FINAL FRAME Horror Short Film Competition

Cash prizes will be presented for (1) Grand Prize, (1) Runner-Up film, plus categories such as Best Writing in a Short Film, Audience Award and a special award (TBD).

Our 2026 judges will be announced closer to the event.

Previous judges include:

Rob Savage (co-writer and director of the lockdown horror hit Host (2020), director of an adaptation of Stephen King's The Boogeyman (2023), and soon to release his vision of Josh Malerman's Incidents Around The House now titled Other Mommy)

Tananarive Due (an award-winning author, screenwriter, and educator known for her work in Black speculative fiction and horror, an executive producer for the Shudder documentary, Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror, and Due won the American Book Award for her novel The Living Blood (2001), and the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel, and the World Fantasy Award for her novel The Reformatory (2023))

Philip Fracassi (author of multiple novels, screenplays, and short stories including works such as the novels A Child Alone with Strangers, Gothic, Boys in the Valley, The Third Rule of Time Travel, and The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre)

Daniel Kraus (NYT bestselling author of Angel Down, Whalefall, Co-Author of The Living Dead (with George Romero), The Shape of Water (with Guillermo del Toro) and writer of the graphic novel, The Autumnal)

Jamie Flanagan (screenwriter, Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, The Haunting of Bly Manor)

Izzy Lee (Director/Co-Writer, House of Ashes and the Final Frame Audience Award Winner for the short film, Meat Friend) 

Jamal Hodge (writer/director, Mourning Meal, Alone, and the upcoming documentary Madness and Writers: The Untold Truth)

Lisa Morton (author of four novels and 150 short stories, a six-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award®, past President of the Horror Writers Association, and a world-class Halloween expert)

Grady Hendrix (author, The Final Girl Support Group, My Best Friend's Exorcism / screenwriter, Mohawk & Satanic Panic) 

Gemma Files (author, Experimental Film, In That Endlessness, Our End) 

Ernest Dickerson (director, Juice, Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight, The Walking Dead, as well as the distinctive cinematographer of Spike Lee's films from Do The Right Thing to Malcolm X and more)

Alejandro Brugués (writer/director, JUAN OF THE DEAD. Director, ABC’S OF DEATH 2 and NIGHTMARE CINEMA)

Ed Polgardy (producer of The Wretched)

Mick Garris (Hocus Pocus, The Stand, Masters of Horror, Nightmare Cinema)

Oscar-winning producer, Jennifer Handorf (Prevenge)

Screenwriter, novelist and comic-writer M.R. Carey (The Girl With All the Gifts)

Author Adam L.G. Nevill (The Ritual, No One Gets Out Alive)

Writer and award-winning filmmaker Frazer Lee (On Edge, Panic Button, The Lamplighters)

Novelist and film critic Kim Newman (Anno Dracula)

Novelist and screenwriter Sarah Pinborough (Behind Her Eyes, Cross Her Heart)

Mike Flanagan (writer/director, The Fall of the House of Usher, Doctor Sleep, Haunting of Hill House, Gerald's Game)

Josh Malerman (author of the international phenomenon, Bird Box and other books including Goblin, Spin A Black Yarn, and Daphne)

Jonathan Maberry (creator of the bestselling Joe Ledger series, author of The Pine Deep Trilogy, Mars One and more)

Lynne Hansen (award-winning filmmaker/ book cover artist)

Antonio D’Intino (Literary Manager, Circle of Confusion)

John Skipp (legendary horror author and filmmaker)

Craig Engler (co-creator, ZNation, and former GM of AMC’s Shudder)

Michael Gingold (horror journalist, writer, editor)

Mike McCarty (Makeup FX, formerly of KNB, currently with Autonomous FX)

Ryan Turek (Director of Development, Blumhouse / Producer, Halloween (2018-2022), Happy Death Day, and Truth or Dare)

Rebekah McKendry (FIlmmaker, Co-Host, Colors of the Dark podcast)