Hey, Filmmakers! Stranger With My Face 2016 Is Now Open For Submissions!

A home for horror and fantastic films with an emphasis on women directors and/or films with a woman-centric perspective, it's now in its fourth year and looking for features and shorts. Festival Director Briony Kidd is back at the helm, and she's added the juggernaut of fantastic film programming that is Kier-La Janisse, founder of Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, author and former programmer for Fantastic Fest.

So, if you are or identify as a woman, or a filmmaker with a story about a woman, and have a feature or short that is strange, bloody, or crazy, this is a great festival to submit your work to. Details in the press release below, and you can submit your work via their website.

Stranger With My Face International Film Festival was founded by filmmakers Briony Kidd and Rebecca Thomson. Named after the dark YA novel by Lois Duncan, Stranger With My Face focuses on female perspectives in genre film, with an emphasis on showcasing the work of women directors. Held over four days in Hobart, Tasmania's picturesque capital city, the festival hosts screenings, conferences, workshops and exhibits, as well as satellite events year-round.

"There's a great awareness right now that women are underrepresented in the film industry and audiences are hungry for female-driven stories," says Festival Director Briony Kidd. "Combine that with the innovation characteristic of the indie horror scene currently, and we're seeing an explosion of female genre talent that makes Stranger With My Face more relevant than ever."  

With its recently-revamped website and increased international reach, SWMF establishes itself as one of the key platforms for genre film in Australia, and an integral part of the larger women-in-horror movement worldwide.

A new addition to the festival team this year is longtime genre film programmer and writer Kier-La Janisse, author of the film memoir, House of Psychotic Women. Janisse is serving a residency with Stranger With My Face until July 2016. "Stranger With My Face is a brilliantly-curated festival and I wanted to be a part of the enormous potential I saw here," says Janisse. "With so many gutsy female-centric genre films in recent years, this is a very exciting place to be."

The call for submissions is now open, with both feature length and short films made after January 1, 2015 eligible for consideration. The festival takes a broad approach to horror, with dark fantasy, Gothic melodrama, horror comedy, dystopian sci-fi, animation, documentary and experimental hybrids all qualifying for the selective festival lineup.

While submissions are open to filmmakers of all genders, only films by those who identify as women are eligible for awards.