2026 H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival - Film Media Form for Portland

Congratulations on your selection! This deliverables form collects the information and download links needed to showcase your film. Please complete this form as soon as possible, ideally within 24 hours.
Screening Schedule & Deadlines

  • Portland, OR (Hollywood Theatre) | Event: Oct 2–4 (31st Annual HPLFF)
    File Deadline: Sep 11
  • Online (Eventive Streaming) | Event: Dec 4–6
    File Deadline: Nov 13
Note: Deadlines are flexible. Use this form to notify us if you cannot meet a specific date or format.
Please do not use download links that expire. We sometimes need to re-download files last-minute due to technical issues.

After clicking Submit, wait for the page to refresh and show the Official Selection Laurel download link. This is how you get your laurels! You must see the Success Page to confirm we received your data.
If you have questions or get stuck, please reach out—we are here to help!
 
 
While we can get much of this information in one way or another, this helps us put it all in one place, and gives you the opportunity to give us the fully-vetted and proofed information, exactly as you'd like to see it on our Web site and program.
Upload up to 3 full size frame grabs from your film, with no overlaid text or logos (this should not be your poster, it should be action shots from your film). Exciting moments that feature foreground closeups of a character (or monster) work the best at large and small thumbnail sizes. We find that we must brighten and increase contrast for most film screen grabs, for them to look right, so you should send us striking “Instagram-worthy” images that are already bright, contrasty, and great looking at a variety of sizes.

Be sure to click to the "upload" button before submitting the form.

If the uploader is giving you trouble, try uploading just one image (you can email others to us at the submissions@hplff.com email)


Files must be less than 5 MB.
Allowed file types: jpg jpeg png.

Files must be less than 5 MB.
Allowed file types: jpg jpeg png.
Files must be less than 5 MB.
Allowed file types: jpg jpeg png.
Link to a trailer on YouTube or Vimeo, if you have one
Enter a round number of minutes (so, 5:05 and 4:25 would both be just 5).
The year your film was completed.
Country where the film was made or produced. Please designate only one country.
What is the main language that is spoken in your film?
(LIMIT 300 CHARACTERS). Keep it a short teaser, avoid spoiling your film for our audience. IMPORTANT: If you paste a longer synopsis, it will be cut off in our system. Check your character count before submitting.
Please provide a 2 line synopsis for our program. This should be no more than 65 characters.

Please confirm that your film is not currently available for free publicly (on sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Tubi, or Vudu) or via commercial home media and VOD (like Amazon Prime or Netflix). Because our screening time is limited, we love prioritizing films that our audience can't easily see at home. This helps us give the most spotlight and support to independent filmmakers who are still looking for distribution! While we do occasionally make exceptions, please note that if your film is already publicly available in these ways, your selection status may change.

Is your film playing for the first time in any of these regions on our festival dates of October 2-4, 2026?

The H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival attracts a global audience of Cosmic Horror fans from the US to Japan, Australia, Sweden and from beyond. This year's curated streaming edition runs December 4–6 (with access through December 9) on the secure Eventive platform, which features studio-grade DRM (Fairplay, Widevine, watermarking) to protect your film. Streaming grants access exclusively to ticketed attendees, including those with limited mobility, and allows all filmmakers to participate in livestreamed audience Q&As regardless of in-person attendance.

A quick note on Geo-Blocking: While we can sometimes geo-fence feature films, we unfortunately cannot restrict regions for individual short films inside a combined screening block. Because of this technical limit, if your short film strictly requires geo-blocking, we won’t be able to include it in the streaming lineup.

23.98/24fps is the international exhibition film standard.

Files for Theater Screenings
Providence screenings

Screening at Necronomicon in Providence, RI (August 13-16, 2026)
Need files by August 3rd

In Providence RI, we exhibit from a system that uses only Apple ProRes 422 (regular 422, not HQ or 4444).

These can typically be output on any kind of OS, including Macs and Windows, on most software editors. For the best projection experience in our Providence venue, we recommend 1080p or 2k files (4K or larger will require us to scale and re-encode your file on our end). If you have a different kind of file, we'll need to convert it.

Mbps
Please enter an accurate number as Mbps (1000kbps = 1 Mbps). To check your file, open in Quicktime or VLC and use Cmd-I or Ctrl-I to check bitrate. Also, in Windows, right-click the file, choose Properties, and look on the Details tab under Video. Bitrate is an important indicator of quality for exhibition on a big screen. We need a film file with a bitrate of 20Mbps or more for successful projection.

Main Portland, OR Screening (October 2-4, 2026)
Need files between September 1-15th

At the Hollywood Theatre, we exhibit from DCP. If you do not have a DCP, we will make one for exhibition from your ProRes file, and can supply it to you on request after the festival for any future screenings you might have.

A DCP that you provide must not be locked or require a KDM. (unless arranged with us beforehand for certain feature-length films)

For the best projection experience we recommend 2k or 4k DCP with 6 channel (5.1) audio. This is a big theater and stereo DCPs with only L and R audio will not sound as good without the center channel.

Mbps
Please enter an accurate number as Mbps (1000kbps = 1 Mbps). To check your file, open in Quicktime or VLC and use Cmd-I or Ctrl-I to check bitrate. Also, in Windows, right-click the file, choose Properties, and look on the Details tab under Video. Bitrate is an important indicator of quality for exhibition on a big screen. We need a film file with a bitrate of 20Mbps or more for successful projection.
Files for Streaming

HPLFF Streaming Edition Screening (December 4-6, 2026)
Need files by November 13

The Eventive platform requires H.264 mp4 or MOV at 1080p, with a bitrate of 10 - 20 Mbps, STEREO ONLY.

Bitrate is an important indicator of video quality and needs to be high enough for quality streaming, so before you choose "yes", please ensure that it is between 10-20 Mbps. To check your file, open in Quicktime or VLC and use Cmd-I or Ctrl-I to check bitrate. Also, in Windows, right-click the file, choose Properties, and look on the Details tab under Video.

Mbps
Please enter an accurate number as Mbps (1000kbps = 1 Mbps). For quality streaming, your video file should be at least 10 Mbps. Less than that will look fuzzy or blocky. To check your file, open in Quicktime or VLC and use Cmd-I or Ctrl-I to check bitrate. Also, in Windows, right-click the file, choose Properties, and look on the Details tab under Video.
Download Links

You can use any reasonable file transfer platform, but we highly recommend using Google Drive, Dropbox, or Massive.io for your upload. Google Drive is inexpensive and fast, while Massive.io maximizes speed without throttling, but costs a little more. Please note that we cannot accept Mega.io, nor Vimeo downloads, as Vimeo compresses your film too much for our big screen.

When sharing your link, please ensure your privacy settings allow anyone with the link to download (e.g., using "Link Sharing" in Google Drive or the "Get Transfer Link" option in WeTransfer). Because our team downloads files using multiple internal email accounts, restricting access to a single specific login will not work. Rest assured that this form is completely secure and viewed only by the festival directors.

If you don't have any download links ready now, choose the "I'll email them later" option below and complete the rest of the form now. Email the download links to submissions@hplff.com, by Friday, September 11th.

Links
Providence links
Paste the download link here (NO VIMEO DOWNLOADS, please read above recommendations):
Download links should remain active through our festival dates. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes technology fails and we need to download your file again at the last minute, without notice. If this is not possible, please note the link's expiration date:
Paste the download link here (might be the same as above). (NO VIMEO DOWNLOADS, please read above recommendations):
WE WILL NOT BE DOWNLOADING THIS FILE UNTIL SEPTEMBER. If you paste a link here, ensure that it does not expire before the end of September. If you must send us an expiring link, please send it by email no earlier than September 1st. In general, links should remain available through our festival dates, in case of very last minute technical problems. If necessary, please note the link's expiration date:
Paste the download link here (NO VIMEO DOWNLOADS, please read above recommendations):
If this link expires, please note the expiration date here:

We would absolutely love to have you join us in Portland, OR! If you attend in person, you'll receive a complimentary filmmaker pass for each day you're here to enjoy the festival and join a brief group Q&A right after your film block.

Please let us know your travel dates below so we can do our best to schedule your film and Q&A while you are in town. Please note that we cannot host remote Zoom or Skype Q&As for the theatrical screenings.

Each year, we curate a Blu ray collection of the best short films of the festival. (This is a limited edition release of 1000 copies only and filmmakers on the collection are paid a royalty.) We understand that sometimes short films are not able to participate in this due to music rights, SAG agreements, or other commitments. When the time comes, if we were interested in selecting your short film (this usually happens in Spring or Summer of the following year) for the collection, would you be able to participate?

Questions or comments about the festival, Q&As, or other information we need in order to download your file or exhibit your film (like file availability dates or a format that wasn't listed)? Let us know here: