I love meeting and talking movies with the film creators, like the directors of The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord... a world premiere event on Sunday November 1st, delayed slightly by the power going out at the theater and our ace Emagine Corporate man reloading the movie into the projector’s computer... TWICE!

We have dealt with all kinds of technical hurdles and computer glitches leading into our festivals, but we've always managed to have a good time watching bleeding edge horror on the silver screen with other horror creators & fans from around the world.

We will have more announcements about the launch of the 6th American Horrors Film Festival (entries are open RIGHT NOW).

Again, thank you one an all for participating. It’s the filmmakers and the films I have a passion for- doing the festival is a ton of work, but one of the highlights of my year and worth every minute of effort.

Be well and stay fed!

Sincerely,

Hart D. Fisher/Festival Director
americanhorrors.net

The 2020 American Horrors Film Festival Winners:

Best Feature Film
Bad Candy
Directed by Scott Hansen & Desiree Connell
Honorable mention Happy Times

Best Short Film:
Bitch, Popcorn & Blood
Directed by Fabio Soars
Honorable mention The Perfect Chef

Best Music Video:
The Pump Directed by Jakov Burov
Honorable mention Melissa is Dead

The 6th Annual American Horrors Film Festival is a horror film fest screening original shorts, features, music videos & documentaries the weekend of October 4th through Sunday October 6th in historic downtown Lake Geneva, Wisconsin at the Grape Vine Theater (currently under going remodeling and an upgrade) triangulated in one of the hottest media markets in the nation, between Chicago, Rockford & Milwaukee.

The American Horrors Film Festival is supported with a worldwide advertising & social media awareness campaign supported by television commercials (featured on the fastest growing horror channel in the world, American Horrors), posters, postcards, t-shirt give-aways and online streaming radio.

All of the film festival panels, red carpet events & opening night party will be filmed for a television special streaming on the American Horrors network January 1st, 2025 (all participation is voluntary, if you do not wish for your film or short to be screened online, your wishes will be honored. Any airing of a film, short or music video is completely at the filmmakers discretion).

"What a great festival! Great organization, communication and presentation. The Geneva theater is a beautiful venue. Filmmakers enjoyed first-class treatment. We were stars for a day! Friendly, helpful staff, great promotion. We will be submitting again next year FOR SURE." -Michael Ricci/Director/The Darkening Hollows

"Hart was incredibly helpful and supportive. He took the time to reach out personally before the festival to discuss the film and afterwards to congratulate us on its reception. This is a great up-and-coming festival, and I encourage everyone to submit!"
-John Burr/Director/Muse

The American Horrors Film Festival is hosted every year by Horror King, Hart D. Fisher, who's work has been written about in Time Magazine, The A to Z Guide to Serial Killers, Psychology Today, Rue Morgue & in such films as Serial Killer Culture, The National Geographic Channel's special mini-series event The 90s: The Last Great Decade?, Larry King Live, Jerry Springer, CNN Headline News and more.

Awards & Prizes

The original American Horrors Film Festival screened on Oct. 26th & 27th 2017, then was aired as a one day event on the American Horrors Roku channel worldwide, resulting in the highest rated event on the network's Roku history, giving filmmakers exposure unlike any other film festival of it's kind in the horror world.

With the loss of American Horrors co-founder, Wakako Kawagoshi-Fisher, this year's film festival will be dedicated to our lost Queen and will include a special "Spirit of Horror" award, details TBA, and an original new trophy design has been commissioned for this years awards ceremony.

BEST FEATURE FILM: Oscar Winning Industry Veteran judge, Dieter (Fargo, Shameless) Sturm will be the sole deciding vote on the fate of what feature will be the winner of the American Horrors Best Feature film. All entries are personally selected by festival director Hart D. Fisher with the award winner being selected solely by his main industry veteran Judge, Mr. Sturm.

Besides being covered in the American Horrors Film Festival tv special (to be streamed worldwide on the American Horrors Roku channel), the American Horrors Film Festival Best Feature winner will win an optional contract with American Horrors to air their film on the worldwide 24/7 linear streaming network's fast growing Roku channel (with over 8.3 million viewers tuning in over the last 2 years), prizes TBA.

BEST SHORT FILM: Industry Veteran judge TBA.

Besides being covered in the American Horrors Film Festival tv special (to be streamed worldwide on the American Horrors Roku channel), the American Horrors Film Festival Best Feature winner will win an optional contract with American Horrors to air their film on the worldwide 24/7 linear streaming network's new Roku channel (with a worldwide audience of MILLIONS), prizes TBA.

BEST MUSIC VIDEO: Industry Veteran judge is still as of yet unannounced but we are working on a special surprise guest judge from the music industry who will decide the fate of the American Horrors Best Music Video.

Besides being covered in the American Horrors Film Festival tv special (to be streamed worldwide on the American Horrors Roku channel), the American Horrors Film Festival Best Feature winner will win an optional contract with American Horrors to air their film on the worldwide 24/7 linear streaming network's Roku channel and further prizes TBA.

Rules & Terms

The American Horrors Film Festival is looking to break in the new blood, to give the bleeding edge creators a platform to build their careers & give them exposure to a worldwide audience of hungry horror fanatics. The American Horrors Film Festival is looking for the best in new horror from around the world in any of the following main genre groups:

- Horror in all it's forms, whether it's a horror thriller, animated horror film, a horror suspense film, a horror documentary, a supernatural or sci-fi horror film, if it has to do with the horror genre, then you should enter it because we LOVE all things even remotely associated with horror & so do our fans.

The American Horrors Film Festival accepts online film screeners and physically mailed DVD & BluRay screeners. Any applicable submission fees must also be paid online at the time of your entry.

Our Standard Festival Participation Agreement (Terms and Conditions), which all submitted films are also expected to follow is as follows:

GENERAL AGREEMENT OF PARTICIPATION IN THE AMERICAN HORRORS FILM FESTIVAL:

I have read and accept the terms and regulations of The American Horrors Film Festival. I will provide the festival with any additional information required pursuant to these rules and regulations. I authorize the The American Horrors Film Festival to exhibit my film, and if selected, I confirm that an exhibition copy will be available in a required format for screening during the 2024 festival (October 4th-6th 2024).

I certify that I hold all necessary rights for the submission of this film/video to the The American Horrors Film Festival and that all rights and clearances have been made. This film is not subject to any litigation nor is threatened by any litigation. I hold The American Horrors Film Festival harmless from damage to, or loss of any or all materials en route to, from or otherwise at the festival. I assume all legal responsibilities therein. By Agreeing to these terms, I transfer to The American Horrors Film Festival the right to use excerpts of the submitted film, its stills, and trailers, for the purposes of publicity and marketing of the film at the 2024 festival, and for other non-commercial uses related to the promotion of the 2024 festival. I hereby agree to indemnify The American Horrors Film Festival, in the event that such rights have not been properly transferred.

PLEASE E-MAIL US QUESTIONS, ANYTIME:
americanhorrorssubmissions@yahoo.com
29 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Sunny Mabrey

    Had a great experience with this fest! Honored to be selected and would love to submit our next project.

    August 2022
    Helpful
  • David Weaver

    DO NOT SUBMIT TO THIS FESTIVAL!!! (May 21st Update) - OVER HALF A YEAR LATER & STILL HASN'T DECLARED AWARD WINNERS

    We appreciate that our film was selected for and screened at The American Horrors Film Festival. That being said, the festival organizer has not lived up to what he promised the event would have to offer and provided little to virtually no communication since the event ended.
    The festival was described as an awards event, with categories for Best Feature and Best Short. Each category would have its winner selected by a single, guest judge. However, award winners were never announced or posted. After many unanswered e-mails and Facebook PMs, we were finally told that the awards ceremony would be streamed as part of the American Horrors Roku channel in January. Although we felt that the winners should already have been notified, we accepted this answer.
    Almost two weeks into January, with zero updates from the festival, multiple attempts to clarify when in January the ceremony would be streamed went unanswered. Finally, we were informed that not only had plans not been finalized for the ceremony, but that all the winners hadn't been chosen, as one judge hadn't watched all selections due to illness. This is hard to take seriously, as the event only has two judges and it has been four months since the fest ended. We were also told that "several deaths amongst the festival staff" had also caused delays. What was left out was the fact that these deaths occurred a year or more before the most recent festival even occurred and, while tragic, played no part in any problems encountered with this past year's festival...and definitely didn't prevent the festival organizer from taking our submission fee. As weeks have now dragged into months, and no progress been shown, new and incredulous excuses have been put forward by Hart Fisher, the event organizer, ranging from new deaths among the team to issues with his living situation.
    Our film was a labor of love by a group of people who had to juggle our filmmaking schedule around home and work responsibilities. The money we paid to submit our film to the American Horrors Film Festival was hard-earned, and we did not feel entitled to being selected or awarded. BUT, when selected, we did expect to at least be made aware of who did win awards, to know that awards had even been given, and to be kept in consistent and clear communication about any developments or delays. This was not the case.
    Our film was, at least, screened at the fest. So, if you are content with the possibility of having that for your movie, submit. Otherwise, I recommend following my lead and avoiding this festival in the future.

    January 2022
    Helpful
  • Prateek SenGupta

    Got selected but never received any further communication.

    December 2021
    Helpful
  • Justin Snikkar

    I'm honoured my music video (It's My halloween Party) was selected into the festival! I hope all who saw it liked it....

    November 2021
    Helpful
  • Scott Slone

    Great Festival! Hart is amazing! He actually watches every submission that comes in and that is incredible for a Festival Director to do. He is extremely passionate and I would highly recommend you submit to his festival! The theater where the festival took place was also really amazing so that is a huge plus if you are able to get selected.

    November 2021
    Helpful