In step with the summer’s surprise horror megahits “Obsession” and “Backrooms,” SRHP Films is celebrating a number of festival wins for its newest feature “Holy Father” while in pursuit of distribution in time for Halloween.
Set in Savannah, Ga., “Holy Father” is a horror-crime thriller starring Oscar nominee Eric Roberts as Father Isaac Wales, an exorcism specialist investigating ritualistic murders while battling an ancient demon who possessed his colleague. Collaborating with a skeptical detective and a comrade with supernatural insight, Wales races to stop evil before it unleashes more terror. Watch the “Holy Father” trailer here.
With supporting cast including newcomer Mary Lirette (Luna) and Bryan Easley (Sam Harper) since post-production wrapped up in Sept. 2025, “Holy Father” earned “best thriller” honors at the 2026 Anatolia International Film Festival in Istanbul and the Hallucinea Film Festival in Paris, as well as best actor for Eric Roberts at Toronto’s Alternative Film Festival. The cast and crew are listed on IMDB here.
The film also earned best director honors for Shravan Tiwari, who also wrote and edited “Holy Father,” in the Los Angeles Movie and Music Awards and Toronto’s Alternative Film Festival, as well as best film honors in the Pinewood Studios/Lift-Off Global Network-hosted online Filmmaker Sessions Volume 7. In late July, the film received a best screenplay nomination at the City Film Festival of Stockholm.
Produced by SRHP Films’ Sandip Patel and directed/written/edited by Tiwari, “Holy Father” is on track for release in time for the 2026 Halloween season. “Holy Father” is chapter two of a SRHP Films “holy trilogy” that launched with “Holy Ghost” in 2025, which enjoyed worldwide distribution via Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and Google Play Movies across 39 countries. The trilogy will conclude with “Holy Son” now in development with plans for production in 2027 in Augusta, Ga., where both prior trilogy films were captured.
“With this we have shot three films entirely in Georgia with most of the post-production also completed with experts from the state’s rich filmmaking community,” said Tiwari. “We simply love making movies while tapping Georgia’s deep resources in the film industry with two other projects underway and more to follow soon.”
Tiwari said that additional film festival entries are under consideration while the SRHP team explores how to tap into the summer of horror trend that earned over $460 million for “Obsession” and more than $390 million for “Backrooms” worldwide since their May releases, according to The Numbers as of Aug. 3.
“Audiences have a seemingly unquenchable thirst for supernatural horror thrillers, and ‘Holy Father’ is an excellent fit for the sustained popularity of this genre,” said Patel, who added the SRHP Films team is currently building on its positive history with major digital platforms for “Holy Ghost.”
“Preliminary conversations are actively underway with multiple domestic and international distributors. Given the heightened scale and the addition of talent like Eric Roberts, interest is strong across both streaming platforms and traditional buyers,” added Tiwari.
“I love making movies in my home state, and ‘Holy Father’ proved to be a fun and memorable adventure with the SRHP Films team,” said Roberts, who has over 800 film and feature credits spanning TV, radio, stage and music video productions.
