And the nominees are…

On November 1, the nominees for the sixth annual WorldFilmGeek Awards were announced. This year has been insane but out of 135 films viewed from October 15, 2024 to October 15, 2025, this is gearing to be the biggest WorldFilmGeek Awards yet.

This year’s summer horror film that everyone needs to know about, Garden of Eden, has hit the jackpot and is the most-nominated film in WFG Awards history. The film has scored eleven nominations, including Best Film, Best Horror Film, Best LGBTQ Film, and in the acting and technical categories, Monique T. Parent, Robert Rusler, and Sarah French are among the nominees respectively for Best Lead Female Performance, Best Lead Male Performance, and Best Supporting Female Performance.

Tied for second with seven nominations are the South African post apocalyptic sci-fi romance film The Forest and the reboot of Troma’s iconic Toxic Avenger.

Diablo, starring Scott Adkins and Marko Zaror, scored six nominations while Ryan Kruger‘s spiritual sequel of the cult classic Street Trash scored eight.

In addition to the awards, we will once again celebrate the 2025 WorldFilmGeek Hall of Fame and announce the next three names to join Donald Farmer and Kimberly Cole Zemke to the 2026 WorldFilmGeek Hall of Fame.

Lewis Santer, who starred as the Mouse in Mouse of Horrors and as the Mad Hatter in Fairest of Them All (after breaking out as Tigger in 2024’s Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey II), is this year’s recipient for the Breakout Star Award. Indie filmmaker Michael Mahal, who sadly passed away earlier this year, will be posthumously receive this year’s Film Geekdom Award.

Here is the complete list of nominees for the 2025 WorldFilmGeek Awards:

Best Film

• Street Trash
• The Forest
• The Toxic Avenger
• Traumatika
• Diablo
• Garden of Eden
• Brute 1976

Best Horror Film

• Bystanders
• Screamboat
• No Tears in Hell
• Traumatika
• Brute 1976
• Garden of Eden

Best Action Film

• Diablo
• Red Sonja
• Black Creek
• Deathstalker
• Primal Games
• Prisoner of War

Best Comedy Film

• Oh My Goodness
• American Dreamer
• The Toxic Avenger
• London Calling
• Cannibal Comedian
• Trigger Happy

Best Western Film

• Trail of Vengeance
• Gunslingers
• Guns of Redemption
• The Wide West
• Black Creek
• Day of Reckoning

Best Sci-Fi Film

• Article 92
• Primal Games
• Renner
• The Forest
• Street Trash
• The Toxic Avenger

Best Drama Film

• Perfectly Good Moment
• American Trash
• Uppercut
• Finding Nicole
• Amongst the Wolves
• Unmoored

Best WTF Film

• Screamboat
• The Toxic Avenger
• Cannibal Comedian
• ApoKalypse
• The Invisible Raptor
• Hot Spring Shark Attack

Best Short Film

• Kindness
• No Experience Necessary
• The Blue Diamond
• Shaolin Avengers
• A Breath of Mindfulness
• Leprechaun Revenge

Best Foreign Language Film

• A Legend (China/Hong Kong)
• Panda Plan (China/Hong Kong)
• Oh My Goodness (France)
• Hot Spring Shark Attack (Japan)
• Salt Water (Colombia)
• Unmoored (Sweden/Poland/UK)

Best LGBTQ Film

• Surge of Power: Where There’s Smoke
• Salt Water
• Studio One Forever
• Queens of Drama
• Garden of Eden
• Chasing Chasing Amy

Best Family Film

• Off the Line
• Run Tiger Run
• If I Could Ride Again
• Heidi: Return of the Lynx
• Super Charlie
• Operation Friendship

Best Documentary

• Chasing Chasing Amy
• Kindness
• Wingman
• Studio One Forever
• Dinner with Leatherface
• Freediver

ACTING/TECHNICAL AWARDS
Best Female Lead Performance

• Amanda Jane Stern (Perfectly Good Moment)
• Sarah French (Brute 1976)
• Rebekah Kennedy (Traumatika)
• Debbie Rochon (Flesh for the Unforgiven)
• Mirja Turestedt (Unmoored)
• Monique T. Parent (Garden of Eden)

Best Male Lead Performance

• Lewis Santer (Fairest of Them All)
• Ruan Wessels (The Forest)
• Luke Baines (No Tears in Hell)
• Scott Adkins (Diablo)
• Robert Rusler (Garden of Eden)
• Sean Cameron Michael (Street Trash)

Best Female Supporting Performance

• Maria Olsen (Pretty Boy)
• Sarah French (Garden of Eden)
• Natasha Tosini (Fairest of Them All)
• Gwen Van Dam (No Tears in Hell)
• Jamie Alvey (Bystanders)
• Alanna De La Rossa (Diablo)

Best Male Supporting Performance

• Joe Vaz (Street Trash)
• David Howard Thornton (Screamboat)
• Jonah Lien Hwang (Get Off My Lawn)
• Jeremy Ray Taylor (London Calling)
• Jacob Tremblay (The Toxic Avenger)
• Marko Zaror (Diablo)

Best Director

• Ryan Kruger (Street Trash)
• Hendrik Cronje and Mari Molefe van Heerden (The Forest)
• Michael Caissie (No Tears in Hell)
• Macon Blair (The Toxic Avenger)
• Pierre Tsigaridis (Traumatika)
• Marcel Walz (Garden of Eden)

Best New Director

• Robert LaSardo (American Trash)
• Mary Beth McAndrews (Bystanders)
• Tiffany Kim Stevens (Trigger Happy)
• Kirsten Foe (Off the Record)
• Kunahan Thampi (Fairest of Them All)
• Caroline Ingvarsson (Unmoored)

Best Cinematography

• Gevorg Gev Juguryan (No Tears in Hell)
• Matthew Henaghen (If I Could Ride Again)
• Michel Dymak (Unmoored)
• Philip van Zyl (The Forest)
• Pierre Tsigaridis (Trauamtika)
• Marcus Friedlander (Garden of Eden)

Best Editing

• Stephen DuPlessis (Street Trash)
• Susana Benaim (Chosen Family)
• Jahad Ferif (Ed Kemper)
• Reine Swart (The Forest)
• Kai E. Bogatzki (Garden of Eden)
• Samuel Gonzalez Jr. (Brute 1976)

Best Screenplay *New Award*

• Amanda Jane Stern and Julian Seltzer (Perfectly Good Moment)
• Joe Knetter (Garden of Eden)
• Pierre Tsigaridis and Maxime Rancon (Traumatika)
• Reine Swart (The Forest)
• Ryan Kruger (Street Trash)
• Macon Blair (The Toxic Avenger)

Best Action/Stunts

• Marko Zaror (Diablo)
• Johnnie Martin (Off the Grid)
• Alvin Hsing (Prisoner of War)
• Alexander Nevsky & Andrew Freund (The Wide West)
• Mike Moller (Black Creek)
• Alex Chung (Deathstalker)

Best Special FX/Make-Up

• Robert Kern III (Brute 1976)
• Kevin Bitters (Street Trash)
• Steven Kostanski (Deathstalker)
• Joe Castro (Pretty Boy)
• Christian Beckman and Brian Schuley (Screamboat)
• Vincent Guastini (Garden of Eden)

2025 WorldFilmGeek Hall of Fame
Sarah French
Franklin Correa
Tiffany Shepis
Sasha Mitchell
Jamie Bernadette
Costas Mandylor
Amy Johnston
James Ryan
Sybil Danning
Art Camacho

Breakout Star of 2025
Lewis Santer (Mouse of Horrors, Fairest of Them All)

First Inductees of the 2026 WorldFilmGeek Hall of Fame
Donald Farmer and Kimberly Cole Zemke (announced in July)

Second Inductees to the 2026 WorldFilmGeek Hall of Fame
To Be Announced – stay tuned!!!

Film Geekdom Award
Michael Mahal (RIP)

The 2025 WorldFilmGeek Awards will be announced on December 15 at 8pm EST/5pm PST exclusively on the WorldFilmGeek YouTube Channel! Who will win…come and find out!