After my last post about “putting myself out there,” it is the day after the morning after I attended what was my first Film Festival:

Screams by the Sea 2025 at Pavillion Dance South West in Bournemouth

Supported and sponsored by silentD Pictures, the BFI Film Audience Network, the National Lottery, and TreeHouse Digital, Screams by the Sea is only in its second year, but offers up a plethora of entertainment and opportunities for its delegates. Festival Director Radi Nikolov set out to create an inclusive and friendly festival for lovers of horror and has succeeded massively in pulling together something truly special for lovers of the genre.

Running on just one day, the team crammed A LOT into a sunny Bournemouth Saturday; with 5 feature films, an hour of short films, industry talks and Q&As, Hot-Swap Tables, an Awards Ceremony, and Networking drinks. Starting at 9am and ending somewhere around 2am Sunday morning (thank you daylight savings time change) it was a long day, but a rewarding one.

The day kicked off with a showing of SCARLET BLUE from director Aurélia Mengin, a powerful tour de force of imagery, direction, editing and sound as Alter desperately tries to find meaning in her life. It was a hell of a way to start the day. Focussed perhaps more on the power of the art, rather than a traditional narrative structure, Scarlet Blue is an experience from start to finish.

The second film of the morning couldn’t have been more different as SUICIDE FOR BEGINNERS took a sharp turn into the macabre, but with a very dark sense of humour. Rick is a troubled soul and discovers kidnapping your secret crush isn’t the best way to win their heart, especially as things spiral out of control and you end up with a garage full of bodies. Absolutely loved this one from Craig Thieman, a wonderfully funny romp with cameos from Corey Feldman and the great Sid Haig. Suicide for Beginners is highly recommended and won best film at the awards ceremony at the end of the day.

The third and fourth films of the day were The Daemon and Time Travel is Dangerous. Sadly I missed these two, but will be catching up on them as I heard only good things about them both. Thanks to my own stupidity, I thought I had a time clash with The Daemon and my Hot Swap Table chat with Paul Sarony. I didn’t and I am an idiot. I missed the start of Time Travel is Dangerous for reasons I will go into shortly, but that was for altogether more positive reasons.

Mid afternoon saw an hour of Short films including Tasty Tongue, Umbra, The Girl in Kelp, The Girl with The Haunted Vagina and Transylvanie. Even the titles give a flavour of the variety of films on show here, all of which were of the highest quality but, at the end of the day, the audience choice award went to Transylvanie.

The last film of the day, Strange Darling, was another barnstorming treat for any lovers of non-linear, serial killer extravaganzas, which was all of us at Screams to be fair, but it was a great film and a must see.

The day rounded out with the awards ceremony where the two film awards mentioned previously were announced and where the winner of the Screams by the Sea best Screenplay competition was handed out.

And this is where things took a turn for yours truly.

In my previous post, I talked about getting my work out there and submitting to competitions a bit more; quashing the imposter syndrome we all suffer with. And I am glad I did. I was shortlisted to present my pitch at Screams on Saturday, although we had to wait until nearly 5 o’clock so my nerves were almost broken by the time I got to stand in front of the audience and 3 industry judges. The prize was a rather splendid trophy and the potential of a production deal with silentD Pictures, founded by Djonny Chen who was also in the audience. Each pitcher also got a nice shiny copy of SHIVER a tablke-top gaming rulebook from Parable Games.

I pitched my screenplay DRIVE-IN alongside three other writers with three very different approaches, stories and themes. All great ideas and likely very hard to choose between. The audience were treated to pitches from Em Koopman for Noxious Weeds, Sam Carter for Fear of Ghosts, and Luke Anthony Walker for Wealdmount House.

I launched into my pitch second, after Em, and it flew past as I desperately tried to remember everything I wanted to say. Things were made slightly easier as I was handed a corker of a joke about centaurs (you probably had to be there) set up by the guys from Horror Hangout who were covering the event for their podcast and got a good reaction from the audience! We had a few questions from the judges and then that was it. We had to wait another 4 hours before finding out who had won.

I mentioned missing the start of Time Travel is Dangerous and that is because I got swept up in some photo ops and a chat with Andy Conduit-Turner and Ben Errington from the Horror Hangout podcast which was a lot of fun, and you should definitely check out the podcast.

Anyhow, after that, there were some more photos and chats, as well as some food time before a painful wait for the pitching results after the final film of the day, Strange Darling. Best film and best short were awarded first and then it was finally time to find out if I had done enough with my pitch. And, long story short, I had. When my name was called out I was definitely shocked. My mind obviously went blank as I walked up to the front of the cinema auditorium to collect what is a very nice award and I think I managed to not make a fool of myself as I collected the trophy from Djonny.

I am still buzzing over the win two days later and very excited to see how DRIVE-IN develops with silentD pictures. It will obviously be a while before things take shape, as Djonny and silentD have a lot on their plate, not least the winner of last year’s competition, YOMP, which is filming this year. But I am simply grateful for the opportunity and glad that I took the plunge to submit my script. I did umm and ahh over it for a while but, in the end, just went for it. Next year, if you fancy having a go yourself, dont wait, get the best script you have and get it in, its a great competition and a great opportunity. You have nothing to lose.

A big thank you has to go out to Radi and the whole team of staff and volunteers who worked together to make the whole day a fantastic experience. As someone who can be nervous about meeting new people, I couldn’t have felt more at home and welcomed on one of the best Saturdays of my life.

I am looking forward to being able to book my tickets for next year, when I can hopefully attend with a much lower level of anxiety!

Hope to see you there!