On Sunday, October 16th, the first annual Brooklyn Horror Film Festival came to an end after a jam-packed weekend of screenings and events with an award ceremony and World Premiere screening of festival closer CHILD EATER at Syndicated Theater. Attending filmmaker Jackson Stewart took home the Audience Award for his debut feature BEYOND THE GATES, which screened to a packed room on October 15th.

The first-year festival, which opened October 14th with DEAREST SISTER at the Wythe Hotel Cinema, is proud to report 18 out of 22 events were complete sell-outs with overall attendance and enthusiasm for the fest defying expectations. “The reception that we’ve received from the NYC horror community has absolutely blown me away,“ says festival director Justin Timms. Additional venues that hosted BHFF were Videology, Spectacle, Throne and The Muriel Schulman Theater At Triskelion Arts.

Cinematic highlights of BHFF’s program were two world premieres, the Icelandic/USA joint production CHILD EATER by Erlingur Thoroddsen and locally made PSYCHOTIC! by directors Maxwell Frey and Derek Gibbons, as well as the US premieres of Lorcan Finnegan’s WITHOUT NAME, Cody Calahan’s LET HER OUT, Nathan Ambrosioni’s THERAPY, Fabien Delage’s FURY OF THE DEMON and the North American premiere of Shaun Robert Smith’s BROKEN. The festival was also thrilled to host best-selling author and renown public speaker Grady Hendrix and his spoken word event SUMMERLAND LOST: A GHOST STORY.

A total of 11 countries were represented in the diverse line-up of 26 shorts and 14 features. “ Horror is in a really exciting place right now, with genre lines being blurred and indie filmmakers from all around the world taking big creative risks, and our lineup tried to capture as wide a range of that as possible,“ says head programmer Matt Barone of the films picked. “ Based on the audience’s feedback throughout the weekend, I know that we’ve succeeded.“

Brooklyn Horror Film Festival is excited to announce the winners for our first edition, chosen by our esteemed jurors and through audience votes.

Our features jury was composed of Laura Kern (Film Comment editor, Film Society of Lincoln Center programmer), Matt Donato (We Got This Covered film critic) and Sam Zimmerman (Shudder curator).

Best Feature – WITHOUT NAME– Lorcan Finnegan

Best Director – WITHOUT NAME– Lorcan Finnegan

Best Actor – Noé Hernández – WE ARE THE FLESH

Best Actress – Angela Trimbur – TRASH FIRE

Best Cinematography – Piers McGrail, WITHOUT NAME

Best Editing – Tony Cranstoun –WITHOUT NAME

Best Effects – MASTER CLEANSE – dir. Bobby Miller

Audience Choice Award – BEYOND THE GATES – Jackson Stewart

Our shorts jury was composed of Eric Walkuski (Arrow In The Head/JoBlo Critic), Erlingur Óttar Thoroddsen (Dir. Closing Night Film CHILD EATER) and Jenn Wexler (Glass Eye Pix producer).

Best Short – Pigskin – Jake Hammond

Best Director – Disco Inferno – Alice Waddington

Best Actor – Richard Glover- The Monster

Best Actress – Trieste Kelly Dunn – The Push

Best Cinematography – Zoë White – The Push

Best Editing – Aleksandra Hansen – Pigskin

Best Effects – Gwilliam – dir. Brian Lonano

Best Score – John Carpenter – The Puppet Man

Audience Choice Award – Tilly – Robert Kotecki

Special Jury Award – The Sound Of Blue Green and Red – Joshua Erkman

The festival would like to thank our main fest sponsors: Coney Island Brewery, Horror Pack, El Buho Mezcal, Syndicated, QuickFrame, Brooklyn Fireproof Stages, and Throne Watches. Additional sponsorship thanks goes to Uber, Bruce Cost Ginger Ale, Brooklyn Bean Roastery, Essentia and Skinny Pop. Additional thanks goes out to supporting sponsors Screencraft, Boroughs of the Dead, Hattan Media, The Kings Of Karaoke, and Salty Road.

Special thanks to our media partners We Got This Covered, and Bloody Disgusting as well as our friends of the festival BK Horror Club and Brooklyn Music Festival.

BHFF extends a huge thanks to all the audience, filmmakers, and volunteers that came out to support us in this exciting first edition. We look forward to returning again next year and bringing the festival back to Brooklyn, even bigger and better than before.