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

submissionS OPEN

Magazine: Submissions are OPEN. Please read our guidelines below!

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:

Submission Guidelines

Theme: PERIOD PIECE
Deadline: August 31st, 2024

Stuck in the past? We want to hear about it. For our 11th issue we are looking for submissions on period pieces. From ancient times (Last Temptation of Christ) to recent past (Uncut Gems) we want to hear your take on how films have represented, invented, or misunderstood a previous era.

Send us personal pieces, film diaries, fan fiction, and experimental pieces on anything set in the past. This could be a specific film, era or historical figure, an aspect of filmmaking (candlelight in Barry Lyndon), or a broader trend in film history or present. If you need some inspiration, check out this wildly comprehensive list.

Please keep in mind that we generally do not cover films made pre-1970, and please do not send pitches on films set in the future—that’s for another issue! 😉
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Some ideas 💡
- Films that stick to historical accuracy or play with anachronism
- Directors who engage with/avoid the current moment
- Some of our favourite period films: Moulin Rouge, Gothic, Sleepy Hollow, Benedetta, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Daughters of the Dust, Embrace of the Serpent
- Revisionist history and era subversion: Posse, Wuthering Heights (2011), Zama, In the Realm of the Senses
- Biopics: Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters, Wolf of Wall St., Saint Laurent (2014), 24 Hour Party People
- Recent history period pieces: Uncut Gems, The Bling Ring, May December
- Directors: Ang Lee, Jane Campion, Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee
- Overrated and underrated eras: Victorian, Tudor, 1970s…
- Adaptations of specific authors: Jane Austen, Daphne Du Maurier, Patricia Highsmith…
- TV: Watchmen, Lovecraft County, Mad Men…
- Shakespeare Adaptations: updated and classical

‍Please note that this issue will only feature 10-12 pieces, so send us your best!

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:
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‍- 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: 
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‍- Straight up reviews
- Excessive summary
- Academic or overly formal tone
- Flat-out pans (if something is bad, tell us why that's interesting!)
- Media made before 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:
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‍- 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 you're 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! 😈