It’s the night they came home — to Blu-Ray. Nightmares Film Festival announced today that winning short films from each edition of the festival will be collected in “Bad Dreams,” a new annual limited edition Blu-Ray from horror subscription box HorrorPack.
“We believe one of the greatest values we can offer our filmmakers outside our legendary festival experience and creator community is helping them reach audiences beyond Nightmares weekend,” said co-founders Jason Tostevin and Chris Hamel in a joint statement. “We are big believers in what HorrorPack is doing to deliver fresh new horror on physical media directly to fans, and we’re honored to partner with them on Bad Dreams.”
Beginning with the fest’s upcoming sixth edition this October, award winners in nine diverse shorts categories — best overall, horror, thriller, midnight, horror comedy, Recurring Nightmare, cinematography, writing and directing — will be offered paid non-exclusive distribution and delivery directly to fans’ homes, in addition to a coveted Night Mare statuette.
“We all know Nightmares curates one of the top shorts programs in the world, and we’re thrilled to now bring the best of the best of their annual lineup to genre fans through our HorrorPack subscription or direct orders,” said HorrorPack co-founders Chris Ethridge and Diego Kirsch.
Over the last several years, Nightmares has steadily expanded its film market environment, involving studios including Neon, IFC, Gunpowder & Sky, Dark Star and the American Genre Film Archive and emerging as the leading festival for short film distribution opportunities. Its shorts program is scouted for acquisitions each year by Gunpowder & Sky’s ALTER, Bloody Disgusting TV and others. To date, more than 60 of its 2020 shorts have been acquired.
Bad Dreams: The Best of Nightmares Film Festival 2021 will ship to HorrorPack subscribers in January 2022. Submissions for Nightmares Film Festival 2021 close September 13.