Movie still from The Dead Mountaineer's Hotel. A woman lounges on a couch with an old man standing behind her. It's nighttime, and you can see mountains in the window behind them.Movie still from Night on the Galactic Railroad. A cute animated cat in a vest lies on a bed of flowers, looking up at the sky.Movie still from Petite Maman. A pair of twin girls stand in a forest in front of a pyramid made of tree branches, their arms around each other.Movie still from Before Sunrise. A woman and a man dance alone on a residential street by someone's window.Movie still from The Triplets of Belleville. Three cartoon women in furs and hats stand in front of a microphone on a stage.Movie still from The Witch. A family sits around a candlellit table in 1630s New England.TV still from Sailor Moon. A white gloved hand holds a magical wand with a half moon at its tip.Film still from Sex Lies and Videotape. A woman caresses a man's hand around her neck and chin, eyes closed in pleasure.Film still from Sextool. A clown holding a magician hat full of money tosses money in the air on stage.
Who we are

In The Mood Magazine is a pop culture journal about the things we like to watch.

Published triannually, we delve into film, TV, music videos, and celebrity culture through essays, conversations, and unconventional forms of criticism like film diaries, poetry, and comics.

Our focus is on the viewer, their viewing habits, highs, and hang-ups. Why can't we stop thinking about the exact shade of pink of Suki’s car in 2 Fast 2 Furious? Or the look on Marnie’s face after she’s fired the shotgun? Tell us what you're obsessed with, we want to hear all about it. But you should know that we’re terrible at keeping secrets.

So… are you in the mood?

Surprise us

submission GUIDELINES

Magazine: Submissions are currently CLOSED. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter for when we open them back up late fall!

Newsletter: Submissions are always OPEN. We publish 1-2 times a month, and especially welcome timely pieces on new releases or seasonal topics (e.g. horror in October, summer films).

👇 Please read our full guidelines before submitting:

What We Publish

We’re looking for writers with a distinctive voice, who aren't afraid of getting personal, and who are curious about why we watch what we watch. We appreciate thoughtful analysis but also a playful tone; we want intelligent pieces that aren't too full of themselves. We don't think of ourselves as an authority, but a confidante.

🎬 We publish the following about film, TV, pop culture, and moving image media—click for some examples we love:
‍
‍- Personal essays, non-academic essays
‍- Conversations, roundtable discussions, interviews
‍- Poetry
‍- Round-ups, lists
‍- Experimental pieces, fan fiction, spec scripts
‍- Games, questionnaires
- Visual art, comics
‍- First-person, on-the-ground pieces about going to movies or working behind the scenes
‍- Film Diaries (short personal piece about something you've watched lately)
- Anniversary pieces (but try to think beyond "this movie is still great")
- Works on other moving image media, e.g. music videos, celebrities, commercials, filming locations, interesting areas of the film industry

❌ Things to avoid: 
‍
‍- Straight up reviews
- Excessive summary
- Academic or overly formal tone
- Flat-out pans (if something is bad, tell us why that's interesting!)
- We generally focus on media made after 1970
- Clickbait/hot takes

Please explore our past issues and our newsletter to get a sense of what we publish!

How To Submit

‍We strongly prefer completed pieces, but we understand that writing on spec is not a realistic prospect for many writers. With that in mind, we still accept pitches.

👇 Please include:
‍
‍- Completed piece (doesn't need to be perfectly polished!)
‍OR if you’re pitching: a short paragraph on the piece (topic, relevancy, intended word count - 1,000 words max for features, 300 words max for film diaries)
- Why you think this is a good fit for In the Mood
‍- If pitching: 1-2 writing samples (they don’t need to be published)
- Short bio or link to your website

Send Submissions & Queries to:

inthemoodmagazine@gmail.com‍

What then?

For magazine submissions, we review all of them at the end of our submission period, after which you’ll receive a response from us with our publication decision.

Please keep in mind that a rejection is not necessarily a reflection on the quality of your work! We get a large number of submissions and only have a limited number of spots, which unfortunately means we have to pass on many great submissions.

If your piece is accepted, it'll go through an editing process. As a volunteer-run journal, we pay a modest honorarium of $30 CAD per feature and $20 CAD for film diaries, sent upon publication. We acknowledge that this is not a market rate, and won't be doable for some writers.

Thanks for pitching to In the Mood, we're looking forward to reading your work. And remember, we love surprises! 😈

  • Evie, a fiery devil, hunches over Issue 1 of In The Mood Magazine. She's wearing a hat and has a toothpick in her mouth. Art by Aidan Jeans

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  • Evie, a cheeky devil, smiles with the speech bubble that reads "A girl's gotta eat!" Art by Aidan Jeans

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    Here’s our PayPal! We're volunteer-run, and donations will go directly to the mag and contributor honorariums.

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