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Grimmfest Announces 2021 Hybrid Virtual/Live Festival and Guests of Honor

Wednesday, June 9, 2021 | Events

Entering its 13th year, Grimmfest, one of the U.K.’s most celebrated genre film events is back in person and better than ever! Like so many festivals in 2020, Grimmfest has had to weather the storm of social distancing, and has come out on top with a return to (relative) normalcy that will have British horror fans quaking with anticipation. Get all the details below!

Grimmfest is BACK. And, to quote Colin Clive’s Baron Frankenstein, “It’s alive!”

After over a year of “home invasions” in the form of virtual screenings and online events, this October Grimmfest will be returning to the cinema. The festival team is delighted to announce that from 7th to 10th October, we will be teaming up with our regular venue partner, the Odeon Great Northern for a live event.

And we are even more delighted to reveal that we will be joined by a true icon of genre cinema; our guest of honour, the incomparable Dee Wallace, recipient of this year’s Grimmfest Lifetime Achievement Award. We’ll be celebrating a remarkable five-decade career that ranges from such classics as THE STEPFORD WIVES, THE HILLS HAVE EYES, THE HOWLING, E.T., CUJO and CRITTERS, to equally boundary-pushing recent films such as Rob Zombie’s THE LORDS OF SALEM and James Suttles’ THE NEST, which recently had its World Premiere at Grimmfest.

Right now, celebrating the genre, and those who have done so much to shape it, seems more important to us than ever before alongside highlighting new, exciting cutting edge genre movies from all over the world. With that in mind, we once again host our Grimmfest annual awards; from BEST FEATURE FILM to BEST SCARE, there will be twelve awards up for grabs and every selected film will be eligible and viewed by our Jury of industry professionals. This year’s Jury includes ‘Horror Channel’ head honcho Stewart Bridle and the multi-talented director, actress and screenwriter Brea Grant (12 HOUR SHIFT).

This year has been a tough one for festivals, and even more so for cinemas and exhibitors. Film festivals are by their very nature, social and public events, a celebration of cinema as a collective experience and a chance to meet up, watch films and discuss them with like-minded people.

The Grimmfest Team has been genuinely honored by the extent to which our audience has stuck with us, embraced the online format, and worked with us to maintain a collective experience throughout the pandemic. But now it’s time to finally embrace the cinema experience once more. Four whole days of movie premieres, Q&As, talks, parties, and exclusive events. All taking place in a real cinema with the support of the Odeon.

And for those of you who have enjoyed Grimmfest online, we also plan to have an associated virtual festival reflecting the live event and enabling those who are unable to join us physically, to enjoy the show at home.

Festival director Simeon Halligan said:

“The response to our online festival during the pandemic was incredible and revealed that people will always find a way to discover and enjoy new cinematic voices, whatever the circumstances. As we venture back into cinemas, Grimmfest 2021 will also maintain its virtual presence for those who are unable to attend in person.”

Odeon events exec Bill Brock said:

“At ODEON, we pride ourselves on being the destination of choice for film lovers – whether your passion is for blockbuster action films, family favourites or cult horror classics. We know film-lovers have been missing the big screen experience over the past year, so we’re very pleased to be supporting Grimmfest again. It has never been so important to come together and celebrate cinema with likeminded film fans, and we look forward to seeing more events like this take place in the near future”.

Full festival passes are available now with day and single tickets and virtual passes on sale soon. Visit Grimmfest 2021 online for full details.

Rocco T. Thompson
Rocco is a Rondo-nominated film journalist and avid devotee of all things weird and outrageous. He penned the cover story for Rue Morgue's landmark July/Aug 2019 "Queer Fear" Special Issue, and is an associate producer on In Search of Darkness: Part III, the latest installment in CreatorVC's popular 1980s horror documentary series.