AFM 2025: 12 buzz titles from European sellers

Bloody Tennis

Dir. Nikias Chryssos
Several tennis-themed movies have been served up to buyers at recent markets, but this is surely the first example of body horror on the courts. Sandra Guldberg Kampp stars as an aspiring tennis hopeful who signs up to a highly regarded tennis academy and is thrown into a world not just of hard-hitting serves but of nightmares and blood-sucking leeches. It marks the English-language debut of Chryssos, who broke out with 2015 Berlinale debut Der Bunker. The cast also includes Zlatko Buric (Triangle Of Sadness), Romanian American actress Elina Löwensohn and Helena Zengel, the child star of System Crasher and News Of The World. Currently in production through augenschein, Blood Tennis has an original score from Jim Williams, whose credits include Titane and Raw. The German distributor is Port au Prince, and all territories are open except North America, Canada, Australia and German-speaking Europe.
Contact: Lea Fleischer, The Playmaker Munich 

The Dam

Dir. Oleksii Taranenko
Ukrainian outfit Film.UA’s zombie film The Dam follows a crack unit of soldiers led by a female fighter whose code name is Mara. After the destruction of the Kakhova dam, they discover a Cold War-era laboratory where macabre human experiments were conducted. To prevent evil from escaping, Mara and her comrades must fight off zombies while confronting their own inner fears. The Dam is the latest instalment of the company’s ‘Heroines of the Dark Times’ universe, a series of war-themed genre movies. The first in the series, The Witch: Revenge, was a solid box-office success in Ukraine, earning a reported $1.4m. The Dam was released in the territory in early October and is now beginning its international rollout.
Contact: Kateryna Nahorna, Film.UA Group  

Doctor Glas

Dir. Erik Leijonborg
Patrick Ryborn, producer of Swedish Oscar entry Eagles Of The Republic through Unlimited Stories, is in post-production on this psycho­logical thriller adapted from Hjalmar Söderberg’s 1905 novel, a key Swedish text that has previously been adapted by Rune Carlsten in 1942 and Mai Zetterling in 1968. The film follows a lonely young doctor whose world is turned upside down by the arrival of a celebrated fashion designer. Isac Calmroth, Thea Sofie Loch Næss and Christian Fandango Sundgren lead the cast of Leijonborg’s version, for which he and Calmroth co-wrote the screenplay. Leijonborg’s further credits include the TV series King & Conqueror and The Last Kingdom.
Contact: Reinvent Yellow 

I Is Another

Dir. Felix Randau
Claes Bang stars in this historical drama as Felix Kersten, the former massage therapist to Nazi SS Reich leader Heinrich Himmler. Set in 1952, the film sees a journalist and her husband ambush Kersten, leading to a psychological game of cat‑and-mouse, with Valerie Pachner starring alongside Bang. The film wrapped its Germany and Austria shoot in September for producers Marcel Lenz and Claritta Kratochwil of ostlicht filmproduktion. I Is Another is the latest film by German writer/director Randau, best known for 2017’s Iceman.
Contact: Beta Cinema 

Ladies’ Hunting Party

Dir. Pedro Aguilera
Basque filmmaker Aguilera, whose credits include Cannes 2007 Directors’ Fortnight title The Influence, is behind this reinterpretation of Carlos Saura’s The Hunt, winner of the Silver Bear for best director at the 1966 Berlinale. Saura’s original was viewed as an allegory of the cruelty and moral decay of Spain’s privileged class under Franco’s dictatorship. Aguilera’s version flips the gender of Saura’s original characters and stars Blanca Portillo, Carmen Machi and Rossy de Palma – all muses of Pedro Almodovar. The story follows three lifelong friends in their fifties who reunite for a rabbit hunt at a country house near Madrid. What begins as a light-hearted get-together soon unravels in the oppressive heat as wine is drunk and old wounds and failed marriages resurface – until the day ends in confrontation and tragedy. In post-production, the film is produced by Gonita Filmacion, with Anna Saura (daughter of the late Carlos Saura) serving as executive producer.
Contact: Juan Torres, Latido Films 

The Night

Dir. Paul Urkijo
The Night (Gaua) marks the third feature from Urkijo, one of the leading figures in the new wave of Basque genre cinema – a movement that has produced international hits such as Carlota Pereda’s The Chapel (La Ermita) and Netflix’s The Platform. The Night is a dark period fantasy set in the Basque mountains during the Spanish Inquisition witch hunts. A woman named Kattalin flees into the forest to escape her violent husband, and meets three mysterious women who share eerie tales of Basque spirits. As myth and reality intertwine, Kattalin realises she is becoming part of their story. The film is produced by Irusoin (the company behind Spain’s 2021 Oscar submission The Endless Trench), Ikusgarri Films and Vilaüt Films.
Contact: Ivan Diaz, Filmax 

Rose’s Baby

Dir. Trudie Styler
Maven Screen Media producer Styler directs her second fiction feature, about a long-divorced couple who can barely be in the same room as each other but team up to have another baby. Styler’s Maven partner Celine Rattray produces the comedy drama with Piers Tempest of Tempo Films (I Swear). Filming wrapped in London earlier this year, with a starry cast that includes Antonio Banderas, Eva Birthistle, Richard E Grant and Forest Whitaker. Rattray told Screen International the film “explores what we mean these days by ‘family’” and “is also a love letter to the National Health Service”.
Contact: Beta Cinema 

The Soundman

Dir. Frank Van Passel
Stalwart Belgian producer Van Passel returns to fiction feature directing for the first time in 14 years with a Second World War love story. In May 1940, a talented sound engineer at Belgium’s national radio station falls for a young actress. Jef Hellemans and Femke Vanhove lead the cast of the Dutch-language film, which shot earlier this year for producers Helena Vlogaert and Bert Hamelinck of Caviar.
Contact: Tine Klint, LevelK 

Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma

Dir. Jane Schoenbrun
Schoenbrun’s second feature I Saw The TV Glow (2024) was a hit with indie awards bodies, picking up five nominations from the Film Independent Spirit Awards. She returns with a horror comedy about a queer filmmaker hired to direct the new instalment of a slasher franchise, and becomes fixated on casting the ‘final girl’ from the original film. Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder lead the cast, which also includes Patrick Fischler. The film wrapped production this summer, with The Match Factory owner Mubi handling distribution in territories including North America and UK-Ireland.
Contact: The Match Factory 

Twice Over

Dir. Alena Lodkina
Russia-born Australian filmmaker Lodkina’s third feature is her most high-profile project to date. Mia Wasikowska (Alice In Wonderland) and Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things) headline the story of two people whose unexpected reunion stirs long-buried feelings and uncertainties about love, time and reinvention. It will shoot on location in Perth, Australia at the end of the year, backed by Screen Australia. Producers include Kate Glover (Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s Berlin 2025 title Hot Milk).
Contact: Ioanna Stais, Heretic 

Vampyr

Dir. Arild Fröhlich
Based on Steffen Kverneland’s 2016 novel of the same name, Vampyr follows a struggling author obsessed with the artist Edvard Munch, who descends into madness when a murder mystery uncovers a horrifying truth about the famous painter. Production is taking place now with a cast of leading Nordic talents that includes Pal Sverre Hagen, Ane Dahl Torp, Kristine Kujath Thorp, Ingvild Holthe Bygdnes and Carl Martin Eggesbo.
Contact: Nicolai Korsgaard, TrustNordisk 

Wild Wild East

Dir. Jan Holoubek
The third feature from the Polish cinematographer-turned-director Holoubek is set in 1943, when the fragile peace in a remote Polish town is shattered by the arrival of a German officer investigating the disappearance of a Jewish lawyer. Filmed in Poland and Latvia this autumn, the cast includes Itay Tiran, Joanna Kulig (Cold War) and Jan Bulow. It is produced by leading Polish producers Bogna Szewczyk-Skupien and Klaudia Smieja-Rostworowska for Madants, and Ewa Puszczynska for Extreme Emotions, with Holoubek. The project was in the Venice Gap Financing Market this summer.
Contact: Global Constellation 

• AFM 2025: Screen’s dailies