2024 Award Winners
BEST FEATURE
STRANGE HARVEST OCCULT-MURDER IN THE INLAND EMPIRE
DIRECTOR: Stuart Ortiz
BEST SHORT
NEVER LET YOU GO
DIRECTOR: Alex Domenici
SCI-FI FEATURE
VAMPIRE ZOMBIES FROM SPACE
DIRECTOR: Michael Stasko
SCI-FI SHORT
CLAUD_IA
DIRECTOR: Gabriel Furman
HORROR COMEDY FEATURE
NEW FEARS EVE
DIRECTORS: PJ Starks and Eric Huskisson
HORROR COMEDY SHORT
DAMN HANDY
DIRECTOR: Peter Filardi
BEST DIRECTOR
STUART ORTIZ
MOVIE:
BEST ACTRESS
JULIETTE GREENFIELD
MOVIE: The Matriarch
BEST ACTOR
TROY TRIPICCHIO
MOVIE: The Woods
BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS
NEW FEARS EVE
BEST SOUND DESIGN
NEW FEARS EVE
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
THE DAEMON
BEST SCREENPLAY
THE MATRIARCH
AUDIENCE CHOICE
LA PETITE MORT
BEST UNPRODUCED FEATURE
BEST UNPRODUCED SHORT
“UNSAFE TO OCCUPY” by Derek Stewart
2024 Michael J. Hein Personal Achievement Award in acting recipient
December 7th Program 8
Danielle Harris began her modeling and acting career at the young age of 7 when she won a talent search competition and garnered the attention of agents from all over the world. Ultimately choosing to sign with a children’s agency in her hometown of NYC, she began doing modeling and print campaigns for JCPenney’s, Sears and Saks 5th Ave. Moving on to television, commercials (for just about every kid’s toy!), Danielle quickly landed her first series regular role on the ABC Daytime soap opera One Life to Live.
When an audition came her way for a horror feature film, the young performer couldn’t wait to get in there and show off her crying and screaming skills to the producers and director! Beating out hundreds of girls (including Melissa Joan Hart) for the lead role of Michael Myer’s niece Jamie Lloyd in Halloween 4 (and later Halloween 5), Danielle’s love of making horror movies was born! Danielle was soon crowned a “scream princess” by millions of followers.
Ms. Harris moved to Los Angeles for pilot season in 1990. On the very day she signed with a local talent agency, she was sent on an audition and booked it (replacing Jennifer Love Hewitt). That little movie turned out to be the sleeper hit Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead.
Danielle starred as the infamous foul-mouthed daughter of Bruce Willis in Tony Scott’s The Last Boy Scout. After many TV movies and guest spots on classic 1990s episodic TV shows, she was offered a role on the ABC smash Roseanne, playing Darlene’s nemesis and naughty neighbor Molly Tilden.
While making the transition from child actor to adult actor, Danielle voiced the role of Tim Curry’s dramatic daughter Debbie Thornberry in Nickelodeon’s The Wild Thornberrys and continued to guest star in an awful lot of cop, medical and family dramas on network television.
In 2007, Danielle fought her way in to the room for Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween, convincing the studio that she could come back as a different character. With the fans’ support and love, her career in horror was reignited and in full effect!
After fifty-plus feature horror films, Danielle has now been branded as a horror icon and loves being a part of this amazing community that is truly like none other. Among her other memorable credits: Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood; Zombie’s Halloween II; Stakeland; the Town That Dreaded Sundown remake; actioner Marked for Death; franchise slashers Hatchet II and Victor Crowley; Urban Legend; the Creepshow TV series; and many others.
Wanting fans to know the “real Danielle” and feeling frustrated by being asked the same four questions by fright buffs and press for over 30 years, Danielle started making her own content during the COVID lockdown. Feeling like something was lacking in the horror community space, Danielle and Halloween co-star Scout Taylor-Compton wanted to create a show that could take your mind off of being trapped in our homes and was different than the typical horror movie-critique show. With their mutual love of growing up listening to Dr. Drew and Adam Corolla’s Loveline, Scout growing up in a mortuary and Danielle’s missed chance of going to college to be a psychoanalyst, Talk Scary to Me was born! With Danielle and Scout having close personal relationships with basically everyone on screen (and behind the camera) in the horror business, TSTM promised to bring the fans a completely different and very intimate side of their favorite horror star. Not being afraid to have those uncomfortable conversations surrounding sex and opening up about their own personal struggles, each episode gives the fans a look inside the lives of their favorite scream queens and killers alike.
“I’ve always wanted to be the ‘Barbara Walters of the Horror Genre,’” Danielle says, “and my love of Howard Stern’s brilliant interviews that give the fans a real look inside the lives of their favorite artists, I knew I could make it happen with the support of my friends in the genre and horror fans alike. Scout and I are like peanut butter and jelly: Salty and sweet and fine on our own, but freaking perfect when mixed together! Our friendship has only grown stronger over the past 100 episodes, and our teaming up with Bloody Disgusting is just the beginning of many more projects to come. Buckle up, it’s going to be a ‘killer’ ride!”
Danielle Harris lives on a ranch in Austin, Texas with her husband of a decade, David, and their two boys Carter (7) and Jagger (6).
Sponsor partners of this year festival
It’s the perfect horror festival and it’s got the perfect NYC attitude (loud, abrasive and unapologetic). And that fits perfectly. They are well organized, welcoming and professional. They treat you like family and show you a good time, but above all, every film and filmmaker is treated with respect. Then when you mix it with that NYC attitude, it equals a fun time with great people that care about horror, the festival and you.
Ryan A.