⏵ Feed the channel — submit a short tape
THE DEAD AIR FESTIVAL
DREADPENDULUM's open-screen contest for short horror. Submit your film, get rated by the community on the same ten channels as everything else, and compete for THE GOLDEN STATIC — plus a permanent spot on the front shelf. Season one closes OCT 31 2026, midnight. Winner = 50% audience pulse, 50% jury panel.
✪ Enter the festival
▸ festival rules — read before entering
01 · YOUR WORK ONLY. The submitter must be the film's creator or an authorized rights holder. Every collaborator gets credited. Submitting someone else's film — including "lost media" or a stranger's upload — is theft, and earns a permanent ban from the festival and the site.
02 · PROVE THE UPLOAD IS YOURS. Each entry gets a unique verification code. Paste it into the description of your YouTube/Vimeo upload (or submit from the channel that posted it). Entries whose codes never appear are quietly dropped at review. The jury may also request project files or raw footage before a win is confirmed — winners who can't produce them forfeit.
03 · AI: DISCLOSED OR DISQUALIFIED. Fully human-made films are the heart of the festival. AI-assisted work is welcome only with a complete, specific disclosure — which tools, and exactly where — shown as a label on your entry card. Fully AI-generated films compete on the separate SYNTHETIC shelf and cannot win the Golden Static. Undisclosed AI found at any point, including after a win, means disqualification, title revoked, ban.
04 · RIGHTS & CLEARANCES. Original score, licensed tracks, or public domain only. No unlicensed samples, footage, fonts-with-terms, or trademarked characters. "It's just fan work" is not a clearance.
05 · CONTENT LINES. Fiction only — no real violence, harm, or cruelty; nothing illegal; no sexualized minors, ever; no doxxing or targeting real people. Extreme gore and strobe sequences need a content warning card up front. The jury can reject any entry that crosses a line, no appeal.
06 · FAIR PLAY. One entry per creator per season, ≤ 20 minutes, made within the last 3 years. Vote manipulation — bots, bought reviews, coordinated brigades, review-swapping cartels — disqualifies the entry; audience pulse is only half the score precisely so the loudest fanbase doesn't automatically win. Jury members can't vote on entries they worked on.
07 · THE AWARD. Season shortlist = top 10 by audience pulse (min. 10 reviews). Winner picked 50/50 by audience pulse + a rotating jury of horror filmmakers and critics. Prize: THE GOLDEN STATIC, a permanent front-shelf feature, and a winner badge on your profile. No entry fees, ever — a festival that charges to enter and pays in "exposure" is one of the oldest scams in film.
08 · YOU KEEP EVERYTHING. Entering grants DREADPENDULUM a non-exclusive right to embed and feature your film. That's it. You keep full ownership and can withdraw your entry at any time before the season closes.
THE GIFT SHOP
every haunt lets you out through the gift shop. ours is no different, except the lights are worse and nobody is behind the counter. take what you want from the shelf — the door is at the far end, past the tapes.
▸ THE COMPANY STORE COMING SOON
nine pieces cut for the station itself. nothing here is printed yet. put your name on the manifest and you'll hear the moment the first run goes to press — first run is numbered, and it is not repeated.
▸ THE SHELF
things the station would stock if it stocked anything. curated corners rather than a checkout — each one opens a hand-picked search, not a single sad product page.
THE RADAR
Everything horror on approach through 2027 — films, carts, and real screams. Every title links out to its source. Anything whose date has passed drops itself into the landed pile automatically, and the film list re-syncs from the wikipedia release calendar whenever you're online. Dates shift. Trust the studios last.