Halloween International Film Festival 2026 Submissions Deadline is August 13

July 20, 2026 Matt Artz 0 Comments Halloween International Film Festival

The Halloween International Film Festival will return to the historic and haunted Outer Banks of North Carolina for its 7^th incarnation in October 2026, and the final deadline for independent film submissions is set for August 13, with the announcement of this year’s selected films to follow soon after.

Filmmakers are invited to submit their independent horror and Halloween-themed shorts and feature films for consideration for the 7th Halloween International Film Festival through FilmFreeway. (Click here to submit a film.)

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 16^th 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 open until August 13 on FilmFreeway.