Romford Horror 2024 is over... And it was HorRHIFFic
It seems hard to believe but Romford Horror Festival is over for another year, so much build up and hard work by our teams comes and goes in the blink of an eye. And for our 2024 season it was our busiest event yet. From festival, filmmaker and individual session passes there were 2803 admissions to this years festival, a far cry from when we launched in 2021 and were thrilled to have an audience of 97.
Better still we only managed to fall behind twice, on the first day because my horrendous maths meant that I had crammed 55 minutes of short films into a 45 minute slot. The second time on a Sunday when outside a young girl, rode up the wrong side of the escalator and fell breaking her ankle, the horror fans collectively gathered in the bar got a little more horror than they expected.
This being said, our attendees were overwhelmed to see Cinzia and Ian as our focussed guests for our An Audience With Sessions, both told us new stories we'd never heard before and Ian wowed the crowd with his quirky song.
We were also fortunate enough to have with us Pauline Peart, Caroline Munro, Marianne Morris, Ross Sambridge and the wonderful Shend and Graham Cole OBE who represented the films The Pocket Book Of Superstitions and Pareidolia respectively.
This year we introduced two new fun sessions, a stylised photo shoot by the incredible Hannah Davis which turned out to be one of our most popular ever attractions and Horror Roulette which saw an audience settle down to watch a night of films they might not have been expecting.
We reached a new average audience size this year, despite splitting over two screens, it seems that 130 was the magic number, but some films such as Just One Last Thing and Peter Rabid/Pareidolia had audiences of between 200-300.
Our vendors did pretty well too, with hundreds of Blu-Rays, DVDS and comics flying out the door. Lauren Barnett's book Death Lines sold out and even Rick and Mike left with a smile on their faces, proving the early bird truly does catch the worm author PJ Novis sold a whole table of stock before any other vendor had even arrived in Romford.
The Winners of this years awards were:
Best short film: Caretaker
Best Feature Film: Voice Of Shadows
Best Director: Stewart Sparke - How To Kill Monsters
Cheap Thrills Award (under £1k budget): The Pencil
Student Bodies Award: Hold Of The Dead
Short Sharp Shocks Award: Chef Gustav
Best Film With A Budget Of Between £1k and £10k: Trial 22
Best Film With A Budget Of Between £10k and £100k: Lore
Best Local Film: Buckett's Brand New Bar
Best Cinematography: Manicure
Best Score: The Activated Man
Best Foreign Language Film: Visitors
Best Animation: The Blood On Me
Best Screenplay: Vestige
Best Actor: Tony Todd - The Activated Man
Best Actress: Lyndsey Craine - How To Kill Monsters
Best Visual Effects: How To Kill Monsters
Best Comedy Horror: Knock, Knock (Knock)
Best Anthology: Lore
The Jury Prize: Kin
Special commendations:
Most Promising Filmmaker: Remi Amber Danielle Tees
Most Inventive Film: Spiral To The Center
Best Fantasy Film: The Slave & The Sorcerer
Best Portrayal Of Women In Horror: Just One Last Thing
Horror Roulette:
Gold: Unami
Silver: Become
Bronze: Monsters
We are eternally grateful to those that submitted and came to represent their films and to those that came to just watch, buy or drink cocktails at the bar.
We hope we'll see you all again next year.
