Halloween International Film Festival 2026 Submissions Now Open
Halloween Daily News is excited to announce that the Halloween International Film Festival will return to the historic and haunted Outer Banks of North Carolina for its 7th incarnation in October 2026, continuing its celebration of the unkillable spirit of independent filmmaking, as well as the strange, the unusual, and all the magic and wonder of the most hallowed of seasons.
The festival features two days and nights packed with independent horror and Halloween-themed shorts and feature films from around the world. In addition to selected film screenings, the festival also showcases Q&A panels with attending filmmakers, nightly meet and greets, photo ops on the Orange Carpet, and more, all once again taking place as part of the town of Manteo’s Halloween Island festivities, during which area restaurants, bars, and hotels transform into Halloween pop-ups for October.
This year’s festival takes place in the indoor theater at Roanoke Island Festival Park, where history comes alive with in-character costumed interpreters and interactive exhibits exploring the earliest English colonists to arrive on these shores and the mystery of The Lost Colony, anchored by the Elizabeth II, a working life-size replica of a 16th Century sailing ship.
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 Manteo and Festival Park are located, is the site of the ill fated first English settlement in North America in 1587, and its more than 100 colonists that vanished without explanation, today referred to as The Lost Colony, America’s first unsolved mystery.
Film submissions are now open on FilmFreeway.
The 7th Halloween International Film Festival is happening October 23-24, 2026 at Roanoke Island Festival Park in Manteo, on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, sponsored by the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, Weird Darkness, Let’s Talk Terror, Haunted Pamlico, and Backwoods Haunt, and presented by Halloween Daily News and OBX Entertainment.
Additional details on tickets, selected films, lodging discounts, and more will be revealed soon.
Follow HIFF on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/halloweenfilmfestival
Submit a film: https://filmfreeway.com/HalloweenFilmFestival
RSVP on the official Facebook event page.
Additional sponsorship opportunities are available here!
Learn more about the festival here.
Related:Â Halloween Int. Film Festival 2025 Award Winners Announced
