Stranger Days Independent Film Festival

Stranger Days Independent Film Festival Annual event showcasing the very best in truly independent cinema from the Carolinas and beyond. Life is Strange. Be Even Stranger.

Jerry Faulk is an aging bartender at a roadhouse dive bar who on a particularly slow night has a chance encounter with a very unusual patron named Michael. As the lonely night rolls on, the two find that while they have more in common than they could have ever expected, nothing about this encounter is exactly as it seems.

The Earlybird Deadline for the 2026 Stranger Days Independent Film Festival is April 30th! Get those film submissions i...
03/10/2026

The Earlybird Deadline for the 2026 Stranger Days Independent Film Festival is April 30th! Get those film submissions in now before the prices go up!! And use code: STRANGERDAYS40 at checkout to take an additional 40% off your submission ONLY on FilmFreeway!

https://filmfreeway.com/StrangerDaysFilmFest

2026 SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN!!Now through February 3rd, take advantage of our Super-Earlybird Deadline for our lowest fees ...
01/12/2026

2026 SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN!!

Now through February 3rd, take advantage of our Super-Earlybird Deadline for our lowest fees of the entire season.
ONLY on FilmFreeway!

Life is Strange. Be Stranger.

12/29/2025

That's a wrap for the 2025 Stranger Days Independent Film Festival! On behalf of all of us, THANK YOU ALL for making this our biggest and best year yet! We had a fantastic turnout, a great lineup of films, lots of filmmakers in attendance, and most importantly tons of fun! Our new home Spring Lane Cinemas was wonderful, and we're thrilled to announce that we will be back there again in 2026!! December 5th, 2026, to be precise! So, mark your calendars, folks!

For now, though, it's time for some much-needed rest for our team! Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the year!

12/28/2025

We are very proud to announce the AWARD WINNERS of the 2025 Stranger Days Independent Film Festival!!!

Adam York Memorial Award for Best in Show: THE HOUSE AMONG THE TREES
Audience Choice Award: NIGHT SHIFT AT NED'S
Director's Choice Award: FIRST DRAFTS: THE OUTCASTS

Best Regional Feature: TONIGHT AND MAYBE TOMORROW
Best Regional Short: THE TALK
Best International Short: TEETH
Best Micro-Short: LET'S PLAY
Best Documentary: FIRST FINAL RIDE

Best Arthouse/Experimental Short: PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE!
Best Comedy Short: THE SPLIT
Best Drama Short: RADIO HOPE
Best Fantasy Short: THE PENDANT OF TIME
Best Holiday Short: CHRISTMAS FUDGE
Best Horror Short: THE FIVE STAGES OF...
Best Horror-Comedy Short: NIGHT SHIFT AT NED'S
Best Sci-Fi Short: OVERTIME
Best Suspense Short: COLORING GIRL

Best Actor: JD Starnes (for GENERATIONAL)
Best Actress: Elise Kimple (for THE BALLAD OF LAURA FOSTER)
Best Cinematography: Eunah Lee (for THE OPEN DOOR)
Best Costume Design: Jessica Hagens and Linda Hancock (for THE BALLAD OF LAURA FOSTER)
Best Director: Virginia Powers Hendry (for GASLIGHTER)
Best Ensemble Cast: DJ Qualls, Penelope Ann Miller, C Thomas Howell, and Ever Love Hope (for THE OPEN DOOR)
Best F/X: Katie Madonna Lee (for P**P BUCKET REMEMBERS)
Best Screenplay: Madeline Cash and Max C. Tullio (for ALL BEAUTY QUEENS HAVE BROKEN BONES)
Best WTF!?! Moment: Bastiaan Rook (for AMY & I)

Congratulations to all of our 2025 award winners as well as ALL of the fantastic films in this year's lineup! We'll be back again next year - December 5th, 2026 - right back at Spring Lane Cinemas! Until then, Stay Strange, folks!

12/27/2025

TODAY IS THE DAY, FOLKS!
The 2025 Stranger Days Independent Film Festival will take place all day at Spring Lane Cinemas from 11am-midnight for 13 hours of great films from all over the world! Hope to see you all there!!

We are proud to announce our 2025 Official Selections!66 great films across all genres from all over the world. All scre...
12/11/2025

We are proud to announce our 2025 Official Selections!
66 great films across all genres from all over the world. All screening Saturday, December 27th at Spring Lane Cinemas during the 2025 Stranger Days Independent Film Festival! Hope to see you all out there!

Life is Strange. Be Stranger.

HUGE ANNOUNCEMNT! As we head into our 8th year of the Stranger Days Independent Film Festival, we have some absolutely m...
11/16/2025

HUGE ANNOUNCEMNT!
As we head into our 8th year of the Stranger Days Independent Film Festival, we have some absolutely massive news to share!

When we first launched this festival back in 2018, we simply wanted to help showcase the incredible talent - so much of which was so often overlooked - that we saw all over the Carolinas, southeast, and beyond and create a place for creatives and fans of the strange and unusual to come together and have some fun with this thing we all love called indie film. Never once did any of us imagine it would grow into everything it's become today. But it did, and with so much growth comes the need to expand, and sometimes in order to do that, you have to relocate. With that said, we are absolutely thrilled to announce that we have officially partnered with Spring Lane Cinemas in Sanford, NC as our brand-new venue for 2025!

While we have absolutely loved our time in Charlotte and with the wonderful people at VisArt Video, the simple fact is that we have just outgrown our space, and this move allows us to showcase films at a much larger venue with more seating, bigger screens, better sound, and best of all more time to not only screen more films than we have ever been able to select before, but include Q&As with the filmmakers and more space to network in Spring Lane's filmmaker lounge and new video store... all in a more centralized part of the state!

BEST OF ALL - thanks to our generous partners and sponsors, the Stranger Days Independent Film Festival is STILL 100% FREE TO ATTEND for everyone who wants to come out and enjoy some great films! It all goes down Saturday, December 27th and we very much hope to see you all at the movies!

Life is Strange. Be Stranger.

Submissions for our 2025 edition of the Stranger Days Independent Film Festival are CLOSED. Thank you to all of the wond...
11/12/2025

Submissions for our 2025 edition of the Stranger Days Independent Film Festival are CLOSED. Thank you to all of the wonderful filmmakers who submitted! This was yet another record-breaking year for submissions received and our judges are already hard at work making their choices and working their magic!

Official Selections will be announced on Sunday, November 30th. PLUS - we also have some HUGE NEWS to announce as well... so be sure and tune in on all of our socials that day when all shall be revealed! Until then, Stay Tuned and Stay Strange, folks!

Life is Strange. Be Stranger.

ATTENTION FILMMAKERS!The Earlybird Deadline for the 2025 Stranger Days Independent Film Festival is April 30th! Use the ...
02/26/2025

ATTENTION FILMMAKERS!

The Earlybird Deadline for the 2025 Stranger Days Independent Film Festival is April 30th! Use the code: STRANGER40 on FilmFreeway to take an additional 40% off our already low submission fees!

We can't wait to see what you've been working on!

Life is Strange. Be Stranger.

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Charlotte, NC

Website

https://www.strangerdaysfilmfestival.com/

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