The Genre Film Lab Announces 2025 Films & Teams
It is that time of year when The Genre Film Lab, an accelerator program for women and gender diverse genre filmmakers here in Canada, announces the teams selected for this program. The program is led once again by Vanessa Meyer, who was a member of the team at the Frontieres Co-Production Market befoer striking out on their own.
One name in the group pops out right away, Lu Asfaha. We recently wrote about their project, They Echo, back in December, when Asfaha was selected by Women In The Director's Chair (WIDC) to receiver last year's WIDC Feature Film Award.
Participants in this year's program will also be invited to Frontieres in Montral this Summer to participate in a dedicated pitch session during the program.
THE GENRE FILM LAB ANNOUNCES 2025 FILM SELECTIONS & TEAMSGender Equity in Media Society (GEMS) is pleased to announce the five films selected for 2025 The Genre Film Lab. The Genre Film Lab (formerly known as From Our Dark Side) is an accelerator program designed to support the development of Canadian genre film creators whose projects are at an advanced stage of development. Genre projects include, but are not limited to: thrillers, western, science fiction, fantasy and horror – or any imaginative combination of these. The teams include writers, directors and producers selected based on the submission of their original narrative feature film concepts.We are proud to announce that the five films this year include projects from British Columbia, Manitoba, and Ontario. The projects are: THEY ECHO (Lu Asfaha, Fonna Seidu, Jay Wu), PEACHY (Sasha Duncan, Eloise Cameron-Smith, Dalila Jovanovic), DEEPFAKE (Lucy McNulty, Miranda MacDougall, Ariel Bond), THE EVERMORE (Mia Martinez, Jonnathan George, Nic Altobelli), and AFTER THE END (Elena Sturk Lussier, Jessica Landry).This year’s projects were evaluated and selected by a jury of filmmakers and genre industry experts including: Austin-based acquisitions manager, programmer, professor, and producer Logan Taylor, Canadian Screen Award nominated director, writer and actor Mary Galloway (The Cowichan Sweater: Our Knitted Legacy) from the Cowichan nation, and Elizabeth Purchell, a Brooklyn-based queer film historian, programmer, and filmmaker. Leading the 2025 Genre Film Lab, for the fourth year, is filmmaker, performer, and programmer Vanessa Meyer, who was also the former Programming Director for Frontières International co-pro market.“As I head into my fourth year with The Genre Film Lab, I am incredibly proud to be welcoming such an exciting and strong lineup of projects from emerging Canadian female and gender diverse genre filmmakers. It is such an honour to help grow this creative and powerful community of creators and genre industry professionals, and it is even more amazing to see the amount and quality of our submissions continue to increase year by year. Along with the GEMS team, I am looking forward to introducing our 2025 finalists and their dynamic new projects to the international genre film market. As always, the goal of this program is to support the development of underrepresented voices, and to foster a community through which these voices may prosper and be heard,” says Program Director Vanessa Meyer.The Genre Film Lab program has expanded this year and will begin a month earlier, at the beginning of May, with not one, but two masterclasses on story development and pitching, instructed by the award-winning producer and coach Helene Granqvist (former president of Women in Film and Television International) and will culminate with a dedicated pitch session at the Frontières International Co-Production Market (July 23-26, 2025). The sessions will include group development & pitch masterclasses, a Film Sales & Distribution seminar, three strategy sessions with genre industry experts focusing on financing and packaging, one-on-one pitch development sessions, individualized consultancies, and a practice pitch session with a group of genre industry professionals.More on the film projects and the top 5 film teams below:PROJECT TITLE (Original & English language): THEY ECHODIRECTOR & WRITER: Lu AsfahaPRODUCERS, with associated PRODUCTION COMPANY: Fonna Seidu (Snail Mail Media) Jay Wu, Andrew Ferguson and Matt King (LaRue Entertainment)PRODUCTION PROVINCE/TERRITORY: OntarioPROJECT TITLE (Original & English language): PEACHYDIRECTOR & WRITER: Sasha DuncanPRODUCERS: Eloise Cameron-Smith; Dalila JovanovicPRODUCTION PROVINCE/TERRITORY: BCPROJECT TITLE (Original & English language): DEEPFAKEDIRECTOR: Miranda MacDougallWRITER: Ariel BondPRODUCER(S), with associated PRODUCTION COMPANIES: Lucy McNulty (Strange Company Productions), Ariel Bond (Storiel Entertainment), Magdalena Shenher (consulting)PRODUCTION PROVINCE/TERRITORY: BCPROJECT TITLE (Original & English language): THE EVERMOREDIRECTOR & WRITER: Mia MartinezPRODUCERS, with associated PRODUCTION COMPANIES: Mia Martinez & Jonnathan George (Familiar Blue Films), Nic Altobelli (Naltobel Productions)PRODUCTION PROVINCE/TERRITORY: BCPROJECT TITLE (Original & English language): AFTER THE ENDDIRECTOR & WRITER: Elena Sturk LussierPRODUCER, with associated PRODUCTION COMPANIES: Jessica Landry, Familiar FilmsPRODUCTION PROVINCE/TERRITORY: ManitobaThe Genre Film Lab 2025 is proudly supported by Telefilm Canada and Frontières Market. Past funders include Creative BC, and Warner Bros Discovery Access Canada in 2024.
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