‘Beast of War’ and ‘I See the Demon’ Lead Winners at Grimmfest 2025

Grimmfest, Manchester’s leading festival of genre and fantastic film, has wrapped its 17th edition with a showcase of international horror and a new wave of indie brilliance. The four-day event, held at the Odeon Great Northern from 9-12 October, once again confirmed its reputation as one of the UK’s premier destinations for visionary, fearless filmmaking. Twenty-two features and three shorts programmes filled this year’s schedule, with several world and UK premieres delighting sold-out crowds of devoted genre fans.

The festival also offers awards for the best films that feature there, the winners receiving a Grimm Reaper Award. This year, the coveted Best Feature award went to I See the Demon, a chilling and conceptually daring work from filmmakers Martha Duzett, Jacob Lees Johnson and Davey Morrison. Praised for its inventive structure and emotionally rich performances, the film also took home honours for Best Screenplay and received a special mention for Best Ensemble Cast, further cementing its dominance across this year’s competition.

Australian filmmaker Kiah Roache-Turner, best known for Wyrmwood and Nekrotronic, claimed the Best Director prize for Beast of War, a tense, brutal and visually charged survival horror. The film’s star, Mark Cole Smith, won Best Actor for his powerhouse performance, while Dina Silva took home Best Actress for her electrifying turn in Frankie Maniac Woman. Don’t Leave the Kids Alone walked away with the Audience Award after an exceptionally close vote, narrowly beating Lily’s Ritual and Good Boy.

Elsewhere, the festival continued to spotlight innovation within independent filmmaking. The Debut Feature Award was shared between Remington Smith’s Landlord and Tim Connery’s The Driftless, while special achievement honours went to Bari Kang for Itch!, Jordana Stott for Forgive Us All, and Dan Asma for his visually ambitious found-footage experiment Tribe. Rabbit Trap stood out for both its evocative score by Lucrecia Dalt and its striking cinematography, while Weekend at the End of the World was celebrated for its inventive visual effects.

Festival director Simeon Halligan praised the 2025 edition as one of Grimmfest’s most dynamic to date, noting the range of voices and cultures represented across the programme. With filmmakers and actors travelling from across the world to present their work, the event reaffirmed its global reach while maintaining its strong northern roots. For more information on the winners and runners-up, visit: grimmfest.com/grimmfest-2025-award-winners/

In a move reflecting the festival’s growing audience, organisers also announced Grimmfest 2025 Part Two, an online follow-up running from 5-8 December. The virtual edition will showcase at least ten new feature premieres, offering fans another chance to experience the titles that couldn’t fit into the main festival schedule. For more information on Part Two, visit: grimmfest.com/grimmfest-online/

As Grimmfest celebrates seventeen years of championing independent horror, science fiction and dark fantasy, its influence continues to grow both on screen and off, with Manchester once again proving itself a home for bold, boundary-pushing genre cinema.