Yellow Veil Pictures, Inc. a new worldwide film sales company focusing exclusively on arthouse genre cinema launches out of the Frontières Co-Production Market at the Fantasia International Film Festival with the German horror film Luz.
Yellow Veil Pictures is formed by Hugues Barbier, Ithaca Fantastik Founder and Festival Manager and Acquisitions for Raven Banner, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival founder and former Theatrical Manager of FilmRise, Justin Timms, and the former Festivals and Non-Theatrical Assistant Director of Visit Films, Joe Yanick, Co-Director of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies – NYC. In addition to Barbier, Timms, and Yanick, the team has brought on Fantasia International Film Festival’s International publicist Kaila Sarah Hier to handle the company’s press and publicity.
Acquired after its world premiere at the Berlinale 2018, Luz has been celebrated internationally at festivals such as BAFICI, Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival, and Fantaspoa (Best Actress winner – Luana Velis). It will make its North American premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in the Camera Lucida competitive section on July 20th.
“From the first image, hell even the first sound, in Luz, it’s not only Tilman’s incredible talent but also his understanding of horror cinema is cemented. 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,” said Joe Yanick.
Wrapping post-production, Josh Lobo’s directorial debut A Man in the Dark also joins Yellow Veil’s slate. Starring AJ Bowen (You’re Next), Jocelin Donahue (House of the Devil), Chris Sullivan (Stranger Things), Scott Poythress (The Signal), and Susan Burke (Southbound), the Christmas-set psychological horror focuses on man’s descent into paranoia, after he traps what he believes to be the devil in his basement.
Yellow Veil Pictures will also extend its company reach towards projects in development and have struck a deal with Man Underground (New Flesh Award Winner – Fantasia Film Festival 2016) filmmaking team Michael Borowiec and Sam Marine to package and secure financing for their sophomoric effort, Desert Witch. The script follows a punk singer, who, after being exiled from her community, is thrust into a small town conflict between religious extremists and an alleged coven of witches her estranged mother once belonged. The film will take place in a small desert community in the American West, and is slated for a 2019 production schedule.
With a focus on the sustainability of the festival circuit, Yellow Veil Pictures offers their hand to titles needing festival strategy consultation and bookings. As part of this effort, they’ve penned a deal with Glass Eye Pix and Hood River Entertainment for the exclusive festival/non-theatrical rights on Jenn Wexler’s punk rock slasher, The Ranger, out of SXSW’s Midnights program
“We seek to challenge the limits for commercial viability of arthouse genre and foreign language films for a redefined distribution landscape. 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” Hugues Barbier added.