The TOHorror Fantastic Film Fest is a long-running Italian festival dedicated to fantastic & horror cinema.
It was founded in 1999 and is based in Torino, the city where Dario Argento shot one of his masterpiece, "Profondo Rosso", and where Italy's National Museum of Cinema is located.

The 24th edition of TOHorror was held in October 2024, presenting Italian premieres of such great films as "In A Violent Nature" by Chris Nash, "Oddity" by Damian McCarthy, "Sayara" by Can Evrenol, "Else" by Thibault Emin, "Animale" by Emma Benestan, "Steppenwolf" by Adilkhan Yerzhanov, "Krazy House" by Steffen Haars & Flip Van der Kuil, "Spermageddon" by Tommy Wirkola & Rasmus Sivertsen, "So Unreal" by Amanda Kramer and many many others; as well as a large lineup of amazing animated and live action shorts.

One of the goals of TOHorror is to contribute spreading talented and independent new voices in the genre-cinema scene. Alongside films by established filmmakers, the festival programme annually features many works by first-time or second-time directors. In recent years we have had the honor and pleasure of presenting in Italy alternative gems and terrific debuts such as "Red Rooms" by Pascal Plante, "Saint Maud" by Rose Glass, "The Sadness" by Rob Jabbaz, "Skinamarink" by Kyle Edward Ball, "Eight Eyes" by Austin Jennings, "Abruptio" by Evan Marlowe, "Amulet" by Romola Garai, "One Cut of the Dead" by Shinichiro Ueda, "We're All Going to the World's Fair" by Jane Schoenbrun, "Voidcaller" by Nils Alatalo...

Beside feature films, the Short Film and Animated Short Film sections definitely are one of the cornerstones of the festival: more than 40 shorts and animated shorts are selected each year, bringing to light some of the most promising new filmmakers in the panorama of contemporary fantastic & horror cinema.

Being a transversal event, TOHorror starts with movies and then explores all possible modern media, with the aim of analyzing today's society through the deforming lens of fantastic culture.
Thus, through screenings, meetings with guests (in recent years: Robert Morgan, Dave McKean, Richard Stanley, Jean Rollin, Dario Argento, Ruggero Deodato, Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani, Miguel Angel Martin, Klaus Maeck, André Bonzel...), live music, art exhibitions, comic book presentations, talks, panel and wild parties, we are enabled to experience reality through the wildest imagination.

● Best Short Film
● Best Animated Short Film
● Anna Mondelli Award for the Best Feature Film
● Audience Award for the Best Short Film
● Audience Award for the Best Animated Short Film
● Audience Award for the Best Short Film - Freakshorts Category
● Audience Award for the Best Feature Film
● Antonio Margheriti Award for the most insane independent and DIY attitude
● Bloody FX Award for the best FX
● Scuola Comics Award, assigned to the best Animated Short Film by teachers and students of Turin's International School of Comics
● Special Mentions assigned by both the official juries and the festival team

-- READ CAREFULLY --

1) The festival is structured in the following categories:

● Short Films Competition (under 30 minutes)
● Animated Short Films Competition (under 30 minutes)
● Feature Films Competition (over 60 minutes)
● Mad Doc: a non-competitive section focused on documentaries (no runtime limits)
● Freakshow & Freakshorts: non-competitive sections dedicated to "extreme" movies in the widest sense of the word: weird, grotesque, splatter, gore, trash, bizarre... (no runtime limits)

Selected films will be included in one of these categories, according to the decision of the selection committee.

2) Eligible films must be related in any way to the following film genres and themes: horror, thriller, science-fiction, fantasy, mystery, weird, grotesque, black comedy, noir, experimental.

3) Each author is responsible for the contents of its own work.

4) If the dialogues of the film are not in Italian, the film must be completed by Italian or English subtitles.

5) In case of selection, we'll reach out privately to ask for all required materials for promotional, subtitling and screening purpose.

The screening copy of the films must be provided to the festival at least 2 weeks in advance on the beginning of the event. If a physical shipment is needed, the festival will cover the shipping costs both ways, unless the package has to be shipped to another festival right after TOHorror - in this case, the recipient must cover the shipping costs to receive the package.

6) Once selected, a film can't be withdrawn from the competition.

7) Selected films unable to provide the requested materials and documentation, or that provide them after the specified deadlines, could be dismissed from the selection.

8) The festival will not take charge of trophy and awards shipping in case winners can't attend the day of the proclamation.

9) The festival will not provide any screening fee to authors/distributors of selected films.

10) The demand for participation in the TOHORROR FANTASTIC FILM FEST 2025 - 25th EDITION constitutes full and unconditional acceptance of this regulation.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Nils Alatalo

    Truly a fantastic film festival. Communication, hospitality and film screenings were 11/10.

    November 2024
  • TOPHorror! Super festival top qualité.

    November 2024
  • Lulu Syracuse

    TOHorror fest was such a wonderful experience -- highly recommend !!

    October 2024
  • We visited the festival in 2022 when our short "Crappy Christmas - Operation Christmas Child" was selected.
    The comunication and hospitality was exellent. We enjoyed our stay very much and also loved the special events like concerts and talks surounding the filmfest, as well as hanging out at the BlahBlah - club after the screenings.
    Thanks again to Matteo and the whole crew for having us.
    Turin and TOHORROR was a BLAST !

    October 2022
  • Paolo Gaudio

    Senza dubbio tra i migliori festival dedicati al fantastico d’Italia. Ogni anno cresce e migliora. Complimenti al direttore e a tutto il suo staff 👏👏

    October 2022