EXCLUSIVE: Organisers at Frontières Co-Production Market have received a record 180-plus project submissions for the upcoming 2025 edition in Montreal (July 23-26) that runs in conjunction with Fantasia International Film Festival (July 16-August 3).
The four-day event brings new projects from around the world led by a healthy Canadian contingent that includes Karl Lemieux’s supernatural horror Le Majestic from Metafilms, whose Peak Everything premiered in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight last month; Anouk Whissell’s psychological horror Holi Womb, about a spa with a horrifying past; and Austin Birtch’s creature feature Mystery Of The Mothman, centred on a Vietnam veteran caught up in a conspiracy.
Entries in Official Selection includes dystopian horror Liminal, about a man whose twin vanishes during a livestream, which marks the feature debut of Noomi Yates, whose short Only Yourself To Blame premiered at BFI London Film Festival in 2023; and Australian supernatural horror The Halfway House from Mia’Kate Russell, who is in production on Penny Lane Is Dead, which Upgrade represents for sales.
The roster also features Hannes Baumgartner’s Swiss fantasy horror Insect Empire; Moroccan-Belgian psychological horror Le Refuge from Talal Selhami; and Rafael Toledo’s Brazilian horror western Shallow Hell, about illegal miners who encounter a demon.
This year Frontières has also programmed sections on shorts to features, a genre film lab, and music pitches.
“Over the past three years, we’ve seen a significant rise in submissions to our Frontières Co-Production Market,” market director Annick Mahnert told Screen. “More and more projects are coming from countries that hadn’t submitted before, and it’s a joy to witness such a rich diversity of cultural voices working in genre cinema. It’s clear that genre is more alive and vibrant than ever and we’re proud to be able to showcase so many outstanding projects to buyers.”
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.
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.
The 2025 selections appear below. Descriptions are adapted from wording provided by Frontières.
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Delia’s Ghost (NZ)
Dir. Elizabeth Crummett
Pdr. Belindalee Hope
Genre: Supernatural drama, thriller
The ghost of a volatile punk finds purpose when a little girl moves in who can see and talk to him. From violent poltergeist to guardian angel, he vows to protect her from both the living and the dead.
Feed (US)
Dir. Jenny Leigh Reed
Pdrs. Peter Phok, Daisy Risher, Jenny Leigh Reed
Genre: Psychological body horror
When a struggling photographer takes on a job at a cult favourite restaurant, she must decide whether their perverse work culture is worth the price of belonging.
Fiebre Caribe (US-Ven)
Dir. Diego Andrés Murillo
Pdrs. Diego Andrés Murillo, Eduardo Andrés Díaz
Genre: Horror thriller
Talyssa, apparently a vampire, lives off the grid in Queens, New York, until she decides to travel to Caracas, Venezuela’s capital city, in search of her past lover whom she almost killed due to her cannibalistic nature.
Funky Forest: The Second Contact (Japan-UK)
Dirs. Katsuhito Ishii, Shunichiro Miki, Hajime Ishimine
Pdr. Adam Torel
Genre: Fantasy comedy
20 years since the release of the original cult classic, the team behind the 2005 film Funky Forest: The First Contact return to make a follow-up set in the north of Japan.
Fur (US-Can)
Dir. Brad Abrahams
Pdrs. Matt Ralston, Frank Mosley
Genre: Horror, dark comedy, fantasy
The loosely true tale of Albert Ostman, a melancholic Canadian lumberjack who became history’s first Bigfoot abductee – and reluctant romancer.
Grey Mountain (US)
Dir. Jeremy Holm
Pdrs. Jeremy Holm, Christopher Kelly, Sarah Sharp
Genre: Sci-fi horror
A UFO abduction field study leads researchers to Ronald Walker, a devastated recluse waiting to be rescued by “Star People”.
Holi Womb (Can Quebec)
Dir. Anouk Whissell
Pdr. Maja Jacob
Genre: Psychological horror
Faced with an unplanned pregnancy that shatters her career ambitions, a distressed Grace travels to Poland to an exclusive retreat for expectant mothers, only to uncover the spa’s horrifying past and must battle for her own survival.
How Dare You (Can)
Dir. Kit & Arran
Pdr. Madeleine Davis
Genre: Horror
Prince buys a house hoping it will be a queer utopia for him and his friends, only for them to be possessed by the ghosts of the conservative family who previously lived in the house.
Insect Empire (Switz)
Dir. Hannes Baumgartner
Pdrs. Simon Jaquemet, Michela Pini
Genre: Drama, fantasy, horror
Selma, a young microbiologist, realises that she is slowly turning into an insect.
Is This You (Can-US)
Dir. Kaitlin Fontana
Pdrs. Michael Lazarovitch, Zachary Halley, Steven Tylor O’Connor, Christina Campagnola
Genre: Horror, dark comedy
Maura and her mother Jeanne have always had a tricky relationship, but when Jeanne starts publishing essays about her troubled daughter’s teenage years those versions of Maura appear like hormone-fuelled poltergeists, hell-bent on ruining the real Maura’s tenuous adult stability.
La Dormante (Can Quebec-Tunis)
Dir. Kays Mejri
Pdrs. Bahija Essoussi, Samuel Gagnon, Yasmine Dhoukar
Genre: Horror drama
Why is it called La Dormante? Once inside, you never wake up.
Le Majestic (Can Quebec)
Dir.Karl Lemieux
Pdr. Sylvain Corbeil
Genre: Supernatural horror, paranormal romance
Sébastien Judet, a geologist in his forties, accepts a position at a small natural history museum where he develops a troubled relationship with the director. As he gradually discovers the countless mineralogical specimens stored in the museum’s immense basement, he develops a fascination for his supervisor and the night.
Le Refuge (Mor-Bel)
Dir. Talal Selhami
Pdrs. Sophia Menni, Lamia Chraibi, Pierre Foulon
Genre: Psychological Horror
Leila, a survivor and exiled war refugee, has to look after an ex-diplomat, Georges, an invalid at the end of his life, but this proximity to death awakens the ghosts of Leila’s past.
Liminal (UK)
Dir. Noomi Yates
Pdr. Ioanna Karavela
Genre: Dystopian analogue horror
When his twin vanishes mid-livestream, Sam’s search leads him into a digital nightmare, where being unfilmed means becoming inhuman.
Mystery Of The Mothman (Can)
Dir. Austin Birtch
Pdrs. Sydney Lloyd, Lauren Andrews
Genre: Horror, creature feature
A troubled Vietnam veteran returns to his hometown in the wake of tragedy, only to become preoccupied in a vast conspiracy centred around a winged, red-eyed creature – one that may be tied to his own past in ways he never imagined.
Ostrich Boy (Can)
Dir. Ricardo Bonisoli
Pdrs. Holly Pavlik, Ricardo Bonisoli
Genre: Dark fantasy
Marked by a rare physical condition called “Ostrich Syndrome”, a lonely teen seeks acceptance by joining a racewalking group.
Real Blood (Neth)
Dir. Joeri Pruys
Pdr. Ewoud Bon
Genre: Horror thriller
May, an ambitious Black media artist, is being coached to succes by radical performance artist Agnes until the boundaries between art and life become increasingly blurred and May has to confront the dark side of her ambitions.
Shallow Hell (Bra)
Dir. Rafael Toledo
Pdr. Evandro Caixeta
Genre: Horror western
A group of illegal miners find a demon trapped inside a mine that offers them unbelievable riches in exchange for sacrificed body parts.
The Ballad Of Tita And The Machines (USA-Mex-Bra)
Dir. Miguel Angel Caballero
Pdrs. Helena Sardinha, Luis Antonio Aldana, Rafael Thomaseto
Genre: Sci-fi
When a robotics empire sends humanoids to take over essential labour, a crew of unlikely workers band together, led by an elderly farmworker with nothing left to lose and everything to fight for.
The Halfway House (Australia)
Dir. Mia’Kate Russell
Pdr. Andre Lima
Genre: Supernatural horror
Single mum Greta has 10 days to prove herself before regaining custody of her son. But the vengeful spirit possessing her safe house violently upends her fragile world, forcing her to fight for her self-worth, sanity, and life.
Wild Hunt (Czech-Pol-Slovakia)
Dir. Marek Najbrt
Pdrs. Jakub Koštál, Vratislav Šlajer, Jan Komasa
Genre: Fantasy, drama, supernatural horror
The greatest horrors are those we harbour within ourselves
SHORTS TO FEATURES
Child, Uninvited (Japan-S Kor-Sing)
Dir. Mai Nakanishi
Pdrs. Eun-Kyoung Lee, Tan Ai Leng
Genre: Psychological thriller
When an expectant mother opens her door to a hungry latchkey child, buried childhood traumas resurface, threatening her fragile sense of motherhood and forcing a harrowing moral choice.
Get Away (Can)
Dir. Michael Gabriele
Pdrs. Jason Levangie & Marc Tetreault
Genre: Horror thriller
A weekend getaway devolves into a nightmare when a mysterious VHS tape pulls a woman and her friends into a series of increasing terrors.
Make Me A Pizza (US)
Dir. Talia Shea Levin
Pdrs. Kara Grace Miller, Jonathan Olson, Talia Shea Levin
Genre: Fantasy, Satire, Horror
A woman compulsively seduces pizza delivery men in an attempt to become one with the divine pizza goddess, but in the process reduces the delivery men to incoherent, primordial beasts whom she must hide from the suspicious townsfolk and her jealous husband, until the pizza goddess blesses her with a belly full of more than just pizza, and her secret can no longer be contained.
Red Spider Lilies (Japan)
Dir. Koji Shiraishi
Pdr. Tomomi Furuyama
Genre: Horror
Thirty years after surviving a family murder-suicide, three vengeful sisters trained in forbidden sorcery lure the spiritual scammer who ruined their lives into a nightmarish ritual to exact justice beyond the law.
The Sleepless Girl (Tai)
Dir. François Chang
Pdr. Patrick Mao Huang
Genre: Horror
In searching for the secret behind a Japanese girl who never sleeps, a man uncovers a shocking truth – one that reveals who he truly is and the invisible thread that ties them together in another world.
GENRE FILM LAB
After The End (Can, Manitoba)
Dir. Elena Sturk-Lussier
Pdr. Jessica Landry
Genre: Thriller, survival, revenge
Surviving alone in the post-apocalyptic Canadian wilderness, a resourceful young woman readies for the threat of the upcoming winter… but an unexpected danger soon arrives at her doorstep in the form of two starving and desperate young men.
Deepfake (Can, British Columbia)
Dir. Miranda MacDougall
Pdrs. Lucy McNulty, Ariel Bond, Magdalena Shenher
Genre: Thriller
Deepfake follows a deferential true-crime junkie who discovers she’s been deep-faked into pornography. To reclaim her privacy, she must battle an outdated justice system, become her own advocate and ultimately, uncover a betrayal closer than she ever imagined.
Peachy (Can, British Columbia)
Dir. Sasha Duncan
Pdrs. Eloise Cameron-Smith; Dalila Jovanovic
Genre: Coming-of-age horror
Over summer break 16-year-old Audra and her best friends fall under the spell of a magnetic local girl, only to discover she’s not only feeding their egos… she’s feeding on them.
The Evermore (Can, British Columbia)
Dir. Mia Martinez
Pdrs. Mia Martinez & Jonnathan George, Nic Altobelli
Genre: Folk horror
Two estranged sisters are reunited when their absent father leaves them a farm after his death. They become consumed by madness after learning the land possesses a gift that someone would kill for.
They Echo (Can, Ontario)
Dir. Lu Asfaha
Pdrs. Fonna Seidu, Jay Wu, Andrew Ferguson, Matt King
Genre: Horror
When a mentally ill thirtysomething returns to her childhood home to take care of her estranged, dying mother, she’s confronted by her late father and long lost sister, the ghosts of her family’s sins.
MUSIC PITCHES
Phantasmagoria (Brigitte Dajczer, Can, Quebec)
Composer
Jon Hegel (US)
Composer
Michel Duprez & Gwenaël Mario Grisi (Bel)
Composers
Rosemarie Records (Can Quebec)
Music editor.
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