NEWS

Heidy Morales Joins Blood in the Snow Programming Team

We are thrilled to announce that Heidy Morales will be joining the festival programming team for BITS 2022!

Heidy Morales is the founder of Hye's Musings, an alternative media website covering film, theatre, along with other arts and culture events. Heidy is a Rotten Tomatoes approved critic. Born in Guatemala, Heidy now resides in Toronto (Treaty 13), Ontario where she has been writing and discussing the film scene locally and abroad for over 12 years.

BITS 2022 Horror Development Lab

We are now be taking applications for this year's Horror Development Lab!

For more information go to DeadlyExposure.ca

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BITS Horror Development Lab Announced:
Nov 18-23, 2021

Blood in the Snow Film Festival announces new groundbreaking Canada-wide Horror Development Lab (April 26, 2021 - TORONTO) Blood in the Snow Film Festival (BITS) is proud to announce a new Horror Development Lab starting in November 2021. The program’s goal is to facilitate the production of projects by previously underrepresented filmmakers in Canada. Approximately 12-15 filmmakers and their projects will be selected Canada-wide to be coached by industry leaders from November 18 to 23, 2021 in Toronto*.
The Horror Development Lab will occur in Toronto during the BITS 2021 over six days in conjunction with their Deadly Exposure Industry Conference.
All applicants must be a Canadian citizen and identify as a woman, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Metis or Inuit, Person of Colour) and/or LGBTQ2IA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Two-Spirit, Intersex, Asexual, and other identities that fall outside of cisgender and heterosexual paradigms) and/ or disabled. Projects must have BIPOC representation in front and behind the camera in their project proposals.
The Development Lab’s core team comprises of Development Coordinator/Programmer Carolyn Mauricette and Festival Director/Founder Kelly Michael Stewart, Lab Advisors Mariam Bast and Alison Lang, plus a diverse team of jury members.
Part of BITS’s mandate is to push boundaries and evolution in Canadian film, so the Development Lab was created to ensure this also applies to inclusivity. Since the festival was seeing an underrepresentation of submissions with BIPOC/LGBTQ2IA+ themes, cast and crew, it acted to implement an inroad for those groups within the genre film industry.
“With recent statistics showing how undervalued projects from Black and underrepresented groups still are, it’s our goal to create a space to put filmmakers who may not have a chance to create their vision in front of the people who can make things happen.” says Mauricette. “We plan to change the perspective of the industry bit by bit.” Stewart adds, “The Development Lab will help facilitate access to industry leaders, giving way to opportunities for underrepresented groups to produce horror and sci-fi content with their own unique perspectives and voices. With this input, they will hopefully have the chance to reach Canadian audiences with a finished feature film project.”
It is free to apply, and applications are open from April 15 to August 15, 2021. Details are available at www.deadlyexposure.ca or visit www.bloodinthesnow.ca.
The 2021 Blood in the Snow Film Festival will take place on Super Channel Oct 29 to 31 and in person from November 18 to 23, 2021 at the Royal Cinema in Toronto.
BITS 2021 is presented in partnership with Super Channel and with the support of Ontario Creates, Telefilm Canada, Independent Production Fund, IndieCan Entertainment, Raven Banner Entertainment, Marquee Insurance, Michael Jari Davidson Cinematography, Landed Entertainment, EDA and William F. White International Inc.

Announcing New Venue for BITS 2022

We are thrilled to announce that the Blood in the Snow Film Festival will be at its NEW location at the Isabel Bader Theatre for 12 screenings November 21 to 26, 2022.

The theatre is just steps away from the Museum station (across from the ROM) and is fully wheelchair accessible. The theatre seats 500 combined on the floor and balcony and is outfitted with a Christie IMB 2200 Digital Cinema projector.

Get your Festival Pass HERE

Film Submissions for BITS 2022 Are Now Open! (as of March 1st 2022)

The Blood in the Snow Film Festival accepts Canadian features, short films and web-series and will take place in Toronto from November 21 to 26-2022.

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BITS 2022 Recruitment

Do you have what it takes to join the Blood in the Snow crew? We are always looking for a variety of different skills. We value hard work, dedication, reliability and passion over experience. We want to hear from you! Please fill out the following form to tell us a little more about yourself.

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BITS Radio

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ABOUT

The Blood in the Snow Film Festival is a unique and imaginative showcase of contemporary Canadian horror, genre and underground cinema that exists to challenge social boundaries, explore artistic taboos and support and exhibit independent Canadian genre media artists. BITS takes place in Toronto, Ontario and brings together audiences, media coverage, community partnerships and the filmmaking industry to exhibit and celebrate Canadian genre film. BITS began in 2012 and was registered as a not-for-profit in 2015.

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TESTIMONIALS

BITS takes great pride in being a celebrated launching pad for Canada's top new genre films.
Here is what our past alumni have said about us:

"Blood in the Snow Film Festival has been an incredible supporter of my work, from shorts to being the Canadian premiere festival for my feature film "Evangeline." The atmosphere is fantastic, there was so much support and attention on the films, but most importantly, the festival has built a real sense of community in the Canadian horror scene. It's clear: the festival organizers love horror films and the filmmakers who make them. BITS connected me with the horror filmmaking community across Canada, and proudly shone a spotlight on our work. One of my favourite indie horror fests, hand's down!"

Karen Lam

(Director of "Evangeline")

"Fantastic festival. Lot of great programs aimed strictly at the filmmakers - events and networking are great. Will happily spill some more blood on film to get on their program again."

Ryan Couldrey

(Director of "A Fistful of Molars")

"An excellent festival with a great mix of screenings and industry-building events. The industry panels were valuable and set up properly to allow enough time to get good information and then meet the panellists. Finally, the networking events were set up in a way to encourage meeting new people, and the festival staff went out of their way to facilitate those meetings. I look forward to coming back!"

Randy Brososky

(Actor "Necessary Evil")

"I've been to festivals all around the world of varying size and pedigree and what makes BITS special, outside of the fact that it rolls out in my home town, is the way they treat filmmakers, encouraging new talent, creating a fun, elegant environment where artists can collude and share their work. They have their act together and they not only care, they seem genuinely enthusiastic. It's infectious. This is an A grade show, spotlighting and celebrating films that are far removed from the A list. And best of all, every year it grows and improves."

Chris Alexander

(Director of "Blood for Irina" and "Queen of Blood")

"What a great all around festival filled with great films, great panels, great networking and amazing sharing of love of film!"

Avi Federgreen

(Distributor/President at Indiecan Entertainment Inc.)

"I had a fantastic time at the Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival, made some lasting connections and hope to come back. High quality with low hassle and lasting connections."

Eva Colmers

(Director of "The Suburbanight")