IFC Midnight strikes first partnership with Fantastic Fest

The division is partnering with Austin’s Fantastic Fest and will unveil four new acquisitions during the September 23-20 event: Philip Ridley’s demonic thriller Heartless, Abel Ferry’s mountain climbing nightmare HighLane, Josh Reed’s Ozploitation horror title Primal, and Simon Rumley’s psycho-sexual thriller Red White & Blue.

The films will simultaneously be available nationwide via the VoD platforms of Cablevision, Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable and Bright House, among others.

Red White & Blueand Heartlesswill also receive limited nationwide theatrical releases in autumn.

IFC Midnight will also make three Fantastic Fest 2009 titles available on demand: Tom Six’s The Human Centipede, Kim Ji-Woon’s The Good The Bad The Weird, and Jake West’s Doghouse.

“Following our successful day-and-date on demand partnerships with SXSW and Sundance, which have included several genre films, a partnership with Fantastic Fest is the next logical step,” IFC Entertainment president Jonathan Sehring said.

Fantastic Fest co-founder Tim League, who wearing his other hat as CEO of Alamo Drafthouse launched Drafthouse Films last week, said IFC Films had “an excellent eye for acquiring the very best of genre entertainment.”

Red White & Blue’s Rumley added: “To have IFC Films and Fantastic Fest back Red White & Blue is a natural fit and it’s with much excitement that I anticipate their collective championing and distribution of it.”

The deal for Red White & Blue was negotiated by IFC Films’ senior vice-president of acquisitions and productions Arianna Bocco and Travis Stevens of Celluloid Nightmares.

Bocco brokered the Heartless deal with Cinetic Media, while IFC Films’ manager of acquisitions and productions Jeff Deutchman negotiated the Primal deal with Gavin Braxton of AV Pictures. Lizzie Nastro, IFC’s director of acquisitions and co-productions, negotiated the High Lanedeal with Cecile Gaget of Gaumont.