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with Europe and Australasia (Asian nations were excluded so as not to con- fl ict with NAFF), Frontieres will present 14 projects including genre veteran Stu- art Gordon’s Purgatory, Bafta-nominated short-fi lm director Robert Morgan and Sam Walker’s The Withering and Jorge Michel Grau’s Keep Quiet, the follow-up to Grau’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2010 socio-horror We Are What We Are. Frontieres will be part of the new


Fantasia Industry Rendez-Vous (July 26-29), which also includes the Fantasia Film Market, where buyers and sellers can negotiate rights for fi lms in the festi- val’s offi cial line-up. “We are working on a good mix of


European and US sales agents that can come and pre-buy. For distributors, it’s mostly going to be US distributors but we’d like to have a couple of European distributors that really cater to genre fi lms and obviously we want to have pro- ducers from all over,” notes Trepanier.


Of Alien Bikini then won the Grand Prize at Yubari the following year.” The spark that leads to new collabora-


tions is common among genre fi lm festi- vals, even if they do not have official project markets. After meeting at the London-based FrightFest, for example, directors Simon Rumley and Jake West are teaming up for a fi lm version of West’s much-praised documentary Video Nas- ties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape. Also, while not born at the Montreal-


based Fantasia, horror anthology The Theatre Bizarre came about as a result of friendships developed at the event. “The goal of the project market is to


have much more of that,” says Fantasia’s Trepanier. “The line-up of projects we have are all projects that have great potential and commercial viability; all those different aspects can be good for co-production.” Aimed at connecting North America


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Boosters for launch And for the fi lms involved in the likes of PiFan and Fantasia, either in official selection or their project markets, events can prove the perfect launch. Swedish director Filip Tegstedt, whose debut fea- ture Marianne received its world pre- miere at last year’s Fantasia, believes the Fantasia launch was essential to his fi lm’s long-term development. Since Fantasia, Marianne has gone on


to play at several other genre festivals and it received a limited theatrical run in Ostersund, Sweden with eight sold-out screenings in 10 days around Halloween. “When you have an independent pro- duction and start out with a relatively small production budget, there is no money left for promotion and you’re completely reliant on blogs and websites, word of mouth, social media and film festivals. Without festivals, you’ve got none of the others,” says Tegstedt.


John Shackleton,


managing director of UK independent production company Movie Mogul which saw its fi rst fea-


FANTASTIC VOYAGE


Established in 1996, the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation (EFFFF) has developed a network of festivals that allows fi lms to reach foreign audiences and increased visibility within the industry. With the aim of supporting


‘Our audiences are hyper- informed and embrace films that take risks. They’re also, for the most part, not cynical in the way certain festival crowds


can be’ Mitch Davis, Fantasia


European fantastic cinema artistically and economically, EFFFF created the Golden Mélies competition for best European fantastic fi lm. The competition is organised by the nine affi liated members of the EFFFF with each festival awarding one of its fi lms the Mélies d’Argent. Each winner then competes for the Mélies d’Or, with the ceremony taking place at one of the federation’s festivals. For short fi lms, the competition is open to all European members of the federation. As well as its nine affi liated


members, EFFFF has nine adherent members — including FrightFest and Bruges-based Razor Reel Fantastic Film Festival — and four supporting members: Fantasia, PiFan, Fantastic Fest and Los Angeles-based Screamfest Horror Film Festival.


ture Panic Button world premiere at FrightFest last year, agrees. “We had UK offers of distribution, but I’m fairly sure the announcement of our acceptance [to FrightFest] accelerated the deal with UK distributor, Showbox Media. “It is hard to quantify the precise ben-


efi ts [of FrightFest] but we did well in terms of reviews and editorial copy. Critic, fan-site and viewer reviews mul- tiplied both before and after the festival, spilling out onto IMDb, social media and the mainstream press. Public and buyer perceptions of the fi lm undoubt- edly shifted too, with the Film4 Fright- Fest stamp of approval.” Shackleton also highlights another


of the key benefi ts of genre fi lm festi- vals. “Not having a theatrical release for the fi lm, it was great to see it in a 1,200- seat cinema. We were all very thrilled and couldn’t have hoped for a better launch pad.”


June-July 2012 Screen International 51 ■


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