The fans have spoken, and filmmakers from the Great White North led the way at this year’s Salem Horror Fest, taking the Audience Choice Awards in two out of three categories.
Winning top honors in the shorts program (films with a running time of 15 minutes or less) is Bedlamer, an atmospheric black-and-white folk horror film written and directed by Vancouver’s Alexa Jane Jerrett. Bedlamer also took the jury prize for best short.
The Audience Choice Award for Best Interlude (15 to 60 minutes) goes to New Hampshire-born filmmaker Conor Soucy‘s The Conduit, in which a grieving father faces sinister forces after hiring a shadowy company to communicate with his dead son.
Head Like A Hole, a surreal shocker about a financially strapped man who takes a most unusual but high-paying job (see our review here), directed by Hamilton, Ontario’s Stefan MacDonald-Labelle, wins Best Feature.
In other Salem Horror Fest News, Leslie Adams and Brody Bellamy join festival founder Kay Lynch as co-directors for the event’s ninth outing, coming April 30 through May 3, 2026. Longtime production team members Adams and Bellamy take over direct operations, as Lynch steps into an advisory role in preparation for the Salem Horror Fest’s 10th anniversary in 2027.
“Taking on Salem Horror Fest feels like an evolution of everything we love about horror: community, creativity and an immense respect for the genre’s ability to say something meaningful. We’re stepping in not just to maintain the legacy, but to help amplify it. Horror is at its best when it’s daring, inclusive and culturally sharp, and that’s the energy we’re bringing to this next chapter,” Adams and Bellamy told RUE MORGUE in a joint statement.
Film submissions for Salem Horror Fest 2026 are open until December 20. Submit at https://filmfreeway.com/salemhorrorfest.
