By Mo Moshaty

In a genre where opportunities for filmmakers of color still don’t appear nearly as often as they should, spaces like HORROR IN SECONDS feel genuinely important. The festival lowers the barriers to entry without lowering the imagination required. No expensive cameras, no dialogue, just 60 seconds, a phone, and a great idea.

This year’s theme is Monsters; something horror has always used to expose what society fears, suppresses, and refuses to look at. When new voices get to shape those monsters, the genre shifts in ways that are long overdue.

Filmmakers can submit their 60-second silent horror films through FilmFreeway here!

And honestly, if you’ve ever had a horror idea that lives in a single unsettling image, the kind that flashes through your mind and has refused to leave, this festival was practically built for you. And sometimes a minute is all horror needs.

Behind the festival is Doaa Magdy, A Nubian multidisciplinary artist whose work has always moved between mediums like film, performance, community art, and embodied practice. A polyglot with two master’s degrees in film, Magdy has built a career around creative spaces that invite participation rather than gatekeeping. Her earlier projects have ranged from exhibitions exploring Black history in British Columbia to performance-driven events designed to bring communities together through art.

HORROR IN SECONDS emerged from that same spirit of experimentation. What began as a small event blending micro horror films with live performance quickly grew into something much larger. The festival’s earliest iterations didn’t limit themselves to cinema alone. They embraced horror-lesque, Drag, Poetry, and stage performances alongside the film screenings. In other words, looking to be one of our most favorite festivals ever in its most playful and communal form.

CHECK OUT THE HORROR IN SECONDS PLAYLIST

That hybrid DNA still defines the festival today. The inaugural edition launched in Vancouver in 2023 and quickly carved out its own lane as Canada’s first BIPOC Horror Film Festival, built around an intentionally stripped-down filmmaking model: 60-second horror films shot on smartphones without dialogue.

The format is clever for more than just stylistic reasons. Silence removes the language barrier. Smartphones remove the financial ones. What remains is pure visual storytelling. Magdy’s idea was simple: if the industry keeps telling emerging film makers of color to wait their turn, build a space where they don’t have to. And the result feels less like a traditional festival and more like a growing artistic movement.

The timing of this festival also feels strangely perfect for the moment. Audiences have already proven they’re more than willing to sit with stories that unfold in fragments. What HORROR IN SECONDS does is give that instinct a stage. Instead of clips disappearing into the algorithm, these tiny films gather in one place with an audience that understands exactly what they’re watching. The format pushes filmmakers toward atmosphere, movement, lighting, and composition. The same visual language that made silent horror cinema so effective in the first place. In a way, the festival circles back to horror’s earliest grammar while opening space for voices that haven’t always been invited into the room.

As we all know, film school costs money. Festivals cost money. Equipment costs money. Access to networks often decides who gets to move from idea to screen.

A 60-second smartphone film sidesteps that entire structure, and we couldn’t be more grateful.

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