The Death's Parade Film Fest supports independent filmmakers, creative writers and composers, and anyone else with the mind of creating horror! We are entering our third season and cannot wait to screen your work in 2022! If you're curious about who we are check out our past festival photos, and our body of work reviewing and hosting filmmakers at https://www.deathparadefilmfest.com/ .

As always, it is our goal to provide you, the filmmaker, a dark and brooding platform to display your talents within the horror, suspense and thriller genre. The Death's Parade Film Festival will carefully select the best of the best in regards to horror shorts, features, and animations to present to our audience.

The festival will feature short films and feature films from around the world, with an emphasis on paranormal, psychological and body horror, found footage, experimental, killers, monsters, zombies, gore, and dark comedy. Visit https://www.deathparadefilmfest.com/ for more.

While some festivals market themselves as an entertainment destination we will not dilute the festival experience with trashy live performances or cringy stage exhibitions. You are there to watch movies and that's what you'll get! We are here to promote you, the filmmaker, above all else.

NEW FOR 2022: The Death's Parade Film Fest will venture in the world of horror games. We will seek out and be open to reviewing and promoting video game horror.

We are looking for:
• Films that scare the pants out of us, or make us question our sanity!
• Horror films not released to the public yet, meaning they shouldn't be commercially available on blu ray/DVD, or any streaming platform such as Netflix, Prime Video, Youtube etc.
• Films generally less than three years old - we'll consider films of any age, but prefer newer projects.

As is our tradition we may feature Q&A from selected filmmakers. We had a blast with our attending filmmakers during our virtual fest on Eventive and look forward to meet more in 2022. We operate a year long podcast and Youtube screening platform.

The Grim and Bloody Podcast and Theater features guests across the horror genre spectrum: from films, books, music to illustrations. Helmed by Kevin Nickelson of Horror News Net, Joe Flynn and DPFF founder Anthony DeRouen. You can find the Grim and Bloody Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcast, Anchor, and Radio Public. Watch our episodes! https://www.deathparadefilmfest.com/. We've been honored to host the likes of Dee Wallace, director Alex Proyas, Michael Rooker and many more.

Awards & Prizes

We call our awards The Grimmies!! That's a take on the Grim Reaper, not that other cheesy award show.

Best Short Film
Best Writing
Best Makeup Effects

** Films that are considered for the Best Writing award will be contacted late August to have their respective scripts submitted for review. The scripts do not have to follow any particular format, but we want to see the written dialogue that went into the film. **

Rules & Terms

[Please read the all of the Rules & Terms before submitting]

TERMS:
Final screening format must be MP4, H.264, WMV, M4V, MPEG, please! By submitting to the Death’s Parade Film Fest (DPFF) through FilmFreeway, you are stating that you are the owner of your entry, and it's your original work. We are NOT accepting any .MOV files, please have any .MOV files converted prior to submitting.

While we understand that you retain all rights to ownership of the work, you hereby give the Death’s Parade Film Fest permission to feature, advertise, display, in whole or in part, the work titled and described herein, for festival purposes including promotion.

You also understand that your entry is valid only upon completion of the following conditions: (1) receipt of a copy of the work, (2) the processing of the entry fee by the festival organization (DPFF), and (3) when the work is found to be original and owned by you or those you represent.

Each work is judged solely on its own merits.
RULES:
1. Please select only one submission category per project. Films submitted in multiple categories could be subject to disqualification.
2. All films MUST be submitted via online screener (Vimeo preferred, but not required). No physical DVDs or Blu-Rays accepted for submission.
3. There is no completion date. DPFF will accept films from any year.
4. No Premiere Status required.
5. Films can have a distribution deal, but should not be available online (VimeoOnDemand, Netflix, Amazon Prime etc.) prior to the festival dates.
6. Foreign films (in their original language) must be presented with English language subtitles.
7. Student film submissions require proof of enrollment. Entries by filmmakers UNDER 18 years of age MUST be submitted by a parent or legal guardian. Student films are ONLY ELIGIBLE for the Best Student Film Award and do not qualify in any other award category.
8. All submitted films must be complete. The DPFF will not accept Work-In-Progress submissions.
9. The DPFF does not pay screening fees.

5 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • O.J. HANSEN

    Anthony and his team are awesome! It was a lot of fun getting to talk with them during out interview and I cannot say enough about Death's Parade Film Festival!

    December 2021
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  • JoeBert Entertainment

    We were unable to attend the 2019 festival but were honored to be a part of it. During the quarantine we were given the opportunity to do a Q&A for our film "Keep It in the Dark" and were blown away by how well it was done. We could tell that they really appreciate film and storytelling. We hope to make it to their next festival. We did not hesitate to enter the festival again this year and suggest everybody do the same.

    October 2020
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    Response from festival:

    Thanks for the feedback! It was a pleasure having you guys featured in the 2019 festival and our Youtube screening theater. Keep up the good work!

  • Tony Reames

    I cannot say enough about this festival, Anthony puts on a wonderful fest!!!!! From the films to the coverage this is top notch!!!!

    October 2019
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    Response from festival:

    We were honored to screen your film Tony, best of luck on your future projects!

  • Marcia Denice

    Great festival with a great audience. I'm very proud my film was a part of the line up.

    October 2019
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    Response from festival:

    It was a pleasure to meet you, Marcia! Hope to see you back.

  • Roshni "Rush" Bhatia

    For a first year festival, I've had value through and through. Anthony is so communicative and quick at responding. Although I didn't get to attend, I did get to do an interview and be nominated for Best Writing. I'm extremely proud of being a part of Death's Parade Film Fest. MUCH RECOMMENDED.

    October 2019
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you for the kind words, Roshni! It was a pleasure to interview you and screen PLASMID - a wonderfully done horror short.