Film Fest Updates: Spooky Movie, Fantastic Planet and Final Draft's Big Break

Am I the only guy who's week gets just a bit longer after the Superbowl? I'm really looking forward to this Sunday, in a weird way... I mean, I love NFL Football, I do. However, my ability to work on the site and watch films increases two or three-fold after the season ends. It's a bitter-sweet. It's probably better for my liver, too. It'll definitely ensure that I have enough time to check out the new "Friday the 13th" next week, really looking forward to it. Anyhow, a few updates in the festival world...

First off, the 4th annual Washington, D.C. International Horror Film Festival... or Spooky Movie, as they like to be called, now has their call for entries open. They accept almost anything, from shorts to features, every sub-genre of horror, they even accept screenplays this year... and even though they're non-competitive, they will be giving out a DarkHart Screenplay Award. The other really cool thing they do is the "Festival of Horrors" DVD. So, your film can live on past the festival and get further exposure. I'm not sure if you get any of the profits or anything, but hey... if an audience is what you're after, then an audience you'll get.

For a little international flare, how about submitting to Fantastic Planet: Sydney International Sci-Fi & Fantasy Film Festival? It's based in Australia, obviously, and it's founded by the same guys who bring you the "A Night of Horror International Film Festival". It's a five day festival that's going to take place in October and they're currently accepting entries for features, shorts, short animations and screenplays. My guess is that your film should have more sci-fi/fantasy elements than straight horror, but whatever... what horror film doesn't have SOME sci-fi elements? Speaking of, do you think Jason will still have his telekinetic powers in this new "Friday the 13th" movie? I mean, have you seen the trailer where he runs, then throws the machete? It took me back a bit... I don't think I've EVER seen him run before. He just saunters around and appears wherever he needs to, but I digress...

I'm a Final Draft user, so I feel I should mention Final Draft's Big Break Screenplay Contest, which is an annual, global screenwriting contest designed to launch the careers of aspiring writers. According to them, their objective is "to discover talented screenwriters and help them find success in today's screenwriting industry". If you head over to the site there, you can check out success stories and other stuff like that. It's all genre's, of course, but I don't see too many horror-like titles in the success story page, but you never know. On this note, I would like to officially throw it out there... I will enter a few screenplay competitions this year, just to see what the process is like and find out what you get out of it. I'll keep you posted.

Anyhow... that's all I got for the week. Have a good one, see you on Monday.