Black Sunday Film Festival Crowns Winners at BSFF26

Black Sunday Film Festival has confirmed the official award winners for its 2026 edition, following its three-day return to Firstsite from 30 January to 1 February. Organisers described the event as their most successful to date, with a programme spanning independent horror, fantasy and cult cinema features, shorts and filmmaker Q&As.

Black Sunday Film Festival 2026 Award Winners

Best Overall Film And Best Actor – Loner

Charlie Robb and Douglas Tawn’s Loner emerged as one of the festival’s most recognised titles, taking Best Overall Film, with Robb also collecting Best Actor for his central performance as isolated vlogger Angus Mattock.

Set in a remote woodland cabin, the British feature follows a content creator attempting to document a wilderness retreat while grappling with personal tragedy. As strange sounds and unexplained events begin to encroach on his solitude, the film narrows its focus to one man’s deteriorating mental state. It is a spare production, largely carried by Robb on screen, and perhaps that restraint worked in its favour. There is something bracing about its simplicity, even if it occasionally feels deliberately withholding.

Speaking before the event, Robb said “Audiences are very smart, and we hope we’ve given them something made with the level of thought they deserve to watch.”

Best Film And Best Director – Deathstalker

Also securing two awards was Deathstalker, named Best Film, with Steven Kostanski winning Best Director. A contemporary reworking of the 1983 cult sword-and-sorcery title, the 2025 feature follows a cursed warrior hunted across the embattled Kingdom of Abraxeon after retrieving a dark amulet.

Kostanski, whose previous credits include genre titles such as Psycho Goreman and The Void, brings a pronounced emphasis on practical creature effects and prosthetics. The film’s tonal shifts between brooding fantasy and heightened absurdity have prompted discussion elsewhere, and it is not entirely tidy in its ambitions, but its craftsmanship is evident throughout.

Best Actress – Son Of Sara

Chloe Van Landschoot was awarded Best Actress for her role in Son of Sara, directed by Houston Bone. The film centres on a pregnant woman whose dinner invitation spirals into escalating violence and paranoia. Van Landschoot’s performance anchors much of the mounting tension, grounding the film’s more extreme turns.

In the words of our own Luna Guthrie in her review, “Son of Sara brings the premise firmly into the 21st century with a deliciously campy tone that straddles the line between satanic horror and black comedy.”

Best Short Film – Drive At Dawn

Joe D’Ovidio’s silent neo-western Drive at Dawn claimed Best Short Film. Starring Eric Lampaert, the short follows three men driving into the desert at night to confront an unspoken presence. Premiering at Fantaspoa before playing a strong international run, the film relies on atmosphere and visual restraint rather than dialogue, an approach that feels almost defiantly patient.

Speaking before the event, D’Ovidio said “Black Sunday’s curation is second to none, and as a filmmaker from Somerset it’s amazing to have our US-shot film play at home!”

Best Local Film – Undertone

The Best Local Film award, defined by the festival as ‘a film where the production and/or filmmakers are from Essex’, went to Undertone, a short horror film written, directed by and starring Shaun Munro. The 2025 short centres on a sound recordist who begins to capture strange and unsettling sonic phenomena beneath a house, with events escalating into disquietingly uncanny territory.

Munro’s approach to Undertone emphasises the tactile qualities of sound as a carrier of unease, with the filmmaker citing influences such as The Conversation and Berberian Sound Studio in shaping its aesthetic focus. Much of the tension in the short builds from close, claustrophobic visuals and immersive audio work, reflecting Munro’s DIY ethos and his aim to make the auditory experience central to the horror.

With awards now confirmed, the focus shifts back to the filmmakers themselves, many of whom continue their festival runs beyond Colchester. For a regional genre event that began in 2018, seeing such a breadth of work recognised on its stage feels significant, even if the real measure will be where these films travel next.

And with BSFF26 concluded, attention now turns to the festival’s seasonal offshoot events later in the year. Keep an eye on their official site for more news on those: blacksundayff.com/