🎃 The Return of Scareverse

🔗 10 Things We’re Paying Attention To

1. The Latest “Short Films Explained” - A Halloween edition of our behind-the-scenes interview series of iconic short films. Since we featured it in 2017, The Disappearance of Willie Bingham has become an internet classic, with millions of views online and new generations discovering it through viral TikToks. We revisit the film with its director, Matthew Richards, and ask him your most-frequent questions. A transcript is available on S/W if you prefer.

2. Do Most Festivals Require Premiere Status? - Indie’s favorite number-cruncher, Stephen Follows, addresses the question of premieres. Follows finds that a whopping 93% of festivals do not require one! His methodology has issues for its practical value (there are a lot of film fests out there), but anecdotally, it tracks for me. Tribeca Fest had been one of the last holdouts in the US, but they just dropped their requirements last year. We first tackled this topic in 2018, but it is probably due for a follow-up.

3. Apply for a Mental Health Short Film Grant - USC Annenberg and Dr. Stacey L. Smith, famous for its in-depth reports on diversity in entertainment, is offering funding for short films that tell mental health stories in a new program partnered with the actress Kristen Bell. If you need inspiration, check out this ‘Mental Health’ playlist we put together.

4. Bloody Disgusting Short Film Contest - More apropos for today’s newsletter, the longtime horror news website, Bloody Disgusting, is accepting pitches for a short film contest. In partnership with Cineverse (formerly Cinedigm) and Scream Box, winners will get a $35k budget to produce their short.

5. Brand Horror Shorts on the Loose - As loyal readers are aware, I’ve been tracking Brand Shorts with fresh interest this year, and there are a couple of interesting examples this season. Embedded above, Nadia Lee Cohen and Hunter Schaefer team up for a two-minute fashion film for the eyewear company Gentle Monster. This has been all over my feeds, and honestly, it’s pretty good as far as two-minute shorts go! Leaning away from fashion to the absurd, the snack brand Gushers has earned a lot of attention and goodwill for its comedy-horror short, Fruithead. I won’t spoil the premise, but I recommend it!

6. Early Awards Announcements - We’re going to dive into awards season more fully next week, but things are revving up. Australia’s AACTA awards announced their short film nominees, and The Gotham Awards, which are the kickoff event for awards season in the US, have also released their full nominee list. Congrats to alums Khalil Joseph, Geeta Gandbhir, Greg Kwedar, and Clint Bentley on their noms!

7. AI Comes for an Oscar - This might be horror news for some! Asteria, the AI animation studio co-founded by Bryn Mooser and Natasha Lyonne, which contends to only use models trained 100% on licensed data, has announced a short film that will be in the awards race. All Heart reteams Michael Govier and Will McCormack, the filmmaking duo behind the Oscar-winning short If Anything Happens I Love You for a new short that intends to pull on your heartstrings. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film combines hand-drawn illustration with AI animation.

8. Blumhouse Enhanced Cinema is Out for VR Headsets - Mentioned a few weeks ago, this new app, developed in conjunction with Nexus Studios, builds on the trend of immersive cinema seen at venues like COSM and The Sphere, but brings it home. I’ve given it a whirl and found it pretty neat. I’d never seen The Black Phone before, so if you’re bored and alone tonight, fire this up.

9. A Modern Classic Horror Short, now in 4K - David F. Sandberg is probably the coolest short film success story of the decade, and is still somehow underrated. The Shazaam director blew up online with dead-simple micro-budget shorts like Lights Out, which he eventually adapted with the help of James Wan. Now, 12 years later, Sandberg has uploaded a fresh, 4K version of the short to his Vimeo. If you haven’t checked out his videos, do so, especially if you’re a filmmaker. He is famously generous with his knowledge, with numerous tutorials and BTS videos serving as a free masterclass in horror concepts.

10. What To Watch This Weekend - Our weekly segment that highlights the work of S/W alums in features and TV does not have a horror film to recommend 🫠
    
    However, a film I’m very excited about is hitting theaters in the US this week. It’s called Little Amélie or the Character of the Rain, and this French feature-length animation is from Ikki Films, which is responsible for several great shorts like Negative Space, Horacio, and last year’s Oscar-nominated short, Yuck! As an extra bonus, theater-goers will get to see the latest short from Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon (Wolfwalkers, The Secret of Kells)!

🦇 Into the Scareverse

We’ve got three new premieres on Short of the Week this week that are perfect for the season. But if you want to cozy up for a longer binge, we’ve put together fun collections that make it easy for you on Shortverse and YouTube.

***

On Shortverse

🦇 Halloween '25: The Scareverse

We gathered some favorites from the last 12 months for maximum freshness. If you need more, you can use the filters on the Shortverse explore page to get a straight fire-hose of horror shorts fired

🎃 Halloween '25: Horror Shorts that Spawned Features

A lot of people have done variations of this list before, but we go deep with 17 examples while ignoring some of the most famous!

☠️ Halloween '25: Spotlight On Female Horror

A 2025 update to our popular collection of horror shorts from female talents

On YouTube

If you prefer a leanback experience, we’ve got three curated playlists on YouTube as well. Hit up our channel page.

And lastly, if decision paralysis has you in its grip, our 24/7 YouTube Live Feed is nothing but horror and thriller shorts today. Fire it up and kick back for some good frights!

📅 This Week on Short of the Week