Damnationland

Overview

Damnationland. For 16 goddamn years, we've been showcasing the best up and coming filmmakers from the state of Maine. Our alums have screened films at SXSW, Slamdance, Nashville, and other fancy names of film things. And now, we want to open up our mangled arms to the world. We're hungry - hungry for new blood! Send us your shorts, send us your scripts! SCRIPTS That's right - we want words, short piles of them. We will choose the best to present to our filmmakers for the 2025 program, and maybe your short get's made by on of our amazing, award winning filmmakers. We often have great filmmakers that don't want to write the script, or are having trouble coming up with the idea. They're like "What should I make?" and we're like "Make something dark and weird!" and they're like "But, what?" Soooooo - let's give them your scripts! SHORTS Every year, we invite the best filmmakers from Maine to make a piece and premiere in our program. The premiere draws over a thousand excited film fans to the beautiful State Theater in Portland every year in late October. Lately, we’ve been thinking - people love Maine. They love our spooky otherworldly vibe, our rugged coast, our Yankee hospitality. And we wanna invite some new friends to come on up here and see what we’ve got going on, film-wise. So this year, for the first time ever, we will be selecting ONE short film to play in our program. All the other films will be made by our local talent, so we can guarantee a killer audience. So send us your stuff. We’d love to have you join us at the State Theatre on October 30th, and share the visceral thrill of watching films that challenge, scare, and entertain us. Like, say, your film! Help us continue to develop the best Maine film talent, and get your work the audience it deserves - a rabid fanbase, coming from the dark side. So send us your dark genre shorts and scripts! We are looking for things that are dark, scary, disturbing, seedy, or just downright weird. Take a look at the archive on our website to see what sort of films we feature. Visit Damnationland: The Way Film Should Be!

Last updated Sep 27, 2026

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FilmFreeway communityGold festival

• Filmmaker

  Super fun fest that will only get better in time. Fun and friendly staff and participants who generously offer a travel stipend and accommodations for out-of-towners. Their opening night, featuring regionally-made films, packed a 1000+ person gorgeous old theater. The second day with their new international shorts programming was a more modest affair with less robust attendance, especially during the day (it picked up considerably by evening selling out the final show), but for a first year it was all admirable, and I've no doubt it's going to become more and more successful as they expand. Really great people and very engaging programming with an eclectic mix of very international, dark-themed films. I'd return in a heartbeat. To boot, the restaurants and just walking around Portland are a blast. Get the lobster rueben at Demilla's, stand in line to sample Central Provisions (tapas and cocktails to die for) and grab shellfish and other seafood as Scales (reservations are advised). Oh, and for breakfast, grab Holy Donuts. Some great record shops too if you're into vinyl.

• Filmmaker

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