With smart and ambitious horror fare continuing to emerge from all over the world, Yellow Veil Pictures is launching at the Frontières Co-Production Market during the current Fantasia International Film Festival, and has already snapped up a strong selection of fright titles.
A worldwide sales company devoted to art-house genre features, Yellow Veil was founded by Hugues Barbier (founder of the Ithaca Fantastik festival, festival manager/acquisitions for Raven Banner Entertainment), Justin Timms (founder of the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival and former theatrical manager of FilmRise) and Joe Yanick (co-director of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies—NYC and former festivals/non-theatrical assistant director of Visit Films). “We seek to challenge the limits for commercial viability of art-house genre and foreign-language films for a redefined distribution landscape,” Barbier says. “These films were often lost in the festival circuit in years past, despite a noticeable growing interest from a more adventurous audience looking for new, exciting films with greater representation.”
Among Yellow Veil’s first acquisitions is Tilman Singer’s LUZ (pictured), which has been acclaimed at numerous international fests and makes its North American premiere at Fantasia this Friday, July 20. “From the first image, hell even the first sound, in LUZ, not only Tilman’s incredible talent but also his understanding of horror cinema is cemented,” Yanick says of the movie, in which the title character arrives at a nearly deserted police station with a demon on her heels. “We just fell in love with the movie, and we knew we had to have it. It’s frankly one of the most impressive debuts I’ve ever seen. We couldn’t have found another film to better demonstrate our mission statement.”
Yellow Veil has also pacted with Glass Eye Pix and Hood River Entertainment for exclusive festival/non-theatrical rights to another Fantasia title, Jenn Wexler’s punk slasher opus THE RANGER (screening on Monday, July 23). The company has further snatched up a pair of in-the-works fright features: A MAN IN THE DARK from debuting director Josh Lobo, about a man who believes he has trapped the devil in his basement, starring AJ Bowen (YOU’RE NEXT), Jocelin Donahue (THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL), Chris Sullivan, Scott Poythress and Susan Burke; and DESERT WITCH, Michael Borowiec and Sam Marine’s follow-up to their award-winning MAN UNDERGROUND, about a punk singer caught between religious extremists and a witches’ coven her mother was once part of. Yellow Veil is working with the filmmakers to secure financing on WITCH, targeting a 2019 production start. Keep your eyes here and on Yellow Veil’s website for updates on their movies.
