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Film Festival · Deadly Exposure · Horror Development Lab
🩸 Isabel Bader Theatre · Toronto · Nov 16–21
💀 A new season of BITS Radio has now dropped! - Recorded live at BITS 2025! 🎧 Go behind the scenes with Canadian genre filmmakers.
🩸 Submit your film! BITS 2026 Film submissions are officially open on FilmFreeway.
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🩸 15 years of fearless Canadian horror & genre cinema
The Blood in the Snow Film Festival (BITS) is a unique and imaginative showcase of Canadian horror, genre, and underground cinema that exists to challenge social boundaries, explore artistic taboos, and support and exhibit independent Canadian genre media artists. It was first created in 2012 as a non-profit organization with a mandate to highlight the best in contemporary genre filmmaking in Canada. The Blood in the Snow Film Festival is also on the eligibility list of festivals for the Canadian Screen Awards.
We are thrilled to open submissions for the 15th annual Blood in the Snow Film Festival running at the Isabel Bader Theatre, November 16–21, 2026. BITS is a Canadian Screen Award qualifying festival consistently listed as one of the Top 100 reviewed festivals in the world on FilmFreeway.
🩸 At BITS, we curate five distinct short film programs each year, in addition to our feature film lineup and opening shorts. All submitted films are reviewed by our programming team. We accept submissions exclusively through FilmFreeway.
Canadian horror, sci-fi, action & thrillers. Toronto Premiere required.
First-time directors & promising student filmmakers opening each feature.
The festival's most terrifying horror shorts.
The best in short-form science fiction.
Web & digital series, proof-of-concept shorts and music videos.
Comedy & genre shorts with a light or offbeat tone.
Indigenous, Métis & Inuit horror shorts exploring the supernatural & survival.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of our 2026 funders & partners.
Interested in sponsoring BITS? Read More + Get in touch →
"The BITS Development Lab was one of the best industry support programs I've ever attended. I am honoured to have been selected. The talent, projects, connections, atmosphere, access was invaluable. Everything was well done. Kelly and the team were welcoming and helpful. I can't recommend this festival and lab enough."
"Blood in the Snow was very supportive and professional. The communication from the festival team was excellent, and I felt supported as a filmmaker. It's obvious that Blood in the Snow cares about Canadian genre filmmakers and works hard to create a strong, filmmaker-friendly environment. I would definitely submit again and recommend the festival to other filmmakers."
"What a beauty! The passion for film and empowering filmmakers is highly apparent at this festival. Was blown away by the programming, the stunning venue, the after parties and so much more. The networking was absolutely insane here. Very enthusiastic hats off to the organizers and HIGHLY encourage genre filmmakers to make submitting to this festival a priority!"
"Awesome festival! Great location and venue. The staff and volunteers are incredible. Hands down one of the best genre festivals to check out."
"Loved my experience at BITS 2024! The team, the venues and the crowd were great! Hope to be selected again in the future."
"Incredible community, amazing program, and just wonderful people."
"Can't say enough about this fest. It's fun, inviting and inclusive. Kelly and his team have dialed this thing in and it's clear they care about the details. I'd recommend this fest to anyone and everyone."
"A top-tier film festival and development lab. It was such a pleasure to be there and I saw so many great films!"
"Such a fun festival! Festival staff, volunteers, and filmmakers are all as passionate about genre films as the audience. Amazing energy at the screenings, fantastic filmmaker panels, pitching, and education events, and a great selection of high-quality films in a high-quality venue."
"It was an honor to have my film Spiritt be a part of this festival. I got great feedback from one of the attendees who said he will go again next year!"
"I absolutely love this festival — a celebration of Canadian genre films that have a lot to say. Being part of the horror lab and the festival helped me make so many lasting connections."
