Ripcord, a new independent film platform that aims to directly connect genre filmmakers with fans, has announced a spooky new film festival.

The Halloween Film Festival, presented with Blackmagic Design, is set to showcase 50 short genre films, including horror, sci-fi, thriller and fantasy titles and fans can vote on their favorites. The winning entry will win $100,000 and the remaining nine films will split a $100,000 total prize, based on ranking, following a live screening at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on Oct. 29.

The festival runs from Oct. 19-29, and all screenings are free to watch at ripcord.film. Filmmakers can submit their shorts via FilmFreeway (https://filmfreeway.com/RipcordHalloweenFilmFestival).

The festival is the launch event for Ripcord, which is described per the company’s official release as “built to close one of independent cinema’s biggest gaps: exceptional films that struggle to find distribution and audiences who struggle to discover them. Rather than relying on traditional distributors, Ripcord lets filmmakers bring their work directly to fans. On Ripcord, fans can discover new creators, follow and interact with the filmmakers behind the films they love and purchase films directly to support them.”

“Too many great independent films never find an audience, not because they aren’t good enough, but because the traditional path to distribution shuts most filmmakers out entirely,” Charlie Cleveland, the founder of Ripcord, said in a statement. “Ripcord exists to remove that gatekeeper and provide filmmakers with a direct line to the fans who are hungry for their work, and give those fans a real hand in discovering what’s next. This festival is the first step in building that home.”

The festival is curated by program director Vanessa Meyer, who is the current head of The Genre Film Lab (GEMS) and was formerly programming director with the Frontières International Co-Production Market and programmer for Brooklyn Horror Film Festival and Reel Love Film Festival. John Hegeman, CCO of Wayward Entertainment and formerly the president of Orion Pictures and Blumhouse Tilt, Stacy Jorgensen, producer and former COO of SpectreVision, and Cleveland serve as festival directors.