Cine-Excess 2026 International Film Festival and Conference
Legends Never Die
Online, in Cinemas and in Person (Birmingham, UK)
Monday 19th – Saturday 24th October 2026
Monday 19th – Saturday 24th October 2026
Legends are a key fixture of a wide range of cult film genres. Whether it’s the legendary talent behind the camera, the icons in front of it, the (in-)famous companies that produce and distribute these films, or the mythical and often controversial stories they tell. Cine-Excess 2026 celebrates, dissects and critically evaluates some of the key legends, myths and legacies that continue to underpin cult cinema traditions.
In Person Guest of Honour*
Rob Schmidt Recipient of the 2026 Cine-Excess Innovator of Horror Award (Wrong Turn [2003], Masters of Horror, The Alphabet Killer) |
Streamed Guest of Honour*
Michael Berryman Recipient of the 2026 Cine-Excess Lifetime Award (The Hills Have Eyes/The Hills Have Eyes Part II, The Devil’s Rejects) |
Streamed Guest of Honour*
Janus Blythe Recipient of the 2026 Cine-Excess Lifetime Award (The Hills Have Eyes/The Hills Have Eyes Part II, Eaten Alive) |
Streamed Keynote Speaker
Professor Aviva Briefel (Bowdoin College, Massachusetts, USA) |
One film that demonstrates the power of legends, myths and legacies is the visceral 2003 slasher film Wrong Turn, which has gained cult status for popularising backwoods horror into the new millennium. Set in the Mountain State of West Virginia, abound in the legends of Appalachia, Wrong Turn combined suspenseful filmmaking with the innovative talents of SFX icon Stan Wilson. As part of this year’s festival, we are delighted to welcome the director of Wrong Turn, Rob Schmidt, who is scheduled to attend the festival in person. Here, Schmidt will be the recipient of a Cine-Excess Innovator of Horror Award, acknowledging his landmark film as well as his wider contributions to cult and independent media practices. Rob Schmidt will also be discussing his participation in the new documentary Scum of the Earth: Creating America’s Rural Communities of Horror, which screens at the festival.
Another of cult cinema’s most legendary directors was Wes Craven, whose seminal film Scream celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. However, to fully appreciate Scream as the magnum opus of Wes Craven’s later work, we must look back to the director’s early career in the 1970s, embodied by his highly controversial 1977 classic, The Hills Have Eyes.
The Hills Have Eyes and its 1984 sequel not only contributed to a popular cycle of backwoods horror but radically showcased a socially conscious approach to genre filmmaking through the aesthetics of exploitation cinema. As part of this year’s festival, we are delighted to welcome stars of the original Hills Have Eyes franchise, Michael Berryman (“Pluto”) and Janus Blythe (“Ruby”), who will both be attending the festival via live stream to receive Cine-Excess Lifetime Achievement Awards. These awards acknowledge not only Berryman and Blythe’s incalculable contributions to the Hills Have Eyes franchise, but their wider contributions to the modernisation of North America’s horror and cult traditions.
The legend of Sawney Bean famously inspired The Hills Have Eyes, just as serial killer Ed Gein inspired 1974’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Backwoods horror is a fascinating case study in this year’s theme, grounded in myth, legend and folklore as America turns to its violent (colonial) past. This cinematic subgenre is, of course, rooted in the global tradition of folk horror, where filmmakers reconnect with their region’s past and contemplate the legend of a premodern period. This year alone, Piers Haggard’s The Blood on Satan’s Claw celebrates its 55th anniversary, Ben Wheatley’s Kill List celebrates its 15th anniversary, and Na Hong-jin’s The Wailing celebrates its 10th anniversary, making folk horror another focus of this year’s event.
Further situating the overarching themes of this year’s festival, we are delighted to welcome Aviva Briefel as the keynote speaker to our 2026 conference component. Aviva Briefel is Professor of English and Cinema Studies at Bowdoin College, Massachusetts. She is the author of numerous essays on horror and co-editor of the collections Horror after 9/11: World of Fear, Cinema of Terror and Labors of Fear: The Modern Horror Film Goes to Work. She has also authored several books on Victorian culture, most recently, Ghosts and Things: The Material Culture of Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism.
Beyond the horror genre, legends, myths and legacies also contribute to the cultification of a wide range of film genres. From kung fu films to Spaghetti Westerns, teen films to sexploitation, failed Hollywood blockbusters to independent B-movies, this year’s theme finds fascination in the making of legends—that is, the process of cultification, the making of cult cinema. Papers might consider not only cult objects, therefore, but how these objects have gained cult status and become legendary in subcultural circles: legendary films and film genres, legendary filmmakers and their stars, legendary characters and their iconographies, and so forth.
We therefore welcome 20-minute papers or pre-constituted panels on, but not limited to, the following topics:
Cine-Excess 2026 invites proposals for either the online conference or in-person symposium. Participants should indicate their preference when submitting their proposal.
The online conference is expected to run for a minimum of two days on the week beginning Monday 19th October, with registration fees of £100 / £50 (concessions). Registration fees include virtual attendance at the conference, related streamed screenings and filmmaker talks.
The in-person symposium will likely be to a two-day event in Birmingham, UK on Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd October, with registration fees of £200 / £150 (concessions). Registration fees include in-person attendance at the symposium and related cinema screenings, as well as access to the online components of Cine-Excess 2026.
Since 2007, Cine-Excess has developed and nurtured a reputation as an inclusive and safe space in which to present new work around global cult film cultures. We welcome submissions from emerging and established scholars, activists, filmmakers and community groups.
Please send a 300-word abstract and a short bio by Friday 21st August 2026 to:
John Atkinson (Editorial Lead of Cine-Excess) Dr Daniel Sheppard (Head of Conference Development) and Professor Xavier Mendik (Director of Cine-Excess) at the following email address: conference@cine-excess.co.uk
Final decisions will be communicated by the end of August 2026.
We will subsequently invite a limited number of participants to rework their papers for inclusion in the nineth edition of the Cine-Excess journal.
*All advertised Cine-Excess Guests of Honour are subject to availability, and website listings will be updated regularly to reflect their current schedules.
Another of cult cinema’s most legendary directors was Wes Craven, whose seminal film Scream celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. However, to fully appreciate Scream as the magnum opus of Wes Craven’s later work, we must look back to the director’s early career in the 1970s, embodied by his highly controversial 1977 classic, The Hills Have Eyes.
The Hills Have Eyes and its 1984 sequel not only contributed to a popular cycle of backwoods horror but radically showcased a socially conscious approach to genre filmmaking through the aesthetics of exploitation cinema. As part of this year’s festival, we are delighted to welcome stars of the original Hills Have Eyes franchise, Michael Berryman (“Pluto”) and Janus Blythe (“Ruby”), who will both be attending the festival via live stream to receive Cine-Excess Lifetime Achievement Awards. These awards acknowledge not only Berryman and Blythe’s incalculable contributions to the Hills Have Eyes franchise, but their wider contributions to the modernisation of North America’s horror and cult traditions.
The legend of Sawney Bean famously inspired The Hills Have Eyes, just as serial killer Ed Gein inspired 1974’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Backwoods horror is a fascinating case study in this year’s theme, grounded in myth, legend and folklore as America turns to its violent (colonial) past. This cinematic subgenre is, of course, rooted in the global tradition of folk horror, where filmmakers reconnect with their region’s past and contemplate the legend of a premodern period. This year alone, Piers Haggard’s The Blood on Satan’s Claw celebrates its 55th anniversary, Ben Wheatley’s Kill List celebrates its 15th anniversary, and Na Hong-jin’s The Wailing celebrates its 10th anniversary, making folk horror another focus of this year’s event.
Further situating the overarching themes of this year’s festival, we are delighted to welcome Aviva Briefel as the keynote speaker to our 2026 conference component. Aviva Briefel is Professor of English and Cinema Studies at Bowdoin College, Massachusetts. She is the author of numerous essays on horror and co-editor of the collections Horror after 9/11: World of Fear, Cinema of Terror and Labors of Fear: The Modern Horror Film Goes to Work. She has also authored several books on Victorian culture, most recently, Ghosts and Things: The Material Culture of Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism.
Beyond the horror genre, legends, myths and legacies also contribute to the cultification of a wide range of film genres. From kung fu films to Spaghetti Westerns, teen films to sexploitation, failed Hollywood blockbusters to independent B-movies, this year’s theme finds fascination in the making of legends—that is, the process of cultification, the making of cult cinema. Papers might consider not only cult objects, therefore, but how these objects have gained cult status and become legendary in subcultural circles: legendary films and film genres, legendary filmmakers and their stars, legendary characters and their iconographies, and so forth.
We therefore welcome 20-minute papers or pre-constituted panels on, but not limited to, the following topics:
- Wrong Turns and Franchised Regions: (Re-)Defining Backwoods Horror
- The Hills Still Have Eyes: Michael Berryman and/or Janus Blythe as Cult Icons
- The Man, the Myth, the Legend: Wes Craven as Cult Auteur
- “What’s Your Favourite Scary Movie?” Scream at 30
- The Real Bruce Lee: Cult Legends, Legacies and Remediations
- Life After Death: The Cult of Dead Performers
- Legendary Evil: Sawney Bean, Ed Gein and Ted Bundy on Screen
- Short Form Scares: Amicus Productions and Anthology Horror
- Creepshows: Comic Book Scares from One Era to Another
- Blood on the Nation’s Claw: Folk Horror Myths in Britain and Beyond
- Urban Legends: Popular Myths Reborn through Cult Film
- Nine Knives: Iconic Slasher Characters that Refuse to Die
- Cult Auteurs: Legendary Directors and Screenwriters, Producers and Stars
- Terrorvision: The Legends and Legacies of Cult TV
- Before and After the Legacy Sequel: New Perspectives on Cult Franchises
- Retelling Legends: Adaptations, Reboots, Remakes
- Legends Across Borders: New Cult Media and Transnationalism
- The Kids Are Alright: Moral Panics and Reactive Legacies in the Media
- This Story is Based on Fact: Bringing Cult Legends to Life
- Undying Legends: Ageing Stars on Screen
Cine-Excess 2026 invites proposals for either the online conference or in-person symposium. Participants should indicate their preference when submitting their proposal.
The online conference is expected to run for a minimum of two days on the week beginning Monday 19th October, with registration fees of £100 / £50 (concessions). Registration fees include virtual attendance at the conference, related streamed screenings and filmmaker talks.
The in-person symposium will likely be to a two-day event in Birmingham, UK on Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd October, with registration fees of £200 / £150 (concessions). Registration fees include in-person attendance at the symposium and related cinema screenings, as well as access to the online components of Cine-Excess 2026.
Since 2007, Cine-Excess has developed and nurtured a reputation as an inclusive and safe space in which to present new work around global cult film cultures. We welcome submissions from emerging and established scholars, activists, filmmakers and community groups.
Please send a 300-word abstract and a short bio by Friday 21st August 2026 to:
John Atkinson (Editorial Lead of Cine-Excess) Dr Daniel Sheppard (Head of Conference Development) and Professor Xavier Mendik (Director of Cine-Excess) at the following email address: conference@cine-excess.co.uk
Final decisions will be communicated by the end of August 2026.
We will subsequently invite a limited number of participants to rework their papers for inclusion in the nineth edition of the Cine-Excess journal.
*All advertised Cine-Excess Guests of Honour are subject to availability, and website listings will be updated regularly to reflect their current schedules.