Ripcord’s Halloween Film Festival Unveils 50-Short Lineup With $100,000 Top Prize
Ripcord’s Halloween Film Festival has unveiled the 50 short films selected for its inaugural edition, with the free online genre festival set to begin Oct. 19 before sending its audience-selected Top 10 to the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.
The lineup spans horror, science fiction, thriller and fantasy and was selected from more than 500 submissions. The films have been divided into seven themed programming blocks, with registered viewers in the United States and Canada able to watch the entire festival online for free and vote for their favorites through Oct. 22.
Those votes will determine the 10 finalists that advance to an in-person screening at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Oct. 29.
Ripcord is offering $200,000 in total cash prizes, including $100,000 for the first-place filmmaker. The remaining $100,000 will be divided among the other nine Top 10 finalists. Festival organizers are billing the $100,000 award as the largest first-place cash prize in short-film festival history.
“Fifty films made the cut from more than 500 submissions, and every one of them earned its spot,” Ripcord founder Charlie Cleveland said. “These filmmakers made something distinctive, and now it’s the fans’ turn. Watch, vote, and help decide which ten films take the stage at the TCL Chinese Theatre.”
The festival’s seven programs are titled “Sweet Dreams,” “Love You To Death,” “But I’m Popular,” “Die Already,” “Mindbender,” “We Did It To Ourselves” and “Monster Party.” Each contains between six and eight shorts, with the programming team grouping the selections around recurring themes while mixing runtimes and tones.
“Sweet Dreams” focuses largely on nightmares, sleep and surreal threats, with selections including Carlos A.F. Lopez’s Dream Creep, Chris McInroy’s Chäir, Celine Tien and Jerry Hsu’s Reset, Joseph Burch’s Nail-Biter, Jiwoo Kim’s Cowman, J. Zachary Thurman’s It Helps, Pol Kurucz’s Charlie Is Not a Boy and Ariel Baska’s Monstrous Me.
Relationships take a genre turn in “Love You To Death,” which features Johnny Frohman’s Richard Goes on a Date, Bud Myrick’s Star-Crossed, Michael Charron’s It’s Hard Not to Be Romantic About Time Travel, John Roche III’s Love in All the Wrong Places, Talia Shea Levin’s Make Me a Pizza, Carolina Gomez’s Oh Solo Violet and Monisha Dadlani’s It Had to Be You.
The social-media and popularity-themed “But I’m Popular” includes Neal Suresh Mulani’s Rat!, Austin Cauldwell’s Idyll, R.J. Glass’ Benny’s Second Birthday, Andrew Hebert’s Four Itchy Boys, Lily Kaplan’s Chameleon and Edoardo Ranaboldo’s Rebrand.
Ghosts, death and the undead make up much of the “Die Already” program, which includes Jon Watkins’ The Braid, Patrick Rea’s Blood Sisters, Joe Garber’s The Magician, Julian Doan’s Long’s Long Lost & Mini Mart, Katelyn Douglass’ Spanked by a Ghost, Alexi Tsitlakidis’ The Gates of Irkalla, Tim Schwagel’s Blossom Needs a Ride Home and Meredith Berg’s Tether.
“Mindbender” collects several of the festival’s more surreal entries, including Carl Fry and Maxwell Nalevansky’s Harold Eats Maude, Michael Zumaya’s Transference, Sam Fox’s Open Wide, Michael Naizu and John Wilcox’s Don’t Touch Anything, Christine Celozzi’s Frankslist, Joe Anderson and Nadine Vincent’s Missing Socks and Chris Paul Russell’s The Lord of All Future Space & Time.
The “We Did It To Ourselves” block includes Fidel Ruiz-Healy and Tyler Walker’s Dead Enders, Daniel Chimes’ Dirty Fuzz, Tiffany Kimmel’s Civil Service, Gavin Baird’s Klee, Joe Bandelli’s The Sequence, Jennifer Bonior’s We Need to Talk About Balloons and Meg Favreau’s The Last Cheap House.
Closing out the announced programming is “Monster Party,” featuring Jahmil Eady’s Haint, Nathan Mark Ginter’s Steak Dinner, Jaime Zevallos’ Vampire for Hire, Marcella Ochoa’s Hour of Blood, Sophia Parella’s Zippy’s House, Sapphire Sandalo’s Breeder and Jeff Speed’s Red Ribbons in the House of Stained Glass.
“We built each block around a theme, then worked to make sure it moves the way a great evening should: a little creepy, a little funny, and sometimes deeply strange,” festival program director Vanessa Meyer said.
Ripcord has also revealed an official collectible poster created by illustrator Jim “TAZ” Evans. The poster will be available during the Oct. 29 TCL Chinese Theatre event as well as online.
Registration for Ripcord’s Halloween Film Festival is free. Viewers who register before the online launch will also be entered for a chance to receive two tickets to the Top 10 screening in Los Angeles.
The online festival begins Oct. 19, with audience voting remaining open through Oct. 22. Viewing is restricted to audiences in the United States and Canada. The 10 films selected through the fan vote will then screen at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Oct. 29, where the festival’s cash prizes will be awarded.
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