Official Selections: 8th LA Horror Film Festivals
Congratulations to our accepted filmmakers!
Films are listed in alphabetical order, index to the left.
Scroll Down to learn more about each film.
3Face
Animation
A young girl accidentally crashes her car into someone mysterious who spills some sort of gunk on her windshield. The situation escalates as she drives through a terrifying car wash.
Director: Lauren Lehmann
Producer: Jeremy Nathan Tisser, Kimberly Marlis
Writer: Lauren Lehmann
Cast: Mimi Dybs
Sound design & mix: Brett Wynters
Original Score: Jeremy Nathan Tisser
Character creator: Steven Tapia
Official selection for Midsummer Scream's The Screaming Room Film Festival, Official Selection for Sin City Horror Fest, and Official Selection for Hollywood Horror Fest
Scare actors and their haunts deserve bigger stories. 3Face is a short film about a real scare actor in the local Southern California area. 3Face inspires more people to explore the numerous haunts in their local area beyond the large corporate options. There are so many unique scare actors and haunted attractions, and they each have their own chilling tales to tell!
Aria
Short
In the late 1800s, two sisters live in isolation in a remote woodland cabin. Aria, the younger sister, is deaf and anxious, while her older sister Iris cares for her. When a visiting doctor offers a treatment that promises to restore Aria’s hearing, hope quickly gives way to dread. After the procedure begins, Aria’s perception fractures, pulling her into vivid visions of neon-lit Tokyo and a modern subway. Experiencing sound for the first time, she becomes overwhelmed by voices, movement, and noise. When she returns to the cabin, blood runs from her ear, leaving it unclear whether her journey was a hallucination, a break in reality, or the lasting consequence of the treatment.
Director: Clint Grant
Producer: Clint Grant
Writer: Clint Grant
Cast: (Isla Moss, Violet K., Steven John, Keith Aizawa, Leon Creed)
Cinematographer: Cormac Tully
Editor: Clint Grant
ARIA was filmed at the same studio used for Curry Barker’s Obsession. The film has also been selected for both Hollywood HorrorFest and the Los Angeles Horror Film Festival. Writer-director Clint Grant is a Southern California filmmaker and founder of DoubleTapLive, with a background spanning music, commercial production, and professional baseball content, including work within the Dodgers organization. The majority of Aria was shot in just two days, with a small crew and a strong focus on visual storytelling, atmosphere, and sound.
Website: https://www.doubletaplive.comInstagram:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doubletaplive/?hl=en
Twitter: (@doubletaplive)
Anathema
Feature
World Premiere
In the jungles of Vietnam, Navy SEAL Chief Keir Saxin (Joseph Gatt) leads a brutal operation that ends in the massacre of a Vietnamese family. Before leaving the burning village, Saxin takes something that belonged to the murdered child. It follows him back aboard the USS Arkitius Victory, infecting his mind and awakening something far more sinister. As Saxin descends into madness, Master at Arms Brock (Robert Craighead) attempts to confront him, unaware that the horror has already taken hold. What follows transforms the Arkitius Victory into one of the Navy's darkest legends. The ship disappears in the South China Sea, only to return with its crew dead or missing. A team sent aboard to investigate also vanishes, and the vessel is abandoned for more than fifty years. Decades later, a group of NROTC midshipmen is assigned disciplinary duty aboard the long decommissioned ship under Chief Erin Wilbanks (Caroline Williams). Most dismiss the Arkitius Victory's terrifying reputation as nothing more than old naval folklore. But hidden deep within the vessel is a remnant of Saxin's final mission, and their arrival awakens the evil bound to it. As darkness falls, voices echo through empty passageways, violent visions blur the line between reality and madness, and something unseen begins hunting them through the ship. Trapped aboard and cut off from the outside world, the midshipmen must uncover the connection between Saxin and the Arkitius Victory's blood stained history before they become part of its legend. Some ships carry more than secrets, and the evil aboard the Arkitius Victory has been waiting a very long time for a new crew.
Director: Marcel Walz
Second Unit Director: Michael P. Call
Producers:
Michael P. Call — Executive Producer and Produced By
Robert Craighead — Co-Executive Producer
Brendan Petrizzo — Producer
Writers: Michael P. Call, Marc Gottlieb
Cast: Caroline Williams, Diana Prince, Joseph Gatt, Robert Craighead, Ramiro Leal, Esmeree Sterling, Bix Krieger, Kasia Szarek, Erika K. Marks, Olga Loera, Monte Pittman, Brandon Papo, Aris Le Beau, Nicholas Olbina, Theo Rosenfeld, Shannon G Wong, Michael P. Call, Harsimran Ghotra, Dean Binfet, Linda Dinh, Garyth James Barnes, Bonnie Call, Abigail Call, Cris Tugado, Dilan Tugado
Cinematographer: David “Danger” Farkas
Editor: Zach Lorkiewicz
Anathema is an independent supernatural military-horror feature filmed entirely in Los Angeles primarily aboard the historic S.S. Lane Victory. The film combines military history and supernatural horror within the claustrophobic environment of a decommissioned Navy ship.
At the Catacombs Film Festival, Anathema won Best Director and Best Special Effects.
At the East Village New York Film Festival, Anathema won Best Feature Film and Best Producer for Michael P. Call and Robert Craighead. The film also received nominations for Best Feature Film, Best Director.
At the Independent Horror Movie Awards, Anathema won Best Feature, Best Sound, Best Gore, Best Kill, Best Nudity and Best Twist. The film also received nominations for Best Actress for Bix Krieger, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Special Effects, Best Music and Best Scare.
Anathema was also named an Official Selection and received a nomination from the Montreal Requiem Fear Fest.
The film features an original score composed by Christopher J. Cozzi and brings together established genre performers, including Caroline Williams, Joseph Gatt and Robert Craighead, with an ensemble of emerging talent. Anathema was produced by MyCall Films.
Website:
https://www.MyCallFilms.com
Instagram:
@Anathema_movie
@B0ss_Michael
Ashley Bones: The Bimbo Cannibal
Short
Ashley Bones is just your regular pink-loving bimbo-core girly girl, with an absolutely relentless hunger for the flesh and blood of men. She is always on the hunt for the most irritating boys she can find, because there is just something about their insecure hyper-masculinity that makes their flesh taste so good when served with some light seasoning and a side of gluten-free pasta. But for the first time literally EVER, Ashley has a hard time luring in the perfect target…
Director: Lee Dubin
Producer: Julia Rome, Sandra Soczka, Sam DelFavero
Writer: Julia Rome, Bradley Ralph
Cast: Julia Rome, Will Smart, Timanii Meeks, Austin O'Reilly, Carrie Zurliene, James Lindberg
Cinematographer: Sam DelFavero
Editor: Julia Rome, Loren Jevnikar
Ashley has received awards from the Berlin Short Film Awards and The Santa Monica International Filmmaker Awards, Finalist and Semi-Finalist titles at The Indiana Independent Film Festival, The Prague Underground Film Festival, and The London International Filmmakers Festival, nominations at The Milwaukee Horror Film Festival and The Chicago Horror Film Festival (stay tuned), as well as selections at The Los Angeles Independent Filmmakers Showcase, Hollywood Horrorfest, GASP! Horror Film Festival, Baby teeth Film Fest, and Scumdance.
Ashley Bones was a village effort built on the backs of mostly volunteered labor by creatives who believed in the project and loved the character! This short film was funded after the community success of the proof-of-concept mockumentary of the same name (linked below under Website)
Website: (as long as it does NOT link to a full version of your film): https://linktr.ee/ashleybones
Instagram: @thebimbocannibal @jujerome @dubinphoto
Favela Amarela
Short
Raised in the favelas, Damião joins the drug trade to pay for law school.
During a night shift, he spots hooded figures sneaking into a church,
uncovering an NGO run by powerful politicians that conceals darkrituals devoted to the King in Yellow.
Directors: Nícolas Lobato and Thiago Tuchu
Producer: Aruska Patrícia
Writers: Nícolas Lobato and Thiago Tuchu
Cast: Richard Abelha, Giselle Batista, Sain Ktt, Leonardo Xavier
Cinematographer: Roberto Riva
Editor: Nícolas Lobato
Favela Amarela has been selected by more than 90 film festivals across 27 countries and has received over 40 awards, including Best Director at the Florence Independent Cinema International Film Festival, Best Short and Best Cinematography at the Catacombs Film Festival in Los Angeles, and a nomination for the Gran Premio FantLatam 2027. Its trailer has surpassed 2 million views online.
Website: https://www.instagram.com/favela.amarela/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/favela.amarela/
Twitter: https://x.com/favelaamarela