A Night of Horror International Film Festival Moves from Australia to Wisconsin

A Night of Horror International Film Festival has been leaving Australian audiences stunned and spellbound, and festival founder Dr. Dean Bertram has just announced that the fest is moving from Sydney to Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The 2024 edition will be held in tandem with Bertram’s MidWest WeirdFest from March 1–3. With fantastic features such as Isaac Ezban’s Evil Eye and shocking shorts like the Italian offering Mudmonster, A Night of Horror International Film Festival is a cinematic treasure trove for fright-fare fanatics. Following is the official press announcement.

One of the most beloved genre film festivals on the planet, Australia’s long-running A Night of Horror International Film Festival is changing venues . . . to the other side of the world!

And festival founder, Australian ex-patriate Dean Bertram, has returned to the helm.

A 2021 Dread Central article noted that A Night of Horror was “Australia’s top genre festival” and attributed this ranking to “Dean Bertram’s discerning curatorial eye” and his insistence in selecting “films from blind submissions, as opposed to sourcing from other festivals, distributors, or sales agents.”

Bertram now lives in Wisconsin, where he launched another film festival — MidWest WeirdFest — in 2016.  According to FilmFreeway, the industry’s leading film festival submission platform: MidWest WeirdFest is ranked by filmmakers as one of the “top 100 best reviewed festivals… out of more than 12,000 film festivals and creative contests” around the world.

“I’ve long thought of MidWest WeirdFest and A Night of Horror as being part of the same global brand,” says Bertram. “Both fests are based on the same guiding principles of championing independent cinema, building programs from films that are submitted by filmmakers, and bringing filmmakers and audiences together in intimate and accessible environments, something which has spawned dozens of lasting friendships and successful professional relationships of the years.”

A Night of Horror’s new primary venue will be the iconic Micon Cinema in beautiful downtown Eau Claire, Wisconsin. In its first year in the US, A Night of Horror will run concurrently with MidWest WeirdFest. Each festival will have its own screen, and unique program, at the Micon Downtown from March 1-3, 2024. This will allow MidWest WeirdFest’s loyal audience to also dip their toes into the bloody waters of A Night of Horror.

Submissions are now open for A Night of Horror International Film Festival’s 16th edition.

For more details visit: www.anightofhorror.com

Joseph Perry

Joseph Perry fell in love with horror films as a preschooler when he first saw the Gill-Man swim across the TV screen in "The Creature from The Black Lagoon" and Mothra battle Godzilla in "Godzilla Vs. The Thing.” His education in fright fare continued with TV series such as "The Twilight Zone" and "Outer Limits," along with legendary northern California horror host Bob Wilkins’ "Creature Features." His love for silver age and golden age comic books, including horror titles from Gold Key, Dell, and Marvel started around age 5.

He is a contributing writer for the "Phantom of the Movies VideoScope" and “Drive-In Asylum” print magazines and the websites Horror Fuel, Diabolique Magazine, The Scariest Things, B&S About Movies, and When It Was Cool. He is a co-host of the "Uphill Both Ways" pop culture nostalgia podcast and also writes for its website. Joseph occasionally proudly co-writes articles with his son Cohen Perry, who is a film critic in his own right.

A former northern Californian and Oregonian, Joseph has been teaching, writing, and living in South Korea since 2008.