Frontières has announced the full line-up of its 16th co-production market running July 24-27 in Montreal alongside Fantasia International Film Festival.
The selection of projects seeking partners encompasses a broad range of genre. It includes new work from Sophie Mair and Dan Gitsham with UK-set grief horror Ginger; Québecois filmmaker Patrice Laliberté with coming-of-age sci-fi He Who Sows Misery, Reaps Wrath; and Caye Casas’s Spanish dark comedy Sueños Son.
Also from Quebec is Eric Tessier with psychological horror Flots; while Germany’s Till Kleinert brings the supernatural thriller Turn On The Bright Lights; Australian Robyn Grace has pre-apocalyptic, coming-of-age tale Jude; and Le Hoang arrives with Vietnam-US romantic horror The Heirloom.
The pedigree of Frontières picks is high and a number of recent selections have gone on to premiere in Cannes such as: Zarrar Kahn’s 2023 Directors’ Fortnight entry In Flames, Valdimar Jóhannsson’s 2021 Critics’ Week entry Lamb, and Lorcan Finnegan’s 2019 Critics Week selection Vivarium.
“Frontières not only fosters collaboration, it also celebrates cultural diversity,” said market director Annick Mahnert. ”By showcasing talent from all horizons, the market enriches genre cinema with unique perspectives and varied narratives. We’re proud to once again support daring directors who fuse horror, science fiction, fantasy and drama to create captivating hybrid works.”
The Frontières Co-Production Market is funded by Telefilm Canada, SODEC, the Government of Quebec, the City of Montreal, Wallimage, and the Netherlands Film Fund.
The 2024 selections appear below. Descriptions are adapted from wording provided by Frontières.
Blood: The Devil In Helsinki (Fin)
Dir. Viivi Huuska
Pdr: Mika Pajunen
Genre: crime, horror, drama
In Helsinki, a female vampire artist uses her art to cope with her past, drawing a male detective into a complex relationship amid an investigation, when the appearance of Mina Maru, her painting’s subject, catalyses a journey of revenge, self-discovery, and redemption, uncovering their dark fates.
Fall (Bel)
Dir. Steffen Geypens
Pdr: Robin Kerremans
Genre: horror
A murderous city doctor takes a fresh start in the remote town of Fall where everyone seems to be consumed by their darkest secrets and no-one is innocent.
Flots (Can, QC)
Dir. Eric Tessier
Pdr. Anne-Marie Gélinas
Genre: psychological horror
Florence, an eight-year-old girl, leads her family and friends on a descent into Hell from which no one will emerge unscathed.
Gargoyle (Can)
Dir. Kurt Walker
Pdrs: Selina Crammond, Sahar Yousefi, Heather McDonald
Genre: horror
While on graveyard shifts at a cemetery and a video game studio, a brother and sister find themselves suddenly haunted by uncanny beings and must collaborate to survive the night.
Ginger (UK)
Dirs. Sophie Mair and Dan Gitsham
Pdrs. Jude Goldrei, Rebecca Wolff
Genre: horror
Relocating to the North Yorkshire Dales after a life-changing accident and the death of their unborn child, Grace and Abel cross paths with a beguiling organism which gradually exploits their emotional and sexual desires, leading to violent tragedy and rebirth.
Grave (Swi)
Dirs. Anna Pieri Zuercher and Pietro Zuercher
Pdrs: Michela Pini, Olga Lamontanara
Genre: dark comedy, action
Deathly circumstances force a depressed gravedigger and a butcher-turned-hitman together on a frantic and absurd journey, to finally discover an unlikely and powerful friendship.
He Who Sows Misery, Reaps Wrath (Can, QC)
Dir. Patrice Laliberté
Pdr. Julie Groleau
Genre: sci-fi, coming-of-age
Montreal, 2040. As a luxury condo tower collapses in a gentrifying neighborhood, a less fortunate teenager wants nothing more than to find the electric bike she was robbed of in order to keep her job as a grocery delivery girl; a quest that proves more complicated than expected when violent riots break out between residents and police.
Inheritance (USA)
Dir. Evgenia Kovda
Pdr. Yasha Levine
Genre: sci-fi, horror, dark comedy
A group of rich kids spend the weekend at a country house and accidentally set off a mysterious device that brings Soviet communists back to life, forcing the kids to confront their country’s violent past.
Jude (Australia)
Dir. Robyn Grace
Pdr. Laura Sivis
Genre: pre-apocalyptic, coming-of-age, sci-fi
An overprotective single mother struggles to accept her home-schooled son’s rebellious desire for independence, friends and romance. However when teenagers around the globe begin a mysterious pilgrimage toward an interstellar spacecraft, she must relinquish her parental needs to decide the fate of the human race.
Little Lying Wild (Belize-USA)
Dir. Samantha Aldana
Pdrs: Valerie Steinberg, Samantha Aldana
Genre: dark fantasy
The moon falls from the sky in rural Belize, and 13-year-old Carmen finds the body of a young girl killed by a Mayan monster. When no-one in the village believes her, she sets out on her own to solve the crime and stop the monster from killing again.
Plasma (Chil)
Dir. Daniel Aspillaga
Pdr: Paulina Ferretti
Genre: fantasy, body horror
A mother sacrifices her daughter, and as her flesh rises to the skies, it begins to influence the bodies of the world, which will mutate and find themselves.
Recreational Vampire (USA)
Dir. Benjamin Roberds
Pdr. Katie Gregg
Genre: horror
After a head-on collision, two couples hitch a ride with a monstrously suspicious RV and must fight for their lives to make it out alive.
Romanticizing Monsters (Can)
Dir. Berkley Bradey
Pdrs. Katisha Shaw and Justin Kelly
Genre: dramatic thriller
A driven journalist and podcaster, who profiles serial killers, finds herself captured by the one she’s been investigating.
Scorpia (Can, QC)
Dirs. Sarah Watts and Mark Slutsky
Pdrs. Robert Vroom
Genre: sci-fi, fantasy, horror, LGBTQ
In the mid-1980s, struggling computer game programmer Scorpia accepts an invitation to the manor house of an enigmatic, all-women game developer cult, where the lines between play, magic and body horror blur.
Smook (Neth)
Dir. Dwight Fagbamila
Pdrs. Layla Meijman, Maarten van der Ven
Genre: elevated horror
When Louise returns to her hometown with her family to care for her father, she is confronted with a chilling family secret. Mysterious forces in the house unveil a connection between the secret and her own past, putting her family in increasing peril. The greatest danger? Louise herself.
Sueños Son (Sp)
Dir. Caye Casas
Pdr. Norbert Llaràs
Genre: horror, drama, dark comedy
Jesus has a wish for his 56th birthday: he wants his dreams to come true. What he doesn’t know is that this wish will end up transforming his life into a nightmare.
The Heirloom (Viet-USA)
Dir. Le Hoang
Pdrs. Anderson Le, Thanh Tran
Genre: romance, horror
A man at the bottom rung of society fails to realise he’s inherited the power to summon tormented ancestors to do his revenge killings. When they break free of his control, he must stop them before his loved ones are at risk of becoming their next victims.
The Hive (Ire)
Dir. Rioghnach Ni Ghrioghair
Pdr. Claire Mc Cabe
Genre: siege thriller
A vapid influencer is caught up in a botched kidnapping plot and discovers the monster she really is when the whole ordeal is live-streamed.
The Long Way Down (It-Slov-Cro)
Dir. Giacomo Talamini
Pdr. Boštjan Virc
Genre: elevated horror
A group of teenagers descends into the depths of a long-abandoned mine in the Italian Alps for a speleotherapy session. Trapped after an earthquake, their consciousness is ravaged by disturbing visions which seem to be a product of the mine’s sinister will.
Turn On The Bright Lights (Ger)
Dir. Till Kleinert
Pdr. Marcos Kantis
Genre: supernatural thriller, horror, music
Guilt-ridden by the suicide of a former contestant, a juror on a pop idol show must fight off a mysterious new candidate determined to destroy his life.
No comments yet