Second edition · Kathmandu, Nepal
Premiere your horror film where the folklore is still alive.
KHFF is Nepal’s only genre film festival for horror, fantasy and folklore cinema — three nights of screenings in the Kathmandu Valley, in front of an audience that came specifically for the dark.
Festival dates
30 October – 01 November 2026
Extended deadline
30 September 2026
Selection announced
05 October 2026
Organiser
Nepal Film & Cultural Academy
03
Nights of screenings
05
Submission categories
08
Awards to be presented
02
Years running
The festival
A genre festival built for films that Nepal had nowhere to screen.
Kathmandu Horror Film Fest (KHFF) is Nepal’s only genre film festival for horror, fantasy and folklore. Coming to you next Halloween (30 October – 01 November) 2026.
Organised by the Nepal Film & Cultural Academy (NFCA), KHFF is a sister event to the Nepal International Film Festival (NIFF). The festival is built around horror, fantasy and folklore, with a focus on bringing this cinema to a live audience in Kathmandu.
01
A Nepal premiere, on a real screen
Every selected film screens to a live audience in the Kathmandu Valley, from a DCP, in a cinema — not a laptop projector in a back room.
Theatrical screening
02
Folklore counts as horror here
Masked deities, mountain hauntings, village myth, dystopia and the merely unsettling all have a category. If your film is difficult to place elsewhere, it is probably in the right place here.
Horror · Fantasy · Folklore
03
Your materials are returned to silence
KHFF does not store or archive participating films. Every file is deleted from the cinema server and all festival storage after the festival closes.
No archiving
Dates & deadlines
The route from submission to screening.
Six fixed dates run the 2026 edition. Submit early and your film is read first; submit late and you are competing for the last places in the programme.
01
01 April 2026
Opening date
Submissions open on FilmFreeway for all five categories.
02
31 May 2026
Early bird deadline
The first closing date, open to all five categories.
03
31 July 2026
Regular deadline
The main submission window for every category.
04
30 September 2026
Extended deadline
Final call. Films submitted after the extended deadline are rejected.
05
05 October 2026
Notification date
Finalists and selected films are announced. Full materials and the DCP screener are due by 15 October 2026.
06
30 Oct – 01 Nov 2026
Festival
Three nights of screenings in the Kathmandu Valley, closing with the awards.
Questions from filmmakers
Does my film have to be a Nepal premiere?
Yes. Films must be at least a ‘Nepal Premiere’ status to qualify, and films completed before 1 January 2023 will not qualify for festival selection.
Are subtitles required?
Submitted films under all competition segments must have English subtitles, whatever the language of the film.
What do I send for the screening copy?
Submit an MP4 or MOV preview at 1920×1080 or higher. Selected films deliver a DCP for the festival screening, mailed physically or sent over the internet — encrypted films with remote keys are accepted.
Is a screening fee paid for selected films?
No. KHFF has no policy to pay screening fees for selected films.
What happens to my film after the festival?
All films are deleted from the cinema server and all KHFF storage mediums after the festival. Supplied press materials may be used for promotion of the screening.
Primary contact
Talk to the programmers before you submit
Questions about eligibility, premiere status, subtitles or DCP delivery are answered directly by the KHFF programming desk in Kathmandu. Write once and a person replies.