About - Bay of Blood (BOB)
The Bay of Blood International Film Festival (BOB) is a showcase of independent cinema, be it artistic, scary, or horrific. BOB strives towards supporting and exhibiting independent media artists while working from our base of operations in North Bay, Ontario.
BOB brings together audiences, artists, and community members to celebrate the horror genre. Our festival prioritizes fun over production values and storytelling over industry standards. Think more DIY than red carpet. As North Bay’s only horror arts festival, we remain dedicated to supporting local, national, and international filmmakers at all stages of their careers. With a focus on independent filmmaking, BOB features works with a lot of heart... and guts!
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Bay of Blood International Film Festival gathers on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg, specifically the Nipissing and Dokis First Nations, within lands protected by the Robinson Huron Treaty of 1850. We acknowledge them and any other Nations who care or cared for the land (acknowledged and unacknowledged, recorded and unrecorded) as the past, present, and future caretakers of our home region. We are honoured to welcome artists and guests on these storied and sacred lands that have been stewarded by Indigenous peoples since time immemorial.
FESTIVAL CODE OF CONDUCT
The Bay of Blood International Film Festival (BOB) is a space where volunteers, audiences, and filmmakers safely explore boundaries while having fun and watching independent horror films. While we encourage free speech, we will not tolerate harassment, violence, abusive language, or aggressive behaviour of any kind. We reserve the right to revoke festival passes and privileges without notice to any offending party. We strive towards treating everyone at our festival with the utmost respect and encourage those who report issues to do so knowing they are safe, and their rights are paramount to our festival. BOB makes every effort to comply with accessibility requirements for our attendees and will continue to explore ways to remove barriers for everyone that wants to be involved.
If an issue arises during the festival, please contact any volunteer or staff member and ask to speak to guest services. For immediate emergencies, please call 911. Please keep our festival venues safe for our staff, volunteers, festival guests, and filmmakers. Know your rights. Consult the Ontario Human Rights Code for more information.
Bay of Blood (BOB) - CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:
As our third year approaches in 2025, the Bay of Blood International Film Festival continues ambitions to become awesome, known for an incredible variety of feature and short film programs bringing communities together. We aspire towards having a particularly strong competition process which offers a series of great awards among peers. We want to celebrate independent films highlighting screen-based storytelling in and around the horror genre. We want to see all forms of short and feature content with no restrictions or guarantees for those submitting. We want to see films that consider themselves to be horror and have a great festival.
What you can expect from being part of BOB 2025:
1) Be part of the only North Bay horror festival that promotes local and international content!
2) See your film on a big screen and have a lot of fun!
3) Excellent communication and promotion of your work. Successful filmmakers in 2025 will receive press coverage with supporting media both locally and abroad.
4) A festival team that truly exists to celebrate your work!
Submissions are currently open. Submit now to be a part of the Bay of Blood Film Festival in 2025!
Festival Awards (aka the Bobies)
The Bay of Blood International Film Festival was founded to acknowledge the dedication and hard work of independent filmmakers, folks that have struggled and kept on keeping on for their craft. Our awards are designed to recognize their achievements, their creativity, and their limitless potential in this industry, as well as the community of people that help make this festival happen. Awards may change from year to year, but our current awards are broken down into three categories: Industry Awards, Jurors’ Choice Awards, and Viewers’ Choice Awards.
Our Industry Awards are under review and will be updated prior to intake deadlines for the 2025 festival. Thank you for your patience.
Jurors’ Choice Awards
Grossest Gag - Awarded to a film that is determined by the jurors to have the best gore scene of all submitted films in all programs.
The Bram Stoker - Awarded to the film that is determined by jurors to have the most blood or bloodiest scene of all submitted films in all programs.
The Mary Shelley - Awarded to the film that is determined by jurors to be the most innovative or inventive of all submitted films in all programs.
The Edgar Allan Poe - Awarded to the film that is determined by jurors to be the most spooky/eerie of all submitted films in all programs.
Viewers’ Choice Awards
Viewers’ Choice Award - Awarded to the film that receives the most votes from audience members.
Favourite Non-Human in Film - Awarded to the FX artist that created the visual effects for a non-human role within a submitted film that receives the most votes from audience members.
Favourite Beast - Awarded to the puppet, stop-motion creation, or computer animated character in a submitted film that receives the most votes from audience members.
Best Kill - Awarded to the character that has the best kill in a submitted film that receives the most votes from audience members.
Best Death - Awarded to the character that has the best death scene in a submitted film that receives the most votes from audience members.
All Viewers’ Choice Awards are determined by the audience members. Voting is conducted by ballots submitted on-site during the festival with one ballot being offered with each ticket purchased. Festival Pass holders receive one ballot per festival programming block, and Day Pass holders receive ballots for each programming block for the day of their pass.
