FilmQuest Details New Genre-Focused Film Market, ‘Marché Du Cthulhu’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Provo, Utah-based genre festival FilmQuest is detailing its inaugural film market.

Named the “Marché du Cthulhu” in tribute to H.P. Lovecraft’s famed cosmic beast, the market is described as “taking a curated approach to presenting buyers, distributors, sales agents, and more with films they believe have commercial value and that will sell in markets around the world along with the festival’s Official Competition lineup.”

The market takes place in person and remotely, concurrent with the festival, from Oct. 27 — 29, at Provo’s InTension Studios, hosted by the genre production company Intension Industries.

“We’re thrilled to have an opportunity to provide exposure for an additional collection of features. As the appetite for genre titles continues to expand, we see this market leading to more acquisitions in the space. More support for emerging filmmakers translates to more content offerings for audiences,” Jon Fitzgerald, Marché du Cthulhu director and co-founder, said in a statement.

“We received 3,000 submissions this season for FilmQuest, nearly 500 of which were feature films,” Jonathan Martin, festival director and Marché co-founder, also said in a statement. “While it would be impossible for us to program all of them in our competition lineup, we saw many feature films that have commercial value that still deserved to be recognized and seen by distributors that are potentially being overlooked.”

Participants include Sony, CAA, Vertical Entertainment, Bleecker Street, Scatena & Rosner Films, Breaking Glass, StudioDome, Chroma, Archstone, Buffalo 8 and Jackrabbit Media with more to be announced.

In addition to the available Official Selection films, available titles include Guy Bauer’s dark comedy thriller “Ana the Cleaner” (USA); Andy Chen’s sci-fi thriller “Another” (USA); Julian Hoffman’s horror slasher comedy “Autumn Hill” (Canada); Jesse Behrenwald’s sci-fi thriller “Brother Saves Us” (USA); Cyrus Neshvad’s dystopian horror, and Luxembourg’s official Oscar entry, “Child” (Luxembourg); Stewart Sparke’s sci-fi creature feature “Dead Reset” (United Kingdom); David Hebero’s familial horror “House of Atreus” (Spain); Jen Walden’s postapocalyptic sci-fi “Lumi” (Canada); Jessica Vogt’s space-set sci-fi “Phase” (United Kingdom); Robert Cannon’s action thriller “Prowler” (USA); Rob Alicea’s sci-fi screen-life thriller “Serena” (USA); Willard Morgan’s and Gideon Berger’s period horror “The Tannery” (USA); Shayne Putzlocher’s horror “The Wrath” (Canada); Maxwell Morro’s action folk horror “Valley of the Horntak” (USA); and Nick Psinakis’s and Kevin Ignatius 70s set crime thriller “Valley View Motel” (USA).

“Every season, there’s at least an additional 30-50 titles submitted to the festival which aren’t programmed that we later see being distributed across various platforms,” Martin also said. “The thinking is that if we’re already watching hundreds of the latest genre features on the market, which gives us an early look at all the trends, emerging talent, and then some, why not hone that down and present this directly to the buyers with a market experience that doesn’t involve hundreds of booths, thousands of films, and all the pomp and circumstance that comes with it, but instead pare it down to films we know will sell and whose value to the market are immediately obvious.”

The team is already looking to grow the market next year, hoping to include competitions, pitch opportunities and an expanded lineup.

Click here for more information about the festival, and click here for the festival’s program and market guide.