Directed by Vegard Dahle and produced by Jon Vatne, Norwegian zombie comedy Grandmonster has won the main Outpost Award at the 15th Frontières Co-Production Market - the genre-focused industry platform held between 22 and 25 July alongside the Fantasia International Film Festival (running 16 July – 2 August) in Montréal.

The top prize, announced during the market's closing ceremony on 25 July, consists of CAD 15,000 (€9,300) in post-production services. Picked from among the 20 projects selected for this year's Official Selection, Grandmonster follows an American dropout who inadvertently triggers a zombie outbreak at a remote Norwegian nursing home while trying to save her grandmother from dementia. As if flesh-eating seniors weren’t enough, she’s also forced to contend with budget cuts, bureaucracy and Scandinavian conflict aversion.

Two projects from the Shorts to Features strand received Outpost Special Mention Awards, each accompanied by CAD 5,000 (€3,100) in post-production services. Celine Tien and Jerry Hsu's science-fiction drama Reset follows a young woman who embarks on a journey with her brother and their newly reset mother in a future where the elderly are turned into children in order to remain economically useful. Meanwhile, Edson Jean's horror Sea Spirits is set amidst social and political upheaval and centres on a guilt-ridden mother who’s haunted by the ghost of her lost-at-sea daughter and who refuses to leave the country in search of her.

The PurpleDOG Award for an Official Selection project, worth CAD 10,000 (€6,200) in post-production services, went to Thai filmmaker Songsak Mongkolthong's supernatural folk horror Cher, in which a vine-entangled corpse lures a police officer to a mining camp built on forbidden forestland, where his estranged brother and a mysterious woman awaken long-buried sins and unleash a deadly forest horror. The PurpleDOG Award for the GEMS section of the Genre Film Lab was presented to Cassidy Civiero's horror thriller Wifey, which follows an artist on the cusp of transitioning from female to male who’s seduced by a volatile man determined to force them into traditional gender roles through a non-consensual marriage.

Last but not least, the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival Award - which includes an invitation to pitch at this year's Sitges Industry Hub - was presented to Jasmine De Silva's Eternal Valley, a dark comedy body-horror project selected in the Shorts to Features programme. The film follows a jealous teenager whose best friend is even more idolised following her death and who subsequently embarks on the ultimate makeover by wearing the deceased beauty queen's face.

The full list of award winners is as follows:

Outpost Award
Grandmonster – Vegard Dahle (Norway)
Producer: Jon Vatne

Outpost Special Mention Awards
Reset – Celine Tien, Jerry Hsu (USA)
Producer: Julien Soros

Sea Spirits – Edson Jean (USA/Jamaica)
Producers: Eugene Sun Park, Robert Maylor

PurpleDOG Award – Official Selection
Cher – Songsak Mongkolthong (Thailand)
Producers: Rachvin Narula, Kulthep Narula, Hans Audric B Estialbo

PurpleDOG Award – GEMS / Genre Film Lab
Wifey – Cassidy Civiero (Canada)
Producer: Mariel Sharp

Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival Award
Eternal Valley – Jasmine De Silva (UK)
Producer: Tuli Litvak