🎬 CALL FOR ENTRIES — THE SCAREFEST FILM FESTIVAL (LEXINGTON, KY)
Horror • Paranormal • Dark Sci-Fi • Underground • Weird • Macabre

The ScareFest Film Festival is the official film festival of ScareFest Weekend — Kentucky’s premier Horror, Paranormal & Fandom Convention — held annually at the Central Bank Center in Lexington, KY, drawing 30,000+ local, out-of-state, and international attendees.

ScareFest is one of the largest conventions of its kind in the country, bridging horror, paranormal, and fandom culture — backed by a community of 80,000+ followers across social media. Every year we welcome celebrities from the big and small screen, paranormal personalities, artists, vendors, and performers… and at the heart of it all is the love of horror. This festival is built for filmmakers who want their work to be seen, felt, and celebrated by a crowd that came to be terrified.

🩸 WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR
We want horror in all its forms — high art, high camp, and everything in between.

We accept all sub-genres, including:
Splatter • Slasher • Supernatural • Creature • Psychological
Plus: horror comedy, documentary, dark sci-fi, experimental, and genre-benders.

If your film is dark, creepy, bloody, eerie, strange, haunting, nasty, violent, unusual, weird, or macabre — we want to see it.

🎞️ PREMIERES & FRESH FILMS PREFERRED

👁️ WHY SUBMIT?
Our screenings play to an enthusiastic crowd of horror lovers who want to discover new filmmakers and original work. This is a real audience, real reactions, and a weekend packed with horror culture, celebrity guests, paranormal programming, vendors, and fandom. We proudly support Kentucky indie filmmakers and student films.

Awards & Prizes

🏆 AWARDS & PRIZES
Best Feature
Best Short
Best of Horror
Best Kill
Best Director
Best Performance
Special Jury Awards

Rules & Terms

• Productions cannot have been previously screened at the event.
• Premiere status will be preferred and will be a factor in inclusion decision.
• Films that are not available to the public will be a factor in inclusion decision. We prefer to not have films readily available online to current streaming services.
• By submitting, you're giving us permission to exhibit your film at the event, and other screenings (such as promotional events, etc.).
Online submission will be accepted through film festival platform FilmFreeway.
We will accept hardcopies in some cases. These must be a digital copy on DVD (minimum 1920×1080). Please contact us for mail submissions.

By submitting, you represent and warrant that you have full legal right and authority to submit the film/video project for consideration by The Scarefest, and that all necessary consents, licensing, and approvals have been obtained with respect thereto. You agree to hold The Scarefest and its sponsors harmless in any and all matters pertaining to the consents, licenses, and approvals of heretofore film/video project. You understand that your submission is in no way a guarantee of acceptance into The Scarefest Film Festival. No one from The Scarefest or its sponsors has guaranteed you admission into the festival. Should your film be accepted to The Scarefest Film Festival, you grant The Scarefest the right to use any footage from the preview screener, and all submitted publicity photos and any other materials pertaining to this entry for The Scarefest's promotional non-commercial purposes, without limitations.

All submissions are final. No refunds are provided.
16 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Gordon Phillips

    Thank you Scarefest team for putting together such an amazing fest this year! We weren't able to attend but had fun following along on social media. A lot of dedicated horror fans!
    And thanks for the triple win for The Itch! We couldn't have been happier that we participated!

    October 2025
    Helpful
  • DAVID S. SMITH

    Although, I wanted to, I was not able to attend this year. The communication was stellar. I always knew what was going on in a timely manner. Keep up the good work. Hope to see you next year.

    October 2024
    Helpful
  • Jordan Selander

    We were honored to screen our experimental short film No Grave For the Dead at Scarefest 2023! It was one of the biggest festivals we screened at all year, with tons of horror celebs, fun events, indie film panels and a plethora of vendor booths to shop. The screening went amazing too! The audience asked thought-provoking questions during our Q&A. We unfortunately couldn’t stay for the award show due to travel obligations, but we want to congratulate all the nominees and winners. We met some talented filmmakers and artists who we hope to keep in contact with in the future. Wes and the rest of the Scarefest team welcomed us to Kentucky with open arms and showed us a memorable weekend for the ages. We’ll 100% be submitting future films to this special film festival.

    January 2024
    Helpful
  • Jason-Christopher Mayer

    Still waiting on award winners? Not much communication.

    October 2022
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    Check your spam folder, but all of the accepted entries, the nominees and award winners are posted on our website and were shared on social media preceding and following the event as applicable. Our featured film winner has alerted us that our emails were in fact getting caught in his spam folder.

  • Tony Reames

    Found a new favorite, was able to visit on Friday. It was a BLAST!!!!!! Great fest, great communication.

    October 2022
    Helpful