Hello my horror friends--
You've been more than patient with us as we figure everything out this first year, and for that, I thank you.
We've learned a LOT from doing this festival once, and are already planning on making things a better and smoother and cooler experience for all of you for next year, but especially the judging and feedback process.
I'll spell out some more specific details as we firm up plans, but the gist is that the initial round of judging is going to be taking place during the submissions process, so that by the time submissions close, final selections will be immediately sent to the official jury panels. This will give them plenty of time to review films and scripts so that we can announce nominations ahead of next year's festival, and have a great awards ceremony to celebrate during the event.
This year's judging process
We've done the initial round of judging both films and screenplays, and all final selections have been sent to the juries. The judges have all been reviewing and making their selections.
We will make an official announcement about which films and screenplays are in the final stage of judging, as well as judge's names and bios. We're just waiting on bio info from a couple of judges--once we get those (hopefully in the next few days), we'll post them to the website and make announcements via email and social media.
We'll also be posting the judging rubric by which films and screenplays are being judged. I know that transparency about the judging process is something that's really important to you all as artists, and I'm committed to making everything as transparent as reasonably possible.
That includes getting feedback from the judges--something that I know is very valuable to help you all grow as filmmakers and screenwriters. While we're still fleshing out exactly what this will look like, I'm going to try to get at least some basic anonymized notes collated from the judges and shared with you privately.
Please note--while we'd love to be able to do this for all submissions, for this year at least we're only talking about the projects in this final round of judging.
Awards Announcement
We will do a virtual awards announcement, which will be free and open to all. While I know this won't be the same as having the awards announced during the event, we still want to be able to give you something fun to look forward to and to wrap up our first season. As the judging process gets wrapped up, we will choose a date and give everyone plenty of advance notice, so you can all tune in.
It is my commitment to you that we will have all of the awards wrapped up for 2021 before we open submissions for 2022--which we'd like to do at the beginning of the year.
2022 Dates
We're already planning for next year, and will announce those dates when we announce submission openings and deadlines. You can expect a similar timeframe as this year for the actual event, just possibly one or two weeks earlier.
We're trying to move a little earlier so more of the Halloween/haunted house crowd can join us, but we're also trying to make sure we don't overlap with Cinema Wasteland, the Cleveland 48HFP Horror Project, or the Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival, three other excellent film events in our area.
Help us spread the word
You all are the best ambassadors for growing our little festival, and we'd love it if you could help us spread the word.
If you have filmmaker or screenwriter or horror fan friends that might be interested in staying in touch with us, please share this link for them to sign up for our free newsletter: https://sendfox.com/lp/3lp6xp
I'll be in touch again soon as we start making announcements about the judging and awards event. Until then...
-Brian
Brian Bowers
Festival Director - Cleveland Horror Fest
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