Dark Red Film Fest

Dark Red Film Festival, New Mexico's premier international horror film festival takes place in Albuquerque, one of Movie Maker Magazine's top 5 ranked "Best Places to Live and Work as a MovieMaker" for 6 consecutive years.

Recommended by New York Film Academy as one of the “Top Film Festivals to Submit To,” the Dark Red Film Festival is a vibrant celebration of indie horror crafted by filmmakers with a passion for elevating the horror genre. Spanning three days, this festival will bring together a community of filmmakers and horror enthusiasts at iconic Albuquerque venues.

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To our filmmaker community,

We want to share something that has been weighing on us the last few weeks. At our core, we are filmmakers. It's right there in our motto, "By filmmakers, for filmmakers." We are filmmakers first, festival runners second. That has always guided our approach this festival, with a filmmaker first mentality. We put our heart and soul into making our festival the type of festival that we, as filmmakers, want to attend. Right now, we are pushing our creative endeavors forward with everything we have as well.

Mason is directing his first feature, has an optioned script, and has another screenplay with an attached director. We are also developing a graphic novel, we’re in post-production on two narrative features that we are producers on, and Tabitha is producing a feature documentary that is already in motion. These projects require all of our creative attention right now, and we want to honor them fully.  

So, after much thought, we are making the decision to pause this year’s season of the Dark Red Film Festival in order to fully focus on our own creative work. What we will never do is half ass Dark Red. We explored options to bring others in to substitute in our absence, and we deeply considered if we had the capacity to put together a pared down version of the festival. But, ultimately, we feel that those options would do a disservice to the festival.

And, there's other pieces to this as well; Recently, we lost our beloved dog and partner in crime, Gump. For those who've attended the fest, you know Gump was a huge part of this festival. He was the heart of it. We are still mourning, and doing it this year without him just wouldn't feel right.

Additionally, festivals are really difficult to make viable from an economic perspective. Our goal has been to keep submissions and tickets accessibly priced while still providing an engaging event that does its best to go above and beyond. That is increasingly difficult  to do when much of our income then is reliant on financial sponsorship from other entities that are also just trying to make things work. It’s a tough thing to navigate, and also maintain standards both with accessibility and with quality.

This isn't a "goodbye". It's a "See you soon." We have the intention of returning in 2026, but are currently giving ourselves the space to reevaluate our capacity and what the festival might look like in the future. Our goal remains the same - to support bold, independent horror and to help filmmakers connect around the world. 

We know this decision may come as a surprise. And we completely understand if the new timeline no longer fits with your goals. So, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

We deeply value this community. You have trusted us with your work and your time for a few years now. That means everything to us. Taking a step back this year is about making room to grow, so that when we return, we can serve this community with even more intention. Thank you for your understanding and your continued belief in what Dark Red stands for. We’re still right here, cheering you on.

With immense gratitude,
The Dark Red Film Festival Team