Halloween Daily News is excited to announce the resurrection of the Halloween International Film Festival in October 2025, showcasing shorts and features that celebrate the strange, the unusual, and all the horror and wonder of the most hallowed of seasons, taking place on the historic and haunted Outer Banks, North Carolina, home of America’s first unsolved mystery, the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island, at a legendary theater that dates back over a century.

The festival features three days of independent horror and Halloween-themed films from around the world, as well as networking opportunities and extensive media exposure, all taking place as the kickoff event for the town of Manteo’s Halloween Island festivities, during which area restaurants, bars, and businesses transform into Halloween pop-ups for October.

Films selected for the festival are shown on the big screen at The Pioneer Theater in Manteo, NC, including Q&A sessions with attending filmmakers, nightly meet and greets, photo ops on our Orange Carpet, an outdoor Halloween vendor market, and numerous Halloween Island festivities happening each day in easy walking distance throughout Downtown Manteo. Our iconic host venue dates back to 1918, originally showing silent films in the earliest days of moviemaking, later opening its current location in 1934, and is a truly independent cinematic landmark in itself.

Known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, North Carolina’s Outer Banks is recognized as one of the most haunted places in America, with thousands of shipwrecks resting off the coast of these barrier islands. Roanoke Island, where the Pioneer Theater is located, is the site of the ill fated first English settlement in North America, and its more than 100 colonists that vanished without explanation in 1590, today referred to as The Lost Colony.

A portion of proceeds from this year’s festival will be donated to A Pathway Forward, a locally based nonprofit charity that supports veterans.

Film submissions open March 1, on FilmFreeway. The final deadline to submit a film to be considered for selection to screen at the festival is July 31.

The Halloween International Film Festival Resurrected is happening October 2-4, 2025 at The Pioneer Theater in Manteo, on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, presented by Halloween Daily News.

Additional details will be revealed soon.

RSVP on the official Facebook event page.

Stay tuned to HDN for updates on tickets, selected films, lodging discounts, and more.

SUBMIT YOUR FILM

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

Held on North Carolina’s historic and haunted Outer Banks, home of America’s first unsolved mystery, the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island and site of the Wright Brothers’ first flight, this destination event features three days of independent genre films from around the world, as well as networking opportunities and extensive media exposure.

Founded in 2016, the Halloween International Film Festival is a Gold-ranked festival on the world’s top film festival submission platform, FilmFreeway.

Previous Official Selections include The Barn (2016 Best Halloween Film and Best Feature Film Award Winner), 3 Dead Trick or Treaters, 10/31, The Haunt (2017 Best Halloween Film Award Winner), Haunters: The Art of the Scare (2018 Best Halloween Film Award Winner), Epic Home Haunts (2019 Breakthrough Filmmaker Award Winner), They Live Inside Us (2020 Best Halloween Film), and Mass Hysteria (2020 Best Feature Film).

Special invitational Showcase Selections from previous years include Honeyspider, The Houses October Built 2, Candy Corn, and the world premieres of 10/31 Part II and Sharp Candy.

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