Four U.S. genre film festivals are set to host the second annual online-only festival, NIGHTSTREAM, to jointly screen films and other programming from their events amid the pandemic.
The Boston Underground Film Festival, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, North Bend Film Festival and Overlook Film Festival will stage the virtual festival from Oct. 7 to 13. As NIGHTSTREAM unveiled its film program, the genre fest has set world premieres for Jefferson Moneo’s UFO cult mystery Cosmic Dawn and Scott Friend’s feature debut To The Moon, and a U.S. virtual premiere for Hellbender, directed by John Adams, Zelda Adams and Toby Poser after a debut at the Fantasia Film Festival, and Super Ltd’s All My Friends Hate Me.
“While we never anticipated a second edition of the festival when we first joined forces, we’re very happy to unveil this eclectic slate of films, talks and events that you can enjoy safely from home anywhere in the country. We are thrilled once again to be able to use funds from the festival to support artists and community causes we believe in and are looking forward to audiences having a chance to discover new films and hear from the voices behind some of this year’s biggest releases. This insane collaboration has once again been a joy for us all to work on, and we could not be more pleased to present the lineup for NIGHTSTREAM 2021,” the genre festival’s directors said in a joint statement.
The event also plans informal conversations with David Lowery on The Green Knight, Akela Cooper on Malignant, Greg Nicotero on Creepshow, a celebration of Chucky with Don Mancini and Peaches Christ and a Fangoria anniversary event. The film slate for the 2021 edition includes a virtual debut for Scott Barber’s This Is Gwar documentary, screenings of Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist, Thomas Wilson-White’s The Greenhouse and a special sidebar of rare folk-horror films curated by Kier-La Janisse.
Access to the NIGHTSTREAM lineup will be geo-blocked to the U.S. market. All proceeds from the 2021 edition will be shared with the filmmakers and artists involved, while also going to the National Alliance To End Homelessness and climate change advocacy group the Sunrise Movement.
In 2020, the launch of NIGHTSTREAM followed the emergence of the COVID-19 crisis shutting down live events in the entertainment industry, including film festivals, which endured a sharp drop in their revenues and a move online or to hybrid events.