Crypticon Seattle Film Festival looks for dark, scary, creepy, bloody, haunting, nasty, indie, underground, eerie, violent, strange, unusual, horror, horrific, weird, and macabre!

The festival is part of a large community of horror and film lovers. The festival is about the love of horror and all things dark, weird, and unusual. We screen for a truly appreciative audience full of enthusiasm and look forward to watching what we do every year.

Horror can be high art, high camp, and everything in between, and we love it all.

MISSION & OBJECTIVE
To have a solid community of film-loving people and filmmakers.
To make our audience squirm in their seats!
In short, to represent the best emerging horror bubbling up from the underground to invade your brain, haunt your nightmares, and give you bragging rights!

If you are an NW filmmaker, contact us for a submission waiver. NW films can submit with no fee. Your film must have been shot in Idaho, Oregon, or Washington to qualify for this waiver. If you have screened at previous Crypticon Seattle film festivals, you are also eligible for a waiver.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
Crypticon Seattle was picked as the Best Convention in Seattle by the readers of The Seattle Weekly. Crypticon Seattle, the convention is in its 15th year, and Crypticon Seattle Film Festival is in its 12th year.

Crypticon Seattle is the convention celebrating the Pacific Northwest’s Darker Side. Three days of your favorite actors, authors, artists, and tons of new people and things you never knew existed. But we are more than a tidal wave of blood, guts, and scares.

What started as a modest convention for hardcore horror fans has become a massive event of the creepy and supernatural, held in an impressive venue. One of Crypticon Seattle’s most prominent reasons for existing is to help support the arts. We have opportunities for local and not-so-local talent in all fields, be that movies, television, radio, music, art, literature, or creators and purveyors of household products and games—all dark-themed to tickle the terrifying fancies of our lurid Seattle horde.

Some of our most popular yearly events include the film festival, the on-site makeup contest, panels, classes, and the 13th floor. We also have the ever-popular Biohazard parties, question and answer panels with top names in the business, and opportunities to meet actors, authors, artists, directors, and paranormal experts—to name a few. Between the scheduled activities, you can browse the wares in the vendor room and meet other like-minded ghouls on a weekend bathed in the fascinating and gruesome.

Crypticon welcomes and supports all types of dark art and encourages people from all walks of life to come and enjoy the show. Love zombies? We got ya! Vampires? Yes! Goth, fetish, dark fantasy, or sci-fi? Yeah, we’ve got that, too!

Crypticon Seattle is an excellent weekend of fun and frights!

If you are an NW filmmaker, contact us for a submission waiver. NW films can submit with no fee. Your film must have been shot in Idaho, Oregon, or Washington to qualify for this waiver. If you have screened at previous Crypticon Seattle film festivals, you are also eligible for a waiver.

We give awards at our festival:

• Jury Selections of "Best Short" and "Best Feature"

I, the undersigned, acknowledge and agree:

1 . I have read, understated, and fully complied with all submission eligibility information, Submission Guidelines, Terms and Conditions of Entry, and Entry Eligibility requirements.
2 . To the best of my knowledge, all of the statements in this document are true.
3 . This film or video is not subject to any litigation nor is threatened by any litigation.
4 . I am duly authorized to submit this film to the Festival.
5 . I hold Crypticon harmless from damage to the print(s) or tape(s) en route or otherwise during the course of the Festival's possession of the film.
6 . I hold Crypticon, its owners, management, juries, subsidiaries, agents, sponsors, affiliates, etc., harmless from all claims of liability resulting from my entry.
7 . I certify that I have full rights to use the music in the entered work.
8. Once an entry payment has been processed. We cannot provide a refund. The account holder may be subject to any fees if a payment is disputed.
9. I permit Crypticon to use stills, titles, copy, and/or information from the short or feature for promotional purposes
10. I permit Crypticon to screen the film at the 2024 Seattle Crypticon Film Festival. Any future screenings will only happen with the filmmaker's permission.
11. Entrant's name, address, and the production's title must be on each case or videotape / DVD.
12. If a film receives an invitation to participate, the film must be shipped prepaid, insured, and packed in proper containers or submitted online per Festival request. Several options are presented upon selection.
13. Crypticon does not assume any liability for damage to prints due to improper containers.
14. Crypticon is hereby granted the right to utilize an excerpt from any film submitted and accepted for exhibition at the Festival for promotional purposes. The individual or corporation submitting the film hereby warrants that it is authorized to commit the film for screening and understands and accepts these requirements and regulations. The undersigned shall indemnify and hold harmless Crypticon from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney's fees and costs of the court) which may be incurred by reason of any claim involving copyright, trademark, credits, publicity, screening, and loss of or damage to the screening videos entered.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Cindy Sanabria

    Thank you so much for selecting our film into this remarkable film festival

    September 2023
    Logo
    Response from festival:

    Thank you!!

  • Kim Douthit

    The Crypticon Seattle Horror Film Festival was a fantastic experience. Excellent communication! Everyone involved was friendly and helpful! Genuine pleasure to be a part of!

    June 2023
    Logo
    Response from festival:

    Thank you! Glad you had fun!

  • Brian Lonano

    Crypticon has great programming and Eric is fantastic with communication. Thanks so much for having me back at the festival.

    May 2023
    Logo
    Response from festival:

    Thank you!

  • Communication was really easy! We hope to be able to come next time, thank you so much! :)

    May 2023
    Logo
    Response from festival:

    Thank you!

  • Ty Huffer

    Crypticon continues to be an amazing film festival. They treat their filmmakers very well. A huge bonus to the film fest is the convention itself is awesome!

    August 2022
    Logo
    Response from festival:

    Thank you! It's great to have you at the show!