The first annual Shot In The Dark Mysteries' mystery film festival! Show us your Mystery Film Shorts (10 minutes or less)!

Welcome to the first annual short film festival from Shot In The Dark Mysteries, focused solely on mystery, thriller and murder mystery films! Are you inspired by Hitchcock? Long to create Film Noir? Want to get hearts pounding with a compelling and to-the-point who-dun-it? Love the thrill of delivering a twist that makes your viewers gasp? You're in the right place.

As an all around company for mystery lovers worldwide, the mission of the Shot In The Dark Mysteries Film Festival is to shine a light (old-school interrogation style, perhaps?) on the work of those in the film community who specialize in a great thriller, who-dun-it or Film Noir. For the first of our annual Mystery Film Festivals, we are focusing on short films 10 minutes or less.

Since Covid has changed how we have to do things, for the time being we will be running this as an online showcase, however if things change before the deadline of September 1st, we will be reverting to the original plan, which was to have a full in-theatre film festival focused on the mystery genre. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this will be the case!

Awards & Prizes

Best Short Film: $500 Cash Prize and Award and Feature at the Festival (As Covid-19 Restrictions allow)

Second Place: Award and Feature at the Festival (As Covid-19 Restrictions allow)

Third Place: Award and Feature at the Festival (As Covid-19 Restrictions allow)

Fourth through Tenth Place: Feature at the Festival (As Covid-19 Restrictions allow)

Rules & Terms

Eligible films must be no longer than ten (10) minutes in length.

Any submissions not applicable to the mystery genre (including mystery, murder mystery, who-dun-it, thriller) will be immediately disqualified. Horror films are also not eligible.

This is a juried event and official selections will be publicly screened either as part of an online showcase (in the event that Covid-19 restrictions do not lift before the end of the submission period) or in a physical location, as guidelines set forth by the Government of Ontario, Canada, allow.

Prizes will be awarded as outlined in the “Awards” section found below.

Entries must be submitted in digital format (MOV, AVI, MPEG, MP4).

All filmmakers submitting a short film for consideration must guarantee that they own all rights associated with their entry including the rights/permissions for use of accompanying music. Please ensure that you have all necessary releases.

Entries must have been completed after June 15th, 2020 and must not exceed ten (10) minutes in length.

Non-English films must have English subtitles embedded into the video.

Films that have been previously submitted to the Shot In The Dark Mysteries Mystery Film Festival are not eligible.

Submissions received by the closing date of competition will be reviewed by a jury and will be judged based on: Production (directing, writing, originality and acting), Cinematography (camerawork, lighting, composition), Sound (music, dialog, effects, mixing), and Post-production (cutting/editing, transitions, pacing). The decisions of the jury are final and the results will be communicated to the entrants via supplied e-mail. Dependant on the lifting of restrictions due to COVID-19, select prizes will be awarded in an awards ceremony.

A brief description/synopsis is also required.

Please Note
Entering the competition gives Shot In The Dark Mysteries the right to use the work for public presentation, promotion and education. For the purposes of promotion and education, all entries will be identified as follows: “Provided courtesy of the filmmaker and Shot In The Dark Mysteries”. Shot In The Dark Mysteries reserves the right to disqualify any entry that violates the guidelines of the Mystery Shorts Film Competition as stated. Entries selected for presentation will be kept by Shot In The Dark Mysteries and archived for controlled use as reference material.