If you're a cinephile who's been lucky enough to visit the wonderful genre festivals over the years, you're probably feeling the burn of watching them all get cancelled or postponed one-by-one. Nothing beats the sense of community you get when you jam a bunch of horror-loving weirdos into a screening room for a week. Well, the pandemic may have taken away our in-person fests (though the Canadian festival Fantasia is about to launch one impressive online event,) but you can't take away that community.

Boston Underground Film Festival (MA), Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (NY), North Bend Film Festival (WA), the Overlook Film Festival (LA), and Popcorn Frights Film Festival (FL) are teaming up to bring us Nightstream; an all-virtual film festival/event, just in time for the Halloween season.

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Here are some more details from the press release:

Programmers from all five festivals will collaborate on the NIGHTSTREAM feature film line up, and these films will be recognized as an official selection of each festival entity as well. The short film programs will be individually curated by each fest, along with a full slate of live events and panels taking place over the weekend. The lineup is expected to be announced in late September.

Proceeds from the event will be shared with all participating filmmakers and artists, and donations will be made on behalf of each associated festival to charitable causes and local businesses in their home cities. Earlybird Badges are now on sale, and NIGHTSTREAM will offer two options for badges: a five-film bundle and ten film package, priced at $55 and $90 respectively with each badge granting unlimited access to live events and panels.

I've had the pleasure to work with the teams behind a few of these festivals multiple times over the years, and I have no doubt that with their powers combined, they're gonna pick some strange and spooky films you're not gonna want to miss, along with live events that will help keep that sense of community thriving. For more details, be sure to check out Nightstream's letter of letter of intent signed by each collaborating festival, and visit the official website at https://nightstream.org.