A Night of Horror International Film Festival has been wowing startled and stunned Australian audiences, and festival founder Dr. Dean Bertram has today announced that the fest is moving from Sydney to Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The 2024 edition will be held alongside Bertram’s MidWest WeirdFest from March 1–3. With fantastic features such as After She Died and scintillating shorts (such as the ones reviewed here), A Night of Horror International Film Festival is a ghoulish garden of cinematic delights for fright-fare aficionados. Following is the official press announcement.
One of the most beloved genre film festivals on the planet, Australia’s long-running A Night of Horror International Film Festival is changing venues . . . to the other side of the world!
And festival founder, Australian ex-patriate Dean Bertram, has returned to the helm.
A 2021 Dread Central article noted that A Night of Horror was “Australia’s top genre festival” and attributed this ranking to “Dean Bertram’s discerning curatorial eye” and his insistence in selecting “films from blind submissions, as opposed to sourcing from other festivals, distributors, or sales agents.”
Bertram now lives in Wisconsin, where he launched another film festival — MidWest WeirdFest — in 2016. According to FilmFreeway, the industry’s leading film festival submission platform: MidWest WeirdFest is ranked by filmmakers as one of the “top 100 best reviewed festivals… out of more than 12,000 film festivals and creative contests” around the world.
“I’ve long thought of MidWest WeirdFest and A Night of Horror as being part of the same global brand,” says Bertram. “Both fests are based on the same guiding principles of championing independent cinema, building programs from films that are submitted by filmmakers, and bringing filmmakers and audiences together in intimate and accessible environments, something which has spawned dozens of lasting friendships and successful professional relationships of the years.”
A Night of Horror’s new primary venue will be the iconic Micon Cinema in beautiful downtown Eau Claire, Wisconsin. In its first year in the US, A Night of Horror will run concurrently with MidWest WeirdFest. Each festival will have its own screen, and unique program, at the Micon Downtown from March 1-3, 2024. This will allow MidWest WeirdFest’s loyal audience to also dip their toes into the bloody waters of A Night of Horror.
Submissions are now open for A Night of Horror International Film Festival’s 16th edition.
For more details visit: www.anightofhorror.com
