Haapsalu Horror and Fantasy Film Festival will screen some of the most exciting short, European horror, science-fiction and fantasy films this June.

While HÕFF has been rescheduled for August to allow for more onsite screenings, this selection of seven competing shorts will be shown online on the PÖFF online cinema, hosted by Elisa Stage and accessible throughout Estonia, from the 4th to 13th of June.

The Jury’s winner will advance to the final round of the European Best Fantasy Film Competition, named after French film illusionist Georges Méliès. The competition is organised by the Méliès International Festivals Federation, which HÕFF has been a member of for many years.

The films will be judged by a jury of Alan Ssali Hofmanis, producer at Uganda’s Wakaliwood, critic Kaspar Viilup, producer Helen Vinogradov and screenwriter Andris Feldmanis.

Estonia’s Cerberus leads the pack. Directed by Kaspar Ainelo, the film premiered at the Brussels Fantasy Film Festival and will screen in its home country for the first time. Competition is provided by Xosé Zapata and Lorenzo Degl´Innocenti’s animated The Monkey, Laurent Ardoint and Stéphane Duprat’s horror comedy The Killer In Cursed Water, Spanish sci-fi The Following Year from Miguel Campaña, Juho Fossi’s phychological horror Expectancy, Alice Barsby’s fantasy drama Aquaticans and horror comedy Hospital Dumpster Divers from Anders Elsrud Hultgreen.

Last year, Norwegian director Even Husby Grødahl won the Silver Méliès with horror comedy Downs of the Dead.

Henryk Johan Novod and Ra Ragnar Novod, who put together the program, characterised the selection as “captivating, curious and bizarre.”

In total 252 short films were submitted to the festival for consideration.

Read more about the films here.