The Bleeding Tree International Dark Drama Film Festival is a new indie film festival showcasing dark drama – short and feature length films that depict protagonists starting off with good intentions but who, due to trauma, addiction, ignorance or just bad decisions, spiral into dark places. Endings for these films may be horrific, tragic, ambiguous, even happy, but the events leading up to them must be distinctly dark. See IMDB’s description of dark drama at https://www.imdb.com/list/ls031796628/.

Created by two independent film/media scholars and filmmakers (THE ORCHARD (2022), EXOPHORIA (2024) and upcoming HEXE), Bleeding Tree will be held August 9, 2024 in Cranbrook, British Columbia at the historic (and famously haunted) Studio Stage Door Theatre (https://www.cranbrookcommunitytheatre.com/). Selected dark drama films are vetted by a panel of non-participating judges with experience in the filmmaking industry or in film/media scholarship.

Festival attendees will enjoy Cranbrook’s numerous top-rated spas, restaurants, brew pubs, lakes, camping, world-class golf courses and cultural amenities — including the St. Eugene Resort, formerly a residential school reclaimed under the leadership of the Ktunaxa Nation, and the nearby and picturesque town of Kimberley.

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Awards & Prizes

Laurels and a cash prize are awarded in the following categories:

Best Short Film (under 45 minutes) — $150
Best Feature-Length Film (over 60 minutes) — $250
Best Music Video -- $150

Rules & Terms

Submissions to the Bleeding Tree International Film Festival must complete in one delivery: (a) the applicable entry fee on FilmFreeway; and (b) the submission as an upload to FilmFreeway. Multiple entries require multiple submission packages. All submissions are subject to these guidelines and rules.

Films should be edited/rendered in the Rec. 709 colour space and saved as H.264 or H.265 mov or MP4 files. Film submissions must be provided as a digital file downloadable via FilmFreeway or Vimeo/Youtube (please test before sending). We do not accept physical review or exhibition copies (i.e., DVDs).

All films must be in the described dark drama or related genres, such as horror, fantasy, experimental, animation, underground, science fiction, etc. where the story's protagonist is his or her own nightmare/predicament.

All films must be a music video, or a narrative short or feature-length film to be eligible for judging and awards.

Bleeding Tree International Film Festival reserves the right to change submission categories. Eligibility and category determinations, along with prize awards, are the sole discretion of the festival’s adjudicators.

By submitting, filmmakers agree that: they hold the Bleeding Tree International Film Festival and its owners, management, juries, subsidiaries, agents, sponsors, affiliates, and etc. harmless from any and all claims of liability resulting from their entry; they certify that they have full rights to the use of the music in the entered work; they give permission to the festival and its representatives to use stills, titles, copy, and/or information from the film for promotional purposes; they give permission for the Bleeding Tree International Film Festival to screen the film as part of the festival for which it was submitted; and if selected, they will provide the festival with a digital copy of their film's movie poster (in vertical format) for use on the festival website.

We accept screening trailers and promotional films in the dark drama category; however, these forms are not eligible for prizes, even if screened during the festival.

All non-English films must have English subtitles already baked into your video submission.
Submission fees are non-refundable.

The film must have been made within the last five years (after April 1, 2020).
Filmmakers may submit up to three different films.

Content rules: Hate rhetoric pertaining to gender, race or religion will automatically disqualify the submitted film. Sexually explicit/pornographic content will automatically disqualify the submitted film.

Films are screened at the festival based on their final judging scores. Not all submitted films will be played at the festival. However, pending permission from filmmakers, submitted films may later be seen on the Bleeding Tree website and/or through theatrical exhibition elsewhere in the Kootenay region of British Columbia.

Film submissions must be provided on a digital file (FilmFreeway/Vimeo/Youtube) (please test before sending).