TOHorror Fantastic Film Fest is a festival of genre cinema and fantastic culture in Turin, organised by the independent Associazione Culturale Deinos. It dates back to 1999, when Dario Argento acted as its godfather, and has grown from an event devoted to Italian genre film into an international showcase of horror, science fiction, fantasy, thriller, black comedy, the grotesque and the weird. Each year the programme includes many first and second films, and the competitions for live-action and animated shorts select more than 40 shorts; the Freakshorts section adds weird, camp and exploitation pieces. Screenings run alongside guest talks, live music, art exhibitions, comics presentations and literary contests for short stories and screenplays.
The 26th edition runs from 20 to 25 October 2026 at Cinema Massimo and the Blah Blah club in Turin.
Awards and prizes
Anna Mondelli Award for Best Feature Film
Best Short Film
Best Animated Short Film
Antonio Margheriti Award for independence and handmade inventiveness, given by the festival team
Bloody FX Award for the best special make-up effects, given by a make-up effects artist
Audience Award for the most-voted films of the competitive sections
CSC Award for the best animated short, given by students of CSC Animazione Piemonte
Freakshorts Award for the best short of the Freakshorts section, voted by the audience
BloodStream Award for the best short film, given by the BloodStream streaming platform
Best Short Story and Best Screenplay in the literary contests
Separate juries judge features, shorts, animated shorts, short stories and screenplays. Juries and the festival team may also give special mentions.
Festival rules
Films are submitted through FilmFreeway. The selection committee places each selected film in one of these sections:
- Short Films Competition: under 30 minutes
- Animated Short Films Competition: under 30 minutes
- Feature Films Competition: over 60 minutes
- Mad Doc: documentaries, no length limit
- Freakshow and Freakshorts: extreme films (weird, grotesque, splatter, gore, trash, bizarre), no length limit
Films must relate to horror, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, weird, grotesque, black comedy, noir or experimental cinema.
Films with dialogue in a language other than Italian need Italian or English subtitles.
Screening copies are due at least two weeks before the festival. The festival pays two-way shipping of physical copies, unless the copy goes straight on to another festival.
A selected film cannot be withdrawn. Films that do not provide the requested materials in time may be dropped from the selection.
The festival pays no screening fees and does not ship trophies to winners who cannot attend the ceremony.
