Horror Film Fest Updates... Zompire & TIFF: Midnight Madness

I used to call this Film Fest Friday, but I'm just going to call it Film Fest Updates from now on... mainly due to the fact that I never post it on Fridays anymore. So, here's a few updates from the world of Horror Film Festivals. One of them is one of the biggest horror festivals of the year, the other is a little more 'niche'.

Zompire: The Undead Film Festival - We just missed Zompire, as it was in May. However, they've already announced their 2009 dates, May 15, 16 & 17. It takes place in Portland, Oregon in The Hollywood Theatre and it's run by the same guy, Andrew Miguore, who does the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. It's dedicated to all things undead, namely zombies and vampires... thus Zompire. They highlight various filmmakers creative attempts to show the undead in new and unexpected ways. All film entries must be submitted online using Withoutabox.com. Here's a link to the submissions page on their site.

Toronto International Film Festival: Midnight Madness - This festival is actually coming up here pretty soon, it's Sept 4-13. Generally, it begins the Thursday night after Labour Day, which is the first Monday in September in Canada. It lasts for 10 days and hundreds of films are screened. It's a launch pad for lots of Oscar-type films and that's why it has notoriety. However, they do have the Midnight Madness program, which "highlights the weird and the wonderful, including thrillers, chillers and rockumentaries from directors who prefer to work in genres not usually seen in a festival context." They're not showing the full film list until July 23, but you should be able to go here after then... Last years Midnight Madness had "Diary of the Dead", "Mother of Tears" and "Stuck", to name a few...