and practitioner, until the result is something unrecognizable to themselves. The hospital itself becomes an antagonist, and the chronic exposure to the worst of human suffering and the worst of human nature forces the main characters to grapple with their own sense of morality. When confronted with an increasingly surreal atmosphere, their thirst for knowledge comes at the price of having to face their own mortality.
PHOENIX (written by Vladimir Mikhalyov)
This is a story about love, death, resurrection and a lot of luck. Each character tries to achieve his/her goal, sometimes hindering, sometimes helping others.
PINE BELT 17 (written by Christine Makepeace)
A mother-daughter road trip veers dangerously off course after the pair become tangled in a series of mysterious disappearances—and attract a monstrous presence.
THE PIT (written by Duncan B. Putney & Greg Chopoorian)
When disgraced TV journalist Matthew Coleman is sent to South America for a "where-are-they-now" piece on thirty-three miners rescued from a cave-in a decade ago, he expects an easy fluff assignment. But what begins as a redemption story turns into a chilling investigation, as Matt uncovers a dark secret—the miners never actually returned. With a potent mix of eerie folklore, native mysticism, and psychological unraveling, The Pit blends investigative thriller with supernatural horror as Matt races to expose a truth no one wants revealed.
RED BETRAYAL (written by Thomas Hauser)
When the crew of the Rome 2 spacecraft arrives on Mars, they expect to revive a silent base. Instead, they find it ravaged, its crew gone, systems looted, and a chilling silence hanging over the red planet. As strange signs emerge and alien footprints are discovered, Commander Eliza Morris and her team realize the truth: Earth knew. A government cover-up, a suppressed warning, and a relentless alien presence all converge as the crew fights to survive long enough to warn the incoming colonist ship, Artemis. But the aliens aren’t just attackers, they’re watching, learning, waiting. And Mars is no longer humanity’s frontier, it’s the trap.
ROYAL BITCHES (written by Jordan Fried)
Character entertainers perform at a child's magical princess party.
SANGUIS SEPTEM (written by Caprice Castano)
When seven women are found dead in ritualistic formation, a detective arrives in a small town where grieving husbands share an uncanny unity. Beneath their respectable facades, the husbands are bound by something darker than grief. The investigation unfolds exactly as it should.
SCHISMA (written by Cameron A. Straughan)
In a rigid theocratic future, a gender non-conforming astronaut leads a fractured crew to investigate a mysterious deep-space anomaly that manifests their fears and grotesquely mutates them, forcing humanity toward a terrifying new stage of evolution.
SLIPSTREAM (written by Gabriel Eby)
A man who disappeared eleven years ago washes up wounded on the beach the day of his foster sister's wedding - as she takes him in while he recovers, where exactly he's been begins to unravel alongside reality.
SOMNUS (written by Steven Raney)
SOMNUS is a psychological horror film about the first human test of an experimental sleep technology. After the death of his partner, Jonas Keene receives a Somnus smart bed through a Halo Network Bereavement Initiative. The system promises perfect rest by guiding the sleeper through calming dream sequences designed to regulate emotion and reduce distress. What begins as comfort settles into something Jonas cannot name, a presence that moves through both his sleep and his waking thoughts.
STAR OF THE TABOO NETWORK (written by Stuart Alan Pollack)
“Star of the Taboo Network" combines elements from films like Natural Born Killers and Videodrome, offering a sharp critique of our obsession with fame and media. Like Natural Born Killers, it explores the dark, violent side of celebrity culture, using heightened violence and absurdity to make its point. The surreal, body-horror themes of Videodrome are present, where the boundaries between reality and spectacle blur in grotesque ways. There’s also a dash of The Truman Show in its commentary on a life lived for the camera—only here, the quest for fame is drenched in dark humor, violence, and chaos.
STRIP CRAFT (written by Wilson Large)
A former cop’s search for her missing sister leads her into the dark world of a witch’s coven, where ancient rituals and forbidden magic force her to confront her deepest fears and uncover the truth about her family’s past.
SCAVENGER (written by Hector Valle)
A group of bata testers are given the latest cell phone game and are secluded in secret location. All you have to do is catch an avatar and you get paid. If you capture 'The Scavenger', you get a $10,000 bonus. Sounds easy, but... it looks like a player is taking the game too seriously and the players are being scavenged! What kind of demon would do this? What kind indeed?
UNKNOWN (written by Troy Higgins)
In a remote corner of Alaska, the U.S. military conducts covert experiments under the leadership of GENERAL ADOFF and the relentless MAJOR BRINX. Driven by a twisted vision of crafting the ultimate war machine, they push the boundaries of physics with a revolutionary teleportation device. But one test goes terribly wrong…
SHORT SCREENPLAY COMPETITION SEMI-FINALISTS 2026 (alphabetical order)
ASCENSION (written by Korea Black &Gianna Rose)
A group of strangers awaken on a desert floor with no memory of how they arrived in a desolate wasteland.
THE BLANKET (written by Arlis Mongold)
After a mysterious package from Peru arrives at their doorstep, the Kellerman family discovers a handmade blanket inside — soft, beautiful, and unlike anything they’ve seen. But as night falls, the warmth it offers turns deadly.
COP OR CONE (written by Michael Henry Moore)
Under a future policy designed to keep the peace, a routine traffic stop comes with a perfect scoop — until one man questions the personal cost he paid for a sweetened reality.
THE DARK (written by Anthony Cuomo)
A boy watching a horror movie late at night, encounters his own monster.
DEATH NOTES (written by Brian E. Neal)
A music duo are on a talk show to promote their upcoming tour. The host asks them about their fast track to stardom. In telling their stories, the host realizes that they track with an unsolved serial killer case. After asking how they met, the host discovers that these two are the psychopaths that went on a killing spree for fame.
FOULED NEST (written by Tania Kamal-Eldin)
In a post-Anthropocene world, animals gather to reflect on humanity’s downfall—a fate brought on by mankind’s exploitation of the natural world and the creatures that inhabit it.
HEAD(LESS) (written by Jenny Popovich)
Using deepfake tech for her dissertation research, PhD candidate Brittany Clarkston and her brother Mike try to fake evidence of the “Elmore Rider,” a headless motorcyclist allegedly haunting Mud Creek Bridge near Elmore, Ohio, but on the 110th anniversary of his death, eerie glitches, a disturbing video, and ghostly WWI sounds reveal the legend is real. Trapped and hunted, Brittany and Mike struggle to use the rules of the underworld to destroy the malevolent revenant.
THE KINDERNESS (written by Sikivu Hutchinson)
The Kinderness Corp. is a privately-held company that deploys white androids, or Kinders, to carry out acts of historical reparative justice for Black people. The narrative alternates between different time periods, focusing on the company's founders and sales lead, Doug, Dweeby, and 40 Acre, and their power struggle with two siblings, Tetra and Marcus, who journey back in time from 2060 to the 1990s to stop the company's Initial Public Offering (IPO), uncovering a turbulent family "future-past" in the process.
LEGEND OF THE BORBORYGMUS (written by Christopher Keller)
A tale of knowledge lost, and horror rediscovered.
METAL SHOW (written by Ashland Thomas)
When a local heavy metal band unleashes a forbidden Satanic ritual during their final song, the music becomes a deadly symphony, and the audience pays the ultimate price.
MORIBUND (written by Ana Dragomir)
Moribund follows Lilian, an overworked housewife who's had enough of constantly dealing with injustice in her own home.
O CHILD, BE SILENT (written by Anastasiia Polyakov & Bogdana Preobrazhenskaya)
In a post-apocalyptic village drained of color and hope, a girl named Ada laughs at horrors no child should find funny—protected by her faceless guardian doll, Motanka. But in this world, a child’s joy is the greatest threat. As the adults conspire to rid her of the doll, Ada is forced into a battle between innocence and conformity — a haunting tale of childhood defiance in a world that has forgotten joy.
RUBERT BECOMES (written by David J. Schroeder)
A pink Irish ogre, RUBERT, discovers his origin and creators in an animation studio.
SERENA AND DAKOTA - [Working Title] - (written by MC Brouder)
"Serena and Dakota" is a modern buddy comedy in which porn actress Serena and digital journalist Dakota become friends through a chance encounter - and help each other heal in unexpected ways. It tackles the real issue of sex trafficking through the lens of female friendships and comedy hijinks.
SINGLE RARITY (written by Matt Shade)
A young autistic woman has learned so many random facts about her special interests that her brain has become a miniature black hole.
SIX UNDER (written by Charles Dillon Ward)
In college two friends made a pact that if one of them ever became the kind of person who golfs regularly the other could find and kill them. This script is about that pact coming to fruition years later over a weekend golf trip.
THIS IS ZUU (written by JoJo Guevara)
A woman struggles to have a relationship with her estranged father, whose rapidly declining mental health has overtaken his life, as she watches the bond with his imaginary friend become detrimental.