After returning for its twelfth event this year, Popcorn Frights Film Festival is ready to reveal the best of the best from this year’s celebration. They’ve just revealed the winners of this year’s festival awards, spanning countries, genres, and more.
The overall jury prize for Best Feature went to Drag, starring Lizzy Caplan and John Stamos in a tale about a burglary gone wrong, while the jury prize for short film went to Hannah Alline’s Scissors. The festival also awarded films for being the scariest in their 2026 lineup, including Never After Dark winning for feature film and Conor McMahon’s Gulp winning for short film in its world premiere.
“The entire Never After Dark creative team is so thrilled and honored to receive this award,” said director Dave Boyle. “We set out to make a fun, scary movie, and to get the stamp of approval from a renown festival like Popcorn Frights is very welcome news. Thanks to everyone who came out to the screening, and to the programmers for including our little movie in the lineup.”
There are also, of course, the highly coveted audience awards, which reward the most popular feature and short films of the festival. Geri Courtney-Austein’s House Rules won for best short film, while Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho’s new film Colony took home the award for features.
Popcorn Frights also recognizes new filmmakers with their New Nightmare Prize, which is awarded to directors making their feature-film debuts. This year’s award went to Caleb Phillips for Imposters, having previously won scariest short film in 2019 for his work on Other Side of the Box.
And, as a Florida-based festival, Popcorn Frights also celebrates locally made projects with their Best Florida Short Film award, honoring entries in their 100% Pure Fresh Squeezed Florida Horror category. This year, the award was bestowed on JP Bradham, for her short film Cheap Meat.
For more information on Popcorn Frights, you can check out their website.
