Nightmares Film Festival

Nightmares Film Festival is a destination film festival for horror and genre films in Columbus, Ohio. It hosts celebrities, artists, filmmakers, screenwriters, industry reps and press from the horror genre. It is frequently cited as one of the most influential genre film festivals in the USA  and is recognized internationally.

History
Nightmares Film Festival was founded in 2016 by indie filmmaker Jason Tostevin and Chris Hamel, the president of the Gateway Film Center. Prior to that, Tostevin had frequently collaborated with Hamel and recalls:


 * [Chris Hamel]'s a film programmer and I'm a filmmaker with a lot of festival experience, and we're both just big fans. We have talked so many times about the movies we were seeing out there on the circuit, and how we wished there was one place that would gather them all together for the horror fans in Ohio. Finally, we decided to create that place, and Nightmares was formed.

The festival is held annually the weekend before Halloween at the Gateway Film Center and is a permanent fixture in the arts calendar of Columbus.

Awards
Nightmares Film Festival awards the following categories:
 * The Film from Hell – best of the festival
 * Best overall feature/short
 * Best horror feature/short
 * Best thriller feature/short
 * Best midnight feature/short
 * Best horror-comedy feature/short
 * Best director feature/short
 * Best cinematography feature/short
 * Best writing feature/short
 * Best lead performance feature/short
 * Best supporting performance feature/short
 * Best Recurring Nightmare
 * Best screenplay feature/short