The final wave has rolled in on another scary good edition of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival, and in its wake of frightful South Florida fun in the sun (and on the big screen), the juried and audience award winners have been announced, including Annapurna Sriram's Fucktoys, Brandon Christensen’s Night of the Reaper, Hoku Uchiyama's Whitch, Tina Romero's Queens of the Dead, Ben Leonberg's Good Boy, and more!
Below, we have the official press release with full details on all of the winners, reactions, and highlights of this year's Popcorn Frights Film Festival, and to learn more about Popcorn Frights, be sure to visit their website:
Press Release: August 21, 2025 // — The screams have finally settled as the 11th edition of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival wrapped after eleven delirious nights of horror, mayhem, and pure genre joy. With a staggering 134 films from 20 countries—including 60 features and 74 shorts across seven program categories—Popcorn Frights once again transformed South Florida into the beating, bloody heart of genre cinema, welcoming a record-setting 13,000 attendees in-person and virtually nationwide.
The thrills came fast and furious, but only a select few films survived to claim the festival’s coveted awards. This year, the jury panel, comprised of national media figures and local filmmakers, selected Annapurna Sriram’s pastel-slashed horror comedy FUCKTOYS for the Jury Prize for Best Feature Film.
In accepting the award, Annapurna Sriram stated, “I am so honored and touched to be selected by the Jury of Popcorn Frights as the Winner of this award! This film has been such a long journey for me and Tim and is truly the embodiment of indie filmmaking and outsider art. I am grateful that we got to play to such an amazing audience at the festival and this award is the cherry on top to a magical fest. And as always “WE LOVE TRASH”
The Scariest Feature Film Prize was awarded to Brandon Christensen’s chilling tale NIGHT OF THE REAPER, a world premiere slasher marking his third Popcorn Frights win—a true three-peat of terror. Brandon shared the following statement:
“I’ve been to Popcorn Frights five different times for six screenings and this year’s event was pure magic. Two totally different films with two totally different reactions, and to win Scariest Film for Night of the Reaper is such an honor! I’ve been at Popcorn every two years since 2017, and can’t wait to come back with the next one! Thank you again everyone who came out on Opening Night and made for a night in my career that I’ll never forget.”
To further highlight emerging talent, Popcorn Frights’ New Nightmare Prize, honoring filmmakers making their feature film debuts was given to Ben Leonberg’s haunted house pupper nightmare GOOD BOY. In accepting the award, Ben shared the following statement:
“Indy and I are so delighted that you've enjoyed our film. To be honored with the New Nightmare Prize means the world—especially since Good Boy marks both of our feature debuts. Indy, of course, still doesn't really understand he's been in a movie, but he's thrilled all the same.”
The Jury Prize for Best Short Film was awarded to WHITCH by Hoku Uchiyama, selected from 74 films competing across seven shorts blocks. The Scariest Short Film Prize was claimed by Rebecca Berrih for SLOW, marking the second film she has premiered a film at the festival.
The festival’s spotlight on Florida horror marked its largest program to date, featuring a curated collection of the weirdest, wildest, and most off-the-wall films from the “sun & scuzz” capital of the world. Central to this showcase was Popcorn Frights’ HOMEGROWN: 100% PURE FRESH SQUEEZED FLORIDA HORROR, a dedicated program highlighting ten films that represent the cream of Florida’s homegrown crop. In this fierce competition, the award for Best Florida Short Film went to Colin Dean Treneff’s IT LOVES ME SO.
Because horror fans always get the final scream, the Audience Awards brought the house down. The prize for Best Feature Film went to Tina Romero’s outrageous zombie comedy QUEENS OF THE DEAD, which premiered with sequins, scares, and a horror-themed drag performance that left audiences howling. The Audience Award for Best Short Film went to Andrew Bowser’s beyond-the-grave romp FRANKENBABES FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE.
In receiving the prize, Tina Romero shared:
“A blood-soaked, heart-felt thank you to everyone at Popcorn Frights for embracing our little zombie movie that could. On behalf of the QOTD team, we are so excited and honored to receive the 2025 Audience Award. I had an absolute blast watching our film with this cool, freaky, kind and fun South Florida horror community; a community that proves there is still a place in this world for indie filmmaking. This is exactly why we make movies!”
Celebrating a remarkable run of cinematic mayhem, this year’s Popcorn Frights Film Festival proudly featured 22 world premieres, 69 scheduled in-theater and virtual screenings and events, while drawing more than 70 filmmakers from all over the world to the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood.
The 2025 Popcorn Frights Film Festival kicked off on August 7 with the double-bill world premieres of Brandon Christensen’s BODYCAM and NIGHT OF THE REAPER, and the frights kept rolling through August 17 with a wild mix of live events, parties, premieres, and industry panels.Among the many highlights were the theatrical world premiere of Lloyd Kaufman’s MR. MELVIN, complete with Toxie himself sliming up the red carpet; horror queens Barbara Crampton and Linnea Quigley celebrating the 40th anniversaries of RE-ANIMATOR and THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD in brand-new 4K restorations; and an epic fog-drenched 45th anniversary screening of John Carpenter’s THE FOG, with actual fog rolling through the theater.
Popcorn Frights also lived up to its reputation as the most gleefully unhinged genre gathering in the Southeast. Fans packed a beach screening of NIGHTMARE BEACH on Fort Lauderdale Beach where it was originally shot, a live commentary of A QUIET PLACE with screenwriters Scott Beck & Bryan Woods (moderated by horror author Josh Malerman), and special blowouts for Joe Dante’s THE HOWLING with horror icon Dee Wallace in attendance and Brian De Palma’s PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE hosted by the Swan Archivist himself. The festival wrapped in gloriously grotesque fashion with the U.S. Premiere of SHELL, a body horror shocker that had audiences squirming in their seats and loving every second.
From drag queens to scream queens, fog machines to beachside bloodbaths, Popcorn Frights 2025 proved itself a festival that doesn’t just showcase horror—it lives, breathes, and parties in it. For eleven nights, South Florida became the ultimate playground for horror fans, filmmakers, and fiends alike. Simply put: this year’s Popcorn Frights was a festival to die for—literally.
The full list of the festival’s award winners can be found below:
Jury Prize for Best Feature Film: FUCKTOYS, dir. Annapurna Sriram
Jury Prize for Best Short Film: WHITCH, dir. Hoku Uchiyama
Scariest Feature Film Prize: NIGHT OF THE REAPER, dir. Brandon Christensen
Scariest Short Film Prize: SLOW, dir. Rebecca Berrih
New Nightmare Prize for Best Debut Film: GOOD BOY, dir. Ben Leonberg
Best Florida Short Film: IT LOVES ME SO, dir. Colin Dean Treneff
Audience Award for Feature Film: QUEENS OF THE DEAD, dir. Tina Romero
Audience Award for Short Film: FRANKENBABES FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE, dir. Andrew Bowser
The 11th edition of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival was made possible with the support of its generous sponsors, including AGFA, Blue Underground, Fangoria, Flick Direct, Kino Cult, MVD, Paramount Scares, Radiance Films, Troma, and its loyal fans. Submissions for the 2026 Popcorn Frights Film Festival are now open via FilmFreeway: http://filmfreeway.com/popcornfrights
For all further details please visit http://popcornfrights.com
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facebook.com/popcornfrightsABOUT POPCORN FRIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL
Popcorn Frights Film Festival is the ultimate summer celebration of the art of horror, showcasing the finest contemporary genre cinema from around the world. As the largest genre film festival in the Southeast U.S., this elven-day event takes pride in premiering works from both emerging and established filmmakers. By offering a platform for these artists, the festival aims to provide an immersive experience that highlights the captivating power of storytelling through genre film.
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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