Matt Holness has been nominated for FrightFest’s Screen International Genre Rising Star Award.

The award was established last year to celebrate the work of emerging UK genre talent, and its first winner was none other than Alice Lowe for Prevenge!

Matt has been shortlisted due to his successful migration from the small screen in Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace and other comedies, to shorts such as Smuch (which screened as part of Sky’s 2016 Halloween Comedy Shorts) and upcoming feature debut Possum. Possum stars Sean Harris as a disgraced children’s puppeteer who returns to his childhood home to confront his vicious stepfather.

The other four nominees are Tom Paton for Redwood, Dominic Bridges for Freehold, Joanne Mitchell for Attack of the Adult Babies and Danny Morgan for Double Date.

FrightFest 2017 is taking place August 24th – 28th and the winner of the Genre Rising Star Award will be announced on Monday August 28th at the Cineworld Leicester Square. The event starts at 6.30pm and entry is free. See the full schedule for FrightFest 2017 here.

Screen International editor Matt Mueller said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Horror Channel FrightFest again this year for the Genre Rising Star award. Screen is always eager to support exciting new UK talent and we look forward to announcing the winner at this year’s festival.”