07/07/2025 - This year’s selection showcases daring genre films in development, spanning 20-plus countries and stories that blur the lines between reality and the fantastical

Returning to Montréal for its 14th edition, the Frontières Co-Production Market (23-26 July) has announced its full 2025 line-up, reaffirming its position as the leading industry platform for genre film co-production between Europe and North America. Organised by the Fantasia International Film Festival and the Marché du Film – Festival de Cannes, Frontières once again gathers filmmakers and producers from around the world, offering a dynamic space for them to connect over bold, original, and often politically and socially engaged stories that push the boundaries of genre cinema.

This year’s selection spans 21 feature projects in the Official Selection, alongside five works in development in the Shorts to Features strand, five projects in the Genre Film Lab, and four composers and sound professionals in the Music Pitches segment. Across these strands, creators from over 20 countries will pitch their projects, seek financing and creative partners, and begin their journey towards production.

The diversity of voices is a defining feature of this year’s market, with projects rooted in cultures from across the globe, from Swiss body horror, North African fantasy and Caribbean folklore to East Asian psychological thrillers, Antipodean ghost stories and North American social horror. The Official Selection spans horror, sci-fi, thriller, fantasy and dark comedy, offering bold takes on contemporary fears and desires. Whether grounded in mythology or extrapolated from real-life anxieties, these films explore borders that are literal, imagined, psychological, cultural and fantastical.

Among the standout European projects at this year’s Frontières is Insect Empire by Swiss director Hannes Baumgartner, a Kafkaesque horror-drama following Selma, a young microbiologist undergoing a disturbing metamorphosis as she slowly turns into an insect. From Morocco and Belgium, Talal Selhami’s Le Refuge centres on Leila, an exiled war survivor who cares for a dying diplomat, only to have the proximity to death unearth ghosts from her past. Central and Eastern European genre is represented by Wild Hunt, a Czech-Polish-Slovak co-production by Marek Najbrt, which explores the primal terrors lurking within us all through a mythologically charged supernatural horror.

From the Netherlands, Joeri Pruys presents Real Blood, a psychological horror-thriller in which a young, black media artist is drawn into the manipulative world of a radical performance mentor, blurring the boundaries between life and art. Also selected is Liminal by UK-based director Noomi Yates, a dystopian analogue horror about a man’s descent into a surreal digital void after his twin brother vanishes during a livestream, a reflection on identity, surveillance and the erasure of the self in a hypermediated world.

The Shorts to Features strand supports filmmakers making the leap from the short form to their first or second feature. Meanwhile, the Genre Film Lab serves as an incubator for early-stage projects, offering script feedback and packaging strategies for Canadian projects. The Music Pitches section continues to explore synergies between composers and filmmakers. This year, four music professionals will pitch their work to directors and producers attending the market.

Frontières is made possible thanks to the support of Telefilm Canada, SODEC, the Government of Quebec, the City of Montréal, Wallimage and the Netherlands Film Fund.

Here is the complete selection of the 14th Frontières Co-Production Market:

Official Selection

Fur – Brad Abrahams (Canada/USA)
Producers: Matt Ralston, Frank Mosley

Insect Empire – Hannes Baumgartner (Switzerland)
Producers: Michela Pini, Simon Jaquemet

Mystery of the Mothman – Austin Birtch (Canada)
Producers: Sydney Lloyd, Lauren Andrews

Ostrich Boy – Ricardo Bonisoli (Canada)
Producers: Holly Pavlik, Ricardo Bonisoli

The Ballad of Tita and the Machines – Miguel Angel Caballero (USA/Mexico/Brazil)
Producers: Helena Sardinha, Luis Antonio Aldana, Rafael Thomaseto

Delia’s Ghost – Elizabeth Crummett (New Zealand)
Producer: Belindalee Hope

Is This You – Kaitlin Fontana (Canada/USA)
Producers: Michael Lazarovitch, Zachary Halley, Steven Tylor O’Connor, Christina Campagnola

Grey Mountain – Jeremy Holm (USA)
Producers: Jeremy Holm, Christopher Kelly, Sarah Sharp

Funky Forest: The Second Contact – Katsuhito Ishii, Shunichiro Miki, Hajime Ishimine (Japan/UK)
Producer: Adam Torel

How Dare You – Kit & Arran (Canada)
Producer: Madeleine Davis

Feed – Jenny Leigh Reed (USA)
Producers: Peter Phok, Daisy Risher, Jenny Leigh Reed

Le Majestic – Karl Lemieux (Canada)
Producer: Sylvain Corbeil

La Dormante – Kays Mejri (Canada/Tunisia)
Producers: Bahija Essoussi, Samuel Gagnon, Yasmine Dhoukar

Fiebre Caribe – Diego Andrés Murillo (USA/Venezuela)
Producers: Eduardo Andrés Díaz, Diego Andrés Murillo

Wild Hunt – Marek Najbrt (Czech Republic/Poland/Slovakia)
Producers: Jakub Koštál, Vratislav Šlajer, Jan Komasa

Real Blood – Joeri Pruys (Netherlands)
Producers: Ewoud Bon, Joeri Pruys

The Halfway House – Mia'Kate Russell (Australia)
Producer: Andre Lima

Le Refuge – Talal Selhami (Morocco/Belgium)
Producers: Sophia Menni, Lamia Chraibi, Pierre Foulon

Shallow Hell – Rafael Toledo (Brazil)
Producer: Evandro Caixeta

Holi Womb – Anouk Whissell (Canada)
Producers: Maja Jacob, Yoann-Karl Whissell, Benoit Beaulieu

Liminal – Noomi Yates (UK)
Producer: Ioanna Karavela

Shorts to Features

The Sleepless Girl - François Chang (Taiwan)
Producer: Patrick Mao Huang

Get Away – Michael Gabriele (Canada)
Producers: Jason Levangie, Marc Tetreault

Child, Uninvited – Mai Nakanishi (Japan/South Korea/Singapore)
Producers: Eun-Kyoung Lee, Tan Ai Leng

Make Me a Pizza – Talia Shea Levin (USA)
Producers: Kara Grace Miller, Jonathan Olson, Talia Shea Levin

Red Spider Lilies – Koji Shiraishi (Japan)
Producer: Tomomi Furuyama

The Genre Film Lab

They Echo – Lu Asfaha (Canada)
Producers: Fonna Seidu, Jay Wu, Andrew Ferguson, Matt King

Peachy – Sasha Duncan (Canada)
Producers: Eloise Cameron-Smith, Athena Russell

Deepfake – Miranda MacDougall (Canada)
Producers: Lucy McNulty, Ariel Bond, Magdalena Shenher

The Evermore – Mia Martinez (Canada)
Producers: Mia Martinez, Jonnathan George, Nic Altobelli

After the End – Elena Sturk-Lussier (Canada)
Producer: Jessica Landry

Music Pitches

Brigitte Dajczer (Canada) – music composer
Jon Hegel (USA) – music composer
Michel Duprez, Gwenaël Mario Grisi (Belgium) – music composers
Rosemarie Records (Canada) – music editor