Grimmfest, Manchester's International Festival of Fantastic Film, returns for its 2026 edition this October, bringing four fear-filled days of independent genre cinema to The Odeon Great Northern – we've got an exclusive reveal of this year's poster art, plus details of the first titles announce from the sure-to-be stacked full lineup.
This year's poster comes from Grimmfest's long-time creative partner, Ilan Sheady of Uncle Frank Productions, riffing off a classic image of Girl and Monster, inspired by monster movie classics like Frankenstein, The Mummy and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Feast your eyes:
The first short on the slate for this year's Grimmfest is The Bones Exist from directors Kelsey Bollig and Matthew DuVall. Described by Grimm as “a gripping Western-horror” that's “steeped in Gothic dread”, The Bones Exist is set against a fearsome frontier backdrop, the film follows a group of gold prospectors who encounter a terrifying presence deep within the woods.
Grimmfest's first announced feature this year is the UK Premiere of Ivan from director Damien Fannon, whose shorts The Keeper and Cry Baby have terrified Grimmfest audiences past. Grimmfest detail that Fannon's debut feature combines the mastery of slowly escalating claustrophobic domestic disquiet that characterised Fannon's shorts, with the unsettling “Science Gone Bad” paranoia of classic 1970s horror, evoking in particular the wilder, weirder earlier work of David Cronenberg. Consider us very intrigued.
To celebrate today's announcement, Grimmfest is releasing a limited number of Earlybird Day Passes for the 2026 festival, alongside Full Festival Passes already on sale. For tickets and further information, visit the official Grimmfest site right here, and stay tuned for more updates.
