Southern Horror Film Festival, is a horror film festival in Atlanta, Georgia. This annual event showcases horror films from around the world. Atlanta has a great film scene in general, but also a dedicated horror film community that is eager to see new films. All flavors of horror are accepted including creatures, suspense, vampires, zombies, psycho killers, dark comedy, animation and other horrific situations that will make our audience jump. Each of our judges goes through an extensive judges training program and are ready to watch every minute of every film submitted. We are also looking for horror film screenplays and hope to recognize exceptional work that can one day be produced into a short or feature film.

Script writers, in addition to submitting your script to the festival we also provide optional script coverage. Script coverage with our festival includes the price of your submission fee. Your work will be analyzed by a Cinema Life filmmaker who’s produced award winning films, has extensive writing experience, and also understands the indie way of filmmaking.

IF YOU OR ANYONE IN YOUR PARTY IS DISRUPTIVE AT THE FESTIVAL IT WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE REMOVAL OF YOUR GROUP AND DISQUALIFICATION OF YOUR FILM OR SCREENPLAY AND REFUNDS WILL NOT BE ISSUED.

Awards & Prizes

Our Team of Judges will decide award nominations and winner from the following categories:

Best Cinematography
Best Director
Best Experimental Film
Best Horror Comedy
Best Feature Length Horror Screenplay
Best Film Editing
Best Georgia Horror Film
Best International Horror Film
Best Micro Short Film
Best Short Horror Film
Best Short Horror Screenplay

Rules & Terms

All films and screenplays are eligible, regardless if they have distribution or not. Films that are accepted to this festival are expected to provide a download link to their film within 1 week of notification. All films must have an resolution of 1920x1080 HD or better. Standard Definition and 720p will not be accepted. All films will be compiled and screened on Blu-Ray DVD. 23.976, 24, 25 & 30 frame rates are all acceptable, but 23.976 is preferred. DCP and 5.1 Surround Sound are not accepted, only stereo files please. Quicktime (.mov) and (.mp4) file formats are preferred.
39 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
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Networking
  • Kelley Cody-Grimm

    My daughter and I had the honor of having our screenplays as official selections at the Southern Horror Film Festival, and we got to have a portion of our scripts read in a table read with some very talented actors. Caroline and her team are fantastic at communication. This is my third festival with Cinema Life, and I am always impressed by the caliber of the films, panels, and other scripts that are also represented. I highly recommend this festival and all the other Cinema Life offerings.

    November 2021
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  • John Ungaro

    Fantastic festival, and highly recommend!

    November 2021
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  • C. Michael Whaley

    very good fest. would recommend.

    October 2021
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  • Joe Boi

    It’s always an honor to be an official selection in any of the Cinema Life festivals, but, for me as a horror writer, Mercy winning best horror screenplay (feature length) is an incredible feeling and I’ll never forget this moment or this festival. Great group of people and I highly recommend you check out any of the other epic festivals ran by Cinema Life—they all rock!

    October 2021
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  • Hassan El-Amin

    Had a great time being a part of the Southern Horror Film Fest and was honored to win "Best Director" for my short The Strong Box. COVID kept me home this year but I'm looking forward to attending in the future. This one is not to be missed!

    November 2020
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