The Yeh! Nah! Horror Film Festival is an Australian based festival of International and Local Horror, Thriller and Genre films, made by exclusively, up and coming, emerging and independent filmmakers.
We are dedicated to showcasing the best of independent horror filmmakers from Canberra, around Australia and across the world, providing a platform for both established and emerging filmmakers to showcase their work. Our festival celebrates the art of storytelling through the lens of terror and suspense.
Origin Stories
Want to learn more about the Yeh! Nah! Horror Film Festival?
Find answers to commonly asked questions about tickets, submissions, and event details below.
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Where did the festival name Yeh! Nah! originate from?Apart from being a very Aussie way of saying "Oh Hell No!" in the face of a classic horror monster, the festival was directly named by Film Student, Jaime Burgess. While some other names had been explored such as "Oh Naur!" and "F-That!," Jaime threw out the phrase "Yeh! Nah!" as a suggestion for the namesake of the festival, and being so perfect, it stuck with us and the Yeh! Nah! Horror Film Festival was born!
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How long has the festival been running for?2024 is officially the first year of the festival. The festival had been planned to take place first in 2023, albeit in a smaller introductory form, focusing on the 10th Anniversary Screening of Theatre of the Dead. However due to personal health reasons in mid-2023, Festival Director Dan Sanguineti decided to delay the launch until 2024. The 10th Anniversary Screening of Theatre of the Dead instead formed part of the 2024 program.
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How do I submit my film?You can submit your film to our Filmfreeway Festival page: https://filmfreeway.com/YehNahHorrorFilmFestival
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When do film entry submissions open for 2025?Entry submissions for 2025 will open on November 1st, 2024.
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When is the 2025 deadline for film entries?The final deadline for 2025 will be August 31st, 2025. Some submission catergories will have earlier deadline dates.
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When does the festival happen?Over a week, in the lead up to and including Halloween. In 2024 the dates are Friday 25th October to Thusday 31st October.
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Is there a festival pass for all festival events?Yes. You can purchase a festival pass from our program page.
Mikey J. Watson
Festival Programmer
Mikey has always been fascinated by film and television. When growing up, he would get his dad to tape movies on the Beta machine and be mesmerised by the things he was seeing; lightsaber duels, dinosaurs, massive explosions and nightmare like creatures. He devoured pretty much anything he could get a hold of, and not much has changed since.
Mikey didn’t really care for horror... until his best mate in high school in 1996, told him to watch a new film called, Scream. He went down to the VHS store, hired it, and relaxed to put it on after his parents went out for the night. It scared the shit out of him. However, there was something so intriguing about it. He watched it three more times, back to back. And once again in the morning before school.
The horror obsession had taken hold.
Even, after soaking up countless of horror films over the years since then, that first Scream viewing still feels the most special!
Mikey is the owner of What’s On Media Australia, a small production company based in Googong, NSW. For the past decade he has been a steady contributor to the ACT filmmaking and production community in his hometown of Canberra; working as a independent producer, camera operator, editor on various projects including feature films, short films and music videos, commercials and corporate videos.
Mikey now uses his experience to help train new generations of filmmakers at AIE Film School, in Canberra.
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Dan Sanguineti
Festival Director
Dan's interest in horror films began in the PG-13 category with films like Jaws, Monster Squad, Beetlejuice, The Little Shop of Horrors, Little Monsters, The Addams Family, Anaconda, Hocus Pocus and The Witches to name just a few.
However, for Dan, what has always stayed most memorably scary as a child were the terrifying sequences in The Temple of Doom of a heart being ripped from a chest, the magnificent library opening of Ghostbusters, and then there was Arachnophobia.
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Arachnophobia is the most frightening film he has ever watched. He has only ever watched it once, and refuses to watch it ever again. It's been more than 30 years since that fateful day his 9 year old self secretly taped the film from its TV broadcast onto a blank VHS and chose to watch it alone in his bedroom the next day. Spiders and him are not friends. That moment with Shelob in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers really tested him. Spiderman is ok though.
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Dan has always loved Halloween. Though not for dressing up - Dan really hates dressing up! That said, he saw Halloween as one of the only socially acceptable times and opportunities, before he became a filmmaker, to be able to scare people and not get in trouble for it.
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For a number of high school fetes, Dan produced and facilitated a haunted house tour experience that saw younger students and their even young siblings enter a seemingly tame, one-way, maze only to be met with the Drama class dressed as Ghosts, Ghouls and Demons, who were given the instruction to chase out anyone who dared enter. Dan has always been the entrepreneur and looking to fulfil the promise that comes with a haunted house, he ensured that the 50c donation for a ticket was only able to be purchased by joining a long queue, right next to where screaming children were exiting. It was a very successful fundraiser.
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Dan discovered more mature horror classics when he went to Summer Film School after he finished Yr12 and before becoming a Uni student. He finally experienced Alien and Aliens for the first time, and it wasn't long before he had seen Scream, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th as well as discovering his favourite horror film of all time, John Carpenter's The Thing. Dan wanted to list here every single horror film he recommends, so instead he created a Letterboxd list!
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Dan may have a diverse filmography as a filmmaker, but his most notable contributions have been in the horror genre. His first feature film was a psychological horror film called A Touch of Courage, shot on MiniDV tape, over a period of a year with his filmmaking collaborator Christopher 'Jimmy" Maher. In 2007, it premiered at Dendy Cinemas Canberra (the cinema home of the Yeh! Nah! Horror Film Festival).
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Dan produced two Zombie feature films Theatre of the Dead which has its 10 Year Anniversary as part of the 2024 Yeh! Nah! program, and Me and My Mates vs the Zombie Apocalypse. Dan also was the Production Coordinator and EPK Producer on 2022 AACTA Nominated Best Film Sissy, a horror film featuring a social media star.​​​
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