New Horror Film Festival Offers Worldwide Distribution to Every Official Selection

Los Angeles Horror Festival Pairs Worldwide Distribution and Women In Film Partnership With an Immersive Halloween-Season Experience

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, September 17, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Reaper Film Festival, a new Los Angeles horror and genre festival created by working filmmakers, will hold its inaugural screening and awards event on Oct. 22, 2026, at The Earl in Los Angeles. Reaper is built around a defining promise: every Official Film Selection receives non-exclusive worldwide distribution on Bloodstream TV, giving selected shorts a life beyond the festival screen.

The Oct. 22 event is designed as an experience rather than a conventional night of sitting quietly through screenings. From 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., The Earl’s three rooms and patio will become a Halloween-season, haunted-house-inspired environment with horror props, costumed characters and a crowd encouraged to laugh, scream and react. The night is built around three 45-minute screening blocks and dedicated intermissions created for conversation, connection and discovery.

Costumes, drinks, a silent costume contest, audience participation, awards, prize giveaways, and a festival-wide toast are all part of the night. Reaper audiences are encouraged to respond to the films in the room, giving filmmakers something difficult to get from a traditional festival screening: immediate, visceral feedback from a live audience.

Between screening blocks, filmmakers, actors, producers, distributors, invited industry guests and emerging creators will have dedicated time to mix. Attendance is capped at 200, keeping the night intimate enough for real conversations while bringing together established professionals, studio players, independent filmmakers, first-time creators and emerging talent.

The festival was built around the belief that some of the most important moments at a film festival happen after the lights come up: the conversation that introduces a filmmaker to a producer, an actor to a director, a writer to a future collaborator, or two strangers who discover they should make movies together for years to come.

The result is intended to be equal parts film festival, industry gathering, and Halloween night out: a place to discover new work, celebrate horror, have an unforgettable night, and create unexpected professional and creative relationships that can become the beginning of whatever gets made next.

That experience is paired with a filmmaker-first mission. Reaper keeps entry fees deliberately low, publishes its judging process, and is designed to make acceptance mean something tangible. Its Grand Prize winner receives the opportunity to pitch a feature project directly to Bloodstream TV and Studio Dome for potential financing and development consideration, along with industry consultations, the Reaper trophy, and featured placement on the Bloodstream TV homepage.

“Independent filmmakers are still fighting the same catch-22. The old gatekeepers have been replaced by paywalls,” said Judah Ray, festival director and founder of A-Level Pictures. “We kept Reaper’s entry fees low because filmmakers should not have to spend a fortune just to get a foot in the door. An Official Selection gives them a live Los Angeles audience, real industry access, the opportunity to earn from a short film that may otherwise never make money, and, most importantly, the chance to take a film that might normally reach only a small audience and put it in front of viewers worldwide.”

“Short filmmakers have very few real opportunities to monetize their work. Reaper is built to change that,” said David Josh Lawrence, founder of Reaper Film Festival and Head of Acquisitions at Studio Dome. “Through BloodStream TV, filmmakers can reach a wider audience, generate revenue, and learn how distribution works without compromising what makes their voices unique.”

Reaper is also introducing The Scythe Award, presented by Women In Film, for films produced and/or directed by a woman. The honoree receives one-on-one consultations with Bloodstream TV programmer Heidi Honeycutt and producer and casting director Kimberly Skyrme, a professional pitch deck from Deck Syndicate, VIP festival access and additional prizes and benefits.

Screenwriters receive their own path to access: every script is read and scored, the top five finalists receive one-on-one consultations and first-look consideration from the festival team and partners, and the winning screenplay is announced live at the festival.

The 2026 jury will also feature a special Scream Queen Judge to be announced. She is joined by the Reaper judges: Marcus J. McGill, executive producer of Terrifier; James Cullen Bressack of I Have Proof; Jason Neese of The Umbrella Academy; Kimberly Skyrme of Cut Shoot Kill; Jesse Kove of Scream Boat; Gigi Saul Guerrero of The Purge and Bingo Hell; Jonathan Martin, founder of FilmQuest; Michael Yedwab of Monster Party; Rachel Paulson of Stuck; JP Ouellette of Affection; David M. Parks of Static Codes; Michael Pickle of The Dead Place; and Sunny Zhao of The Gift.

The festival is presented by Judah Ray of A-Level Pictures, David Josh Lawrence of Studio Dome and Bloodstream TV, and Claire McLeod Hill of Controlled Chaos and Top of the Hill Productions. With Bloodstream TV and Studio Dome providing distribution and development access, Reaper connects its live festival experience directly to meaningful opportunities beyond the screening room.

Reaper also publishes its judging process. Every eligible film and screenplay is watched or read in full and assigned to at least two independent reviewers. First-round review is conducted blind wherever practical; entries are scored against a defined rubric, and significant scoring disagreements trigger an additional review before finalist deliberation. No algorithms. No skim-and-score. The goal is simple: the work should matter more than the name attached to it.

Submissions remain open through Oct. 14 via FilmFreeway for completed horror and horror-adjacent short films under 15 minutes, The Scythe Award category, and original short horror and horror-adjacent screenplays of 10 pages or fewer. Attendance is encouraged but is not required to be judged, selected, win, or receive applicable distribution.

About Reaper Film Festival

The Reaper Film Festival is an independent Los Angeles horror and genre festival founded by filmmakers to create practical opportunities for emerging filmmakers and screenwriters. Reaper combines live exhibition, transparent judging, worldwide streaming distribution, industry access, and an immersive event experience. Its inaugural event takes place Oct. 22, 2026, from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. at The Earl in Los Angeles.

Judah Ray
Reaper Film Festival LLC
info@rprff.com

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