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

SUBMISSIONS OPEN

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).

Magazine: Submissions are currently OPEN.

Theme: The Future
Deadline: January 1st, 2025

Our last issue was out of the past… now we’re heading into the future. From sci-fi (A.I. Artificial Intelligence) to utopian/dystopian (Born in Flames), in places near (Her) or far (Solaris), for our 12th issue we’re looking for experimental criticism on any films, TV, or music videos set in or that engage with the future ✨ If you need some inspiration, check out this comprehensive list!

💡 Some topics and films we’d love to see pitches for:

- Focus on specific sci-fi fashion, food, technology, and/or architecture
- Films set in the future (Robocop, High Life, Strange Days, Gattaca) or near future (The Purge, Ghost in the Shell, Moon)
- Apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic (The Happening, Children of Men, The Terminator, The Falls (1980), I Am Legend)
- Climate change/“cli-fi” themes (The Day After Tomorrow, Silent Running, Beasts of the Southern Wild)
- Arthouse/experimental/video art (Planet Heaven (2022), Liquid Sky, Ryan Trecartin, Hito Steyerl)
- Retrofuturism (Heart of the World, Metropolis, Death Race 2000)
- Film technology (A.I., CGI, 3D, LED walls)
- Aliens (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Attack the Block, The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Under The Skin, Nope)
- Time travel (Arrival, Edge of Tomorrow, The Beast)
- Music videos (Britney Spears - Oops!…I Did It Again, Missy Elliott - Sock It 2 Me, Backstreet Boys - Larger Than Life, Lil Nas X - Panini, Massive Attack - Voodoo In My Blood)
- TV (Star Trek, The X Files, Westworld, Severance)
- Box office bombs (Event Horizon, John Carter, Battleship)

Keep in mind we generally focus on films made post-1970. And you can check out our past issues to see if we've already covered your film!

👇 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
- Anniversary pieces (but try to think beyond just "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 plot 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 post-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 (max 1,000 words), 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, format)
- 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 very 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 passion project, our magazine pay a modest honorarium of $30 CAD per feature, 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! 😈