Frontieres 2023: Full Lineup Announced

Frontières will return to the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal for the 15th edition of its co-production market which will take place between July 26-29 with the Forum overlapping on July 26-28.

 

Frontières is pleased to announce the full lineup of projects for this year’s official Market and Forum selection. Notable project helmers include:  Peter Hengl (FAMILY DINNER) from Austria, Yannis Veslemes (the upcoming SHE LOVED BLOSSOMS MORE) from Greece, Jean Mach & Nicolas Alberny (8TH WONDERLAND) from France, Ashlea Wessel (the upcoming JUNCTION ROW) from Canada and Nyla Innuksuk (SLASH/BACK) from Canada. Quebec will be represented by filmmakers Jeanne Leblanc (LES NÔTRES), James Watts (DEATH TRIP) and Olivier Godin (IL N'Y A PAS DE FAUX MÉTIER). These projects showcase a wide variety of genres including horror, dark comedy, magical realism, monsters, an aquatic thriller, psychological horror and a new type of vampires. Past Frontières projects include IN FLAMES, HATCHING, LAMB, THE LONG WALK, SEA FEVER, VIVARIUM and RAW.

 

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.

 

FRONTIÈRES MARKET

 

 

ALICE  (The Netherlands)

Director: Jan Verdijk

Producer: Daniel Dow

Genre: Psychological Horror

When it becomes clear that their unborn daughter has complications, desperate parents-to-be Leon & Jaimy turn to a questionable midwife for the chance of making her ‘healthy’ again. As seemingly harmless alternative treatments slowly devolve into life-threatening rituals, the parents lose themselves to desperation of helping their child.

 

ANIMAL  (Czech Republic, Slovakia)

Director: Milada Tesitelova

Producers: Julie Zackova, Unit and Sofa Praha

Genre: Horror Comedy

Although she is trying hard to fit in, Fanynka's life in the suburbs full of perfect families gets complicated when she gives birth to a cat. She decides to steal a baby to cover it up, only to be confronted with the cult-like idea of perfect motherhood which will soon make her life unbearable.

 

ANNA NOUS PARLERA (Canada, QC)

Director: Olivier Godin

Producer: Nemesis Films Inc.

Genre: Dark Comedy

Anna Nous Parlera is an investigative dark comedy about a novel that blows the head off of whoever finishes reading it.

 

DADDY'S LITTLE GIRL  (United Kingdom)

Directors: Coral Amiga, Nicole Hartley

Producer: Federica Omodei

Genre: Psychological Horror, Thriller

A young couple is pushed to breaking point when the woman’s overbearing father interrupts their idyllic Italian getaway leading to a bloody confrontation.

 

DRAWN (USA)

Director: Cosmo Salovaara

Producers: Anne Alexander, Cousins Company

Genre: Horror, Vampire, LGBTQ

A queer, socioeconomic take on the vampire genre, Drawn invites you into the world of the titular blood transfusion app that connects the aging rich with the young, desperate donor class.

 

FREYA  (Canada BC, Australia)

Director: Rhona Rees

Producer: Kristyn Stilling, Athena Russell

Genre: Science Fiction

In a future where abortion is completely outlawed and birth control is available only to men, a woman must fight for her autonomy and her life when she is tricked into getting pregnant to a one night stand.

 

HALL OF DULLNESS (Colombia)

Director: Ángela Tobón Ospina

Producer: Máquina Espía

Genre: Science Fiction

A man pedals a stationary bike in order to recover the light of his memories.

 

KRAMPUSNACHT (Austria)

Director: Peter Hengl

Producer: Lola Basara

Genre: Horror

Every year, the young men in the alpine villages dress up in wooden masks and fur costumes to become the “Krampus” – but visiting siblings Val and Mat suspect one of them may be the devil himself – and it seems like he’s out for Val’s soul and sanity….

 

LIGHT OF THE VOID (Canada)

Director: Ashlea Wessel

Producer: Crafthaus Ltd.

Genre: Horror

A young photographer on the cusp of her big break captures a photo of an unwilling subject and finds herself at the centre of a series of mysterious, violent deaths.

 

NORTHPOLE (Greece)

Director: Yannis Veslemes

Producer: Fenia Cossovitsa

Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Period Drama

In the year 1901 Peter Blackforest and Alice Webber built a steam-powered spaceship to travel to the moon in order to escape the great flood they both believed would soon annihilate the Earth.

 

PRISM LAKE (USA)

Director: Carl W. Lucas

Producer: EchoWolf Productions

Genre: Cosmic Horror

When a young couple sets out for a quiet weekend in the mountains, they find themselves embroiled in the dark plot of a secret society with designs on resurrecting a long-forgotten Mesopotamian god.

 

PURE SCIENCE FICTION (Canada)

Director: Ryan Ward

Producers: Mackenzie Leigh, Ryan Ward, Memory Pill

Genre: Magic Realism

A young architect’s life begins to unravel when he starts to believe he can see his past and future lives.

 

SUB (Sweden, Denmark)

Director: Peter Modestij

Producer: Nima Yousefi 

Genre: Body Horror, Drama

Teenager Nina is desperately trying to win her best friend Cici back, while at the same time transforming into something less human.

 

TANIWHA (New Zealand)

Director: TBC

Producers: Libby Hakaraia, Tainui Stephens and Desray Armstrong

Genre: Monster, Thriller

A young couple fleeing tribal warfare find themselves in the valley of a shapeshifting monster: the Taniwha. Only one of them must survive.

 

THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY (The Netherlands)

Director: Michiel ten Horn

Producer: Maarten Swart

Genre: Dark Comedy

When, after a “sabbatical”, high school teacher Joe finds a connection with a group of similar tormented collegues during their weekly night of playing An Apple for the Teacher – a home-made role-playing game where the teachers hypothetically murder their most-hated students – one particularly nasty student gets under their skin and pushes the game into more and more realistic territory.

 

THE EYES OF ANOTHER (Brazil)

Director: Maria Arida

Producer: Biônica Filmes

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Trapped in a psychologically abusive marriage, the renowned choreographer Olivia Klein has an affair with Julien, one of her dancers. When a horrific fight ends with her husband Nathan dead and Julien unrecognizably disfigured, the lover undergoes reconstructive surgery to look like the husband and hide the murder. However, Olivia soon begins to question the identity of the man who survived.

 

VISITE LIBRE (Canada, QC)

Director: Jeanne Leblanc

Producer: Caramel Films

Genre: Horror

When you can no longer believe in such a bleak future… You do what you have to do.

 

WORM (Canada, QC)

Director: James Watts

Producer: Mitchell Stafiej

Genre: Horror

Be famous again... and eat whatever you want.

 

 

FRONTIÈRES FORUM

 

AND YOU AS WELL MUST DIE (USA, Poland)

Director: Audrey Ewell

Producers: Luca Borghese, AgX

Genre: Horror

While battling survivor's guilt, a young woman attempts to contact her dead fiancé. In a psychedelics-fueled ceremony, a terrifying dark figure follows her out into the real world. A mysterious neighbor appears and offers to help, but he's not who - or what - he seems.

 

HIGH PRESSURE (France)

Directors: Jean Mach, Nicolas Alberny

Producer: MAD Films

Genre: Aquatic thriller, Survival

2 brothers, 80 meters down, 24 hours of oxygen...

 

IN THE HEART OF THE SOUTH (Canada, ON)

Director: Nyla Innuksuk 

Producers: Sphere Media Productions, Mixtape VR Inc.

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Yura Ivalu is an Indigenous filmmaker who mines the complicated lives of others for inspiration.

 

MACÎSKOTÊW (EVIL FIRE) (Canada, QC)

Director: TJ Cuthand

Producers: Anne-Marie Gélinas & Sera-Lys McArthur

Genre: Indigiqueer Thriller/Adventure

macîskotêw (evil fire) is the story of a troubled hero, Kîsik, who wants to keep the ones she loves safe, while looking for answers about her missing mother.

 

THE DIRTY OYSTER (USA)

Director: Noah Wagner

Producers: Julia Elaine Mills, Zubin Asaria

Genre: Magical Realism Romance

When a jaded journalist encounters her “soulmate” at a restaurant selling the promise of True Love, she embarks on an increasingly mind-bending journey to expose The Chef as a fraud.

 

UNTIL THE LIGHT TAKES US (Norway)

Director: Rikke Gregersen

Producer: Maipo Film

Genre: Thriller/Horror

A renowned journalist returns to her home town to make a podcast series about the wave of suicides that hangs like a dark cloud over the town's black metal scene. In search of answers about where things have gone wrong, she unearths truths and conspiracies about the town that put both herself and others in a danger far greater than herself.