About the Screaming Room
The Screaming Room is MidSummer Scream's curated horror short film festival.
Held annually at the Long Beach Convention Center, the Screaming Room programs feature, mid-length, short, and experimental horror works from filmmakers and studios around the world. The festival is the premiere venue for many of the films it screens.
This site is the festival's permanent public archive — a searchable, year-over-year record of every selection, alongside an operations platform for staff, filmmakers, studios, and BloodBat teams.
Frequently asked
- What is The Screaming Room?
- The Screaming Room is a curated horror short film festival and permanent archive presented by HorrorBuzz for MidSummer Scream. Each year we program roughly seventy-five short films across fifteen themed blocks, screened over three days at MidSummer Scream in Long Beach. Every film that screens becomes part of the archive at screamingroom.horrorbuzz.com and stays discoverable long after the festival ends.
- When and where is the 2026 festival?
- The 2026 Screaming Room runs Friday, August 7 through Sunday, August 9, 2026, at the Long Beach Convention Center, 300 East Ocean Boulevard, Long Beach, California. Programming happens inside MidSummer Scream, the West Coast's flagship horror entertainment convention, so a Screaming Room screening ticket is included with any MidSummer Scream festival pass.
- How do I attend?
- Attending The Screaming Room requires a MidSummer Scream festival pass - day passes and three-day passes are both available at midsummerscream.com. No separate ticket is needed for individual film blocks; entry is first-come, first-seated within the block's screening time. Full block times and running order are posted at screamingroom.horrorbuzz.com/schedule/2026.
- How do I submit a film?
- Submissions for each year open through FilmFreeway in the spring; specific dates and deadlines are announced at screamingroom.horrorbuzz.com and in the MidSummer Scream newsletter. We program short-form horror across the full range of the genre - from atmospheric psychological work to animation, comedy, and body horror - with a strong preference for films that treat their subject matter with intention. Filmmakers whose films are accepted receive their own profile on the site and can update their information year-round.
- What is The BloodBat film competition?
- BloodBat is our 48-hour horror film race, run in parallel with the main festival every year. Teams register in advance, receive a theme reveal on the Friday of the festival, and have until Sunday to write, shoot, edit, and deliver a finished short film. The strongest entries screen at Sunday's awards showcase and become part of the permanent Screaming Room archive alongside the main program.