50 Horror Shorts. $200,000 in Prizes. Ripcord’s Halloween Film Festival Is Going Big

Ripcord’s Halloween Film Festival unveiled its inaugural lineup today: 50 horror, sci-fi, thriller, and fantasy shorts, curated from more than 500 submissions and organized into seven themed programming blocks.

The festival launches online at ripcord.film on October 19 and is free to attend. Registered fans can watch every film and vote for their favorites through October 22 to help select the Top 10 and help change a filmmaker’s trajectory.

The Top 10 shorts will screen for a live audience at the TCL Chinese Theatre on October 29. The festival is awarding $200,000 in cash prizes, including a $100,000 first prize, the largest first-place cash prize in short film festival history, with another $100,000 shared among the rest of the Top 10.

“Fifty films made the cut from more than 500 submissions, and every one of them earned its spot,” said Charlie Cleveland, founder of Ripcord. “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.”

Films were selected by the programming team for their quality, their distinctive genre voice, and their role in balancing the overall lineup. The 50 finalists are divided into seven programming blocks of six to eight films each. The blocks are loosely organized around themes that emerged from this year’s submissions, and each is balanced for tone and mixed in film length so every block plays like a complete night at the movies.

“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,” said Vanessa Meyer, Program Director of Ripcord’s Halloween Film Festival. ” We think audiences will find a lot here that will surprise and excite them.”

Ripcord also premieres the festival’s official collectible poster, created by Jim “TAZ” Evans, the acclaimed illustrator known for creating alternative movie posters, iconic rock music gig posters and album cover art. The poster will be available at the October 29 screening event at TCL Chinese Theatre and online at .