The Bloody Mary Film Festival is a screening series that was first held in Toronto, Ontario on November 3-4, 2016. Named after the legendary mirror ghost from slumber parties past, the festival seeks to spotlight the works of female-identifying Canadian filmmakers in genre films, specifically horror, sci-fi, and fantasy.

On 30th November, the festival kicks off with Tricia Lee’s feature film Blood Hunters. Last year they screened Lee’s feature Silent Retreat, and are thrilled to have her return with another shocking creature feature. A shorts program will follow at 9:30, beginning with Amelia Moses’s bloody college campus horror Undress Me and ending with Naledi Jackson’s kick-ass sci-fi The Drop In to close out the night. A Q&A will follow the shorts program.

The Bloody Mary Film Festival will include work by first-time filmmakers, Kennedy Bailey’s Night Light (2016) is sure to inspire nostalgic memories.

The Bloody Mary Film Festival will also showcase the work of Women of Colour as well as LGBTQ+ films. Larica Perera’s Filipino pregnancy folktale Tik Tik (2016), Monica Garrido’s zombie romance Love You to Death (2017) and Anna Cooley’s German impressionist Sleepwalker (2016) all spotlight the diverse voices in genre filmmaking that Festival is committed to be a platform for.

Screening on December 1 is Berkshire County, a feature that makes a compelling case for why you should never agree to babysit alone, directed by Audrey Cummings. Audrey will be in attendance for a brief Q&A following the show. Closing out the festival is the second shorts program, featuring Alyx Melone’s quirky horror Talking Heads as well as Ariane Louis-Seize’s slithery short La Peau Sauvage, guaranteed to make your skin crawl.

The Bloody Mary Film Festival seeks to showcase the work of Canadian female identifying filmmakers making genre films. They thereby only accepted films which were directed by Canadian women and predominately made in Canada. For short films: Maximum runtime is supposed to be 20 minutes. For a feature film, minimum runtime required is 60 minutes. Films in a language other than English must be subtitled in English.

New this year, short films will be eligible for the Audience Choice Award sponsored by Dazmo Camera. The winning filmmaker will receive a donation of camera rentals towards their next project.

The women behind the success of the festival are:

Laura DiGirolamo (Co-Executive Director) who is a film and TV geek, an obscure pop culture junkie, and an intersectional feminist. She is a writer for publications such as Exclaim! Film and Nasty Women’s Press, a social media professional in the arts, not-for-profit, and tech industries, and performs at stand-up storytelling show in Toronto.

Krista Dzialoszynski (Co-Executive Director) has been working in the film industry for the past 9 years. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a BA in Cinema Studies and attended Humber College’s Film & Television Production program where her interest in cinematography led her to work on commercials, short films, and music videos.

Nadine Brito (Director of Web Content) grew up with copious amounts of Harry Potter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which led to her passion for genre cinema and television. She moved to Toronto to pursue a career in the film industry.

Melissa O'Neil (Director of Operations) is an Acadian from Clare, Nova Scotia, Melissa is an event coordinator with over 6-year experience in film festival production.