Halloween festivities are in full swing at the University of Wolverhampton this week, with the ‘Phone Frights gala’ inviting students from across the West Midlands to take part in a scary movie competition.
Attendees were encouraged to dress up, sparking creativity in their costume design while also fueling competition between them.
We wanted it to be an event more so than a film screening… it lets us do some outreach with colleges and universities at the same time.
Russell Prior, Event Organizer.
Entries came from Shrewsbury college, BOA, Queen Elizabeth College in Derbyshire, Telford college, and foundation film students, encouraging “the community to get involved”.
The entries and winners are as follows:
- Best Film – Iris Lees – Haunted
- Best Direction – Joe Dainty – The Nightmare
- Best Production – Fay Bradley – To be alive or not to be alive
- Best Idea – Lucy Rees – Ablaze
- Best Film – Emily Baker – Incident
Finalists:
- Freddie Prust – Reflection
- James Young – Late Hours
- Ioana Fotu – Ok, Ok, Ok
This week marks the very first exhibition of film for Halloween at the university, with prospects for many more similar events to take place in the future. “We would like it to be country-wide, but colleges often think that it’s just for the West Midlands, due to our location. As soon as you win an award, you are an award-winning filmmaker- regardless of whether it’s the Oscars, or this,” says Russell, hoping for bigger involvement from the community in years to come.
To follow the film festival style competition, celebrations continued with a screening of a very fitting horror movie.
Shaun of the Dead is a great example of where the best ideas are often the simplest ones. I often think, Oh, I should have thought of that, that’s a great idea. You get some epic, four or five-hour films nowadays, but this isn’t that, it’s just a great story, with all those elements we encourage our students to have as filmmakers.
Russell Prior, Event Organizer
Shaun of the Dead takes place in residential London, following the story of two best friends who are blind to a zombie apocalypse slowly taking over the city, and how they fight for their friendship and survival.
The winners will take home their certificates and achievements along with the opportunity to label themselves as award-winning.
Next years Phone Fright Awards will be on Thursday, 22nd October 2026. The competition launches in May, and films can be submitted via @wlv_film.
The competition has been expanded to include three three-minute horror films, shot on a phone, a horror cinematic still taken with a phone camera, a poster for a horror film, and finally a character costume and makeup design for a horror villain. This will allow attendees to throw their hat in the ring for many more titles to be won.