As of February 1, 2026, the Tabloid Witch has received 45 horror film entries for 2026 awards consideration: 5 features and 70 shorts.
Entries have come from Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Ghana, Indonesia, Iceland, Israel, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, South Korea, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Details on how to submit your horror film for 2026 are at: TabloidWitch.com. The entry deadline is August 31, 2026.=================
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As of January 1, 2026, the Tabloid Witch has received 45 horror film entries for 2026 awards consideration: 4 features and 41 shorts.
Entries have come from Brazil, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Indonesia, Iceland, Israel, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Details on how to submit your horror film for 2026 are at: TabloidWitch.com. The entry deadline is August 31, 2026.=================
Filmmakers lament that film festivals gouge them with high entry fees.
It's true that fees are often excessive. Many festivals seem to exist
solely to profit from filmmakers' desperation for an IMDB listing. They
scream "IMDB Eligible Award!" on their websites and in their SEO gimmickry.
But
apart from subsidizing the festival, entry fees also filter out
inappropriate or poorly made films. They thus solve the Free Rider
Problem as it pertains to film festivals. (The exception are the vanity
festivals that award every entry in exchange for inordinately high fees;
this article does not pertain to them.)
Search Assist AI defines the Free Rider Problem as "an
economic issue where individuals benefit from resources, goods, or
services without paying for them, leading to underfunding and potential
degradation of those resources." I confronted this problem firsthand when my own festival became free and easy to enter in 2014.
Ten years previously, I had founded the Tabloid Witch Awards
as a No Entry Fee horror film contest. But while there was no fee,
entrants still had to submit hard copies of films (VHS or DVD) to a P.O.
Box. Thus effort and expense were required, if only the cost of a blank
tape and postage. And so filmmakers only submitted works they thought
had a shot at winning. (Although one intrepid fellow submitted his
entire oeuvre of 23 DVDs, shorts and features of various genres, going
back a decade.)
Granted, some of these filmmakers had unrealistic
ideas of their films' merit, but as I would learn, they were not
scrapping the bottom of their barrels. That changed in 2014.
That was the year FilmFreeway
introduced their online film submission platform. Withoutabox had
invented the online submission process in 2000, but FilmFreeway
perfected it. Many filmmakers hated Withoutabox. FilmFreeway apparently
listened. (I quote filmmakers' complaints about Withoutabox in my book, Horror Film Festivals and Awards.)
The
technology had also advanced since 2000. By 2014, online streaming was a
thing. FilmFreeway enabled filmmakers to upload their films, search for
festivals, and submit their works, all online. No more mailing hard
copies.
I enrolled the Tabloid Witch Awards
with FilmFreeway from its inception, February 2014. I had never used
Withoutabox. When I joined FilmFreeway, I maintained my No Entry Fee
policy.
And the floodgates opened. A tsunami of submissions.
Multiple submissions an hour, every hour. I was buried under
submissions. I had to end it. I imposed a $10 entry fee. Not a high fee,
but enough to stem the tide.
And here is where the Free Rider
Problem arises. Had the entries been mostly decent horror films, all
well and good. The more, the merrier. But the majority of submissions
were either inappropriate or of home video quality. People were
submitting political documentaries, romances, religious/inspirational
films, everything. Somebody submitted four PDF scripts for an unproduced
TV series. (The Tabloid Witch
has no script category.) Another submitted several poorly made VHS home
movies that had already been streaming on YouTube for many years. But hey, no entry fee. Let's give it a shot!
I saw the problem. FilmFreeway
allows filmmakers to search festivals by criteria. Many filmmakers were
searching for "all festivals with no entry fee." Then they'd "click to
enter" every festival that came up. Instant submission! No cost, no fuss! But without considering the festival's requirements or whether their films had any merit. Hey, no entry fee! What have I got to lose?
It
was part laziness, part desperation. Too lazy to read the requirements
for the festivals in the search results. Desperation, because these
filmmakers thought, Yeah, I know my film isn't a fit for many of
these festivals, but you never know. Maybe someone on the other end will
love my film and make an exception, or knows someone who's looking for
my type of film.
And so after ten years (2004-14), the Tabloid Witch
ceased being a No Entry Fee event. No more free riders. Which means I
no longer receive as many films, but those I do receive are mostly
appropriate and well made. Filmmakers will submit anything for free, but
submit thoughtfully when spending their own money.
If you've
ever wondered why filmmakers can't have nice things, now you know.
Because Billy was bad, the whole class had to be punished.
As of September 3, 2025, the Tabloid Witch has received 237 horror film entries for 2025 awards consideration: 38 features and 199 shorts.
Entries have come from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Columbia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan, Paraguay, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Entries are now closed for 2025.
As of August 1, 2025, the Tabloid Witch has received 197 horror film entries for 2025 awards consideration: 29 features and 168 shorts.
Entries have come from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan, Paraguay, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Details on how to submit your horror film for 2025 are at: TabloidWitch.com. The entry deadline is August 31, 2025.=================
As of July 1, 2025, the Tabloid Witch has received 171 horror film entries for 2025 awards consideration: 26 features and 145 shorts.
Entries have come from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan, Paraguay, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Details on how to submit your horror film for 2025 are at: TabloidWitch.com. The entry deadline is August 31, 2025.=================
