You never know what will be waiting for you in the woods... In today's Horror Highlights, we have two clips from the upcoming thriller Without Name, as well as details on the Nitehawk Shorts Festival Selects program, Frontières returning to the Fantasia International Film Festival, and the official trailer for The Passing.

Without Name Clips: Press Release: "Los Angeles, California (June 16, 2017) - Global Digital Releasing has set a distribution date for the award winning dramatic thriller Without Name. The North American release will be across multiple digital and VOD platforms, beginning Tuesday, June 20.

The story follows land surveyor Eric (Alan McKenna). He travels to a remote, unnamed Irish woodland to assess its suitability for a new development project. However, the assignment it is not as simple as it could be. Intrigued by the woods’ foreboding mysticism, Eric finds himself drawn into a dangerous game that could lead to him becoming a prisoner of this place - without name.

Without Name has been a festival darling. It has appeared as an official selection at: TIFF (Toronto), SITGES (Spain), BFI LFF (UK), ADIFF (Ireland), GFF (Scotland), PIFF After Dark (Portland), the Boston SciFi Film Festival, the Miami Film Festival, IMAGINE Film Festival (Netherlands) and the Dead By Dawn Horror Film Festival (Scotland). It has also won “Best Feature,” “Best Director,” “Best Editor” and “Best Cinematography” at the 2016 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival.

The film will be available in North America on major platforms. Platforms hosting the release will include: iTunes, Amazon Instant, Google Play, Sony PSN, X-Box Live, Vudu, Vimeo on Demand, Steam, Roku, Crackle, Hoopla, Seed & Spark and Tubi TV. A Cable VOD date will follow soon. The official poster and trailer will debut just prior to the film’s release, but several stills and two clips are available now. The clips are titled “The light in here is weird” and “Land surveyin’, huh?”"

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Nitehawk Shorts Festival Selects: Press Release: "BROOKLYN, NY - June 13, 2017 - Nitehawk Cinema has announced its first theatrically distributed program called Nitehawk Shorts Festival Selects to take Nitehawk’s commitment to emerging artists to a larger audience. Curated by Nitehawk’s Director of Programming/Special Projects, Caryn Coleman, Nitehawk Shorts Festival Selects is a curated 91-minute program featuring seven short films from the 2016 Nitehawk Shorts Festival.

For the past five years, Nitehawk’s annual festival has championed new voices in independent short filmmaking to audiences in New York with its sold out screenings and filmmaker talks. Though short in length, all films are under 20-minutes, these shorts encompass styles from social documentary to feminist thriller and, as a whole program, represents the diversity, inclusiveness, and power of succinct storytelling.

Access to short films frequently exists only at festival screenings or on an online platform. The mission with Nitehawk Shorts Festival Selects is to build upon our support of emerging filmmakers each year at the Festival by getting these short films in front of as large an audience as possible and ultimately, into the cinema as well.

The stories told within this program offer a wide representation of voices that provide a glimpse into the future of independent filmmaking. It's clear that good things do, indeed, come in small packages. With Sundance's touring shorts program, distributors like Neon incorporating short films into theatrical packages and with submissions to our Festival and overall program continuously expanding, make it clear that there is an appetite for the production and exhibition of short form content. Nitehawk is honored to be a part of this current moment for short films. - Caryn Coleman, Director of Programming/Special projects

The selected films include last year’s Festival Jury Award winner Saj Pothiawala’s Vegas, Festival Jury Runner-Up Marysia Makowska’s Dahlia, Cinematographer Award winner Doron Max Hagay’s Vape, Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan’s The Send-Off (best short documentary at San Francisco International Film Festival and Best Texas Short at SXSW), Catherine Fordham’s Consomme and inaugural Huffington Post Impact Award winner Dan Taberski’s These C*cksucking Tears, who went on to create the successful Missing Richard Simmons podcast.

The Nitehawk Shorts Festival Selects program will premiere in New York at Nitehawk Cinema on Wednesday, June 21, 2017 and will have a run at the theater June 23 – June 29, 2017. Other theaters and cultural institutions across the country to be announced shortly. For updated information on where the program will tour from July - September, you are invited to visit: http://nitehawkshortsfestival.com/2017/touring-program/

The 2017 Nitehawk Shorts Festival will take place over November 7-12, 2017 and showcase filmmaker workshops, parties and hosted artist talks. Regular submissions close June 25, with last chance, late submissions accepted June 26 through July 30."

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Frontières at the Fantasia International Film Festival: Press Release: "MONTREAL, THURSDAY, JUNE 15 2017 - After a highly successful Frontières Platform at the Marché du Film – Festival de Cannes, Frontières returns to the Fantasia International Film Festival for the ninth edition of its co-production market, which will take place July 20–23 in Montreal.

Industry Registration for Frontières is now open (Market guide listing deadline: June 23).

Frontières connects North America with Europe in an environment specifically focused on genre film production and financing. Frontières marks its return to Fantasia with an expanded project line-up that includes a new initiative focused on female-driven early development projects, the Directed by Women Pitch & Networking Session. This new event will feature seven Canadian projects pitched by up-and-coming female writer-directors, and is presented in collaboration with Telefilm Canada & Women in Film + Television Vancouver.

Following the announcement of a first wave of projects, Frontières is pleased to announce an additional 10 projects in the official line-up from a strong cross-section of experienced and emerging directors and producers from across North America and Europe. This selection includes new projects from producers Taylor Hackford (RAY, THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE), Mike Macari (THE RING), Mark Lwoff (CONCRETE NIGHT), Alix Taylor (IN A VALLEY OF VIOLENCE, MANIAC), and producers Adam Hendricks, John Lang, and Greg Gilreath (LUCKY).

These projects join a line-up of previously announced titles from the legendary George A. Romero (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, DAWN OF THE DEAD), director/writer Blaine Thurier (LOW SELF-ESTEEM GIRL, indie rock’s THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS), producers Titus Kreyenberg (I AM NOT A WITCH), Caroline Piras (AUX YEUX DES VIVANTS - AMONG THE LIVING), the team behind I SELL THE DEAD and the live radio drama TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE, Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid with writer Clay McLeod Chapman (THE BOY); and the team behind LFO & ROBIN, director Antonio Tublén and producer Alexandre Brondsted.

Frontières@Fantasia 2017: Second Wave of Projects

BITTER (Canada/USA)
Director: Craig Goodwill
Writer: Stephen Susco
Producers: Taylor Hackford, Mike Macari, Craig Goodwill

BLACK BATS (USA)
Director/Writer: Rick Spears
Producers: Adam Hendricks, John Lang, Greg Gilreath (Divide/Conquer)

THE CLEANER (Netherlands)
Director/Writer: Jan van Gorkum
Producers: Jan Doense, Herman Slagter (House of Netherhorror)

THE HOME (USA)
Director: L. Gustavo Cooper
Writer: Peter Cillela
Producer: Alix Taylor

LOVE, SEX & KILLING (UK)
Director: Henry Scriven
Writer: Raymond Friel
Producers: Sara Huxley, April Kelley (Mini Productions), Colin Day (Rickshaw Entertainment), Eddie Dick (Makar Productions)

LE MEILLEUR DES DEUX MONDES (Canada)
Director: Yves Simoneau
Writer: Pierre Revelin
Producer: Yves Simoneau

MEMORY OF WATER (Finland)
Director: Saara Saarela
Writer: Ilja Rautsi
Producers: Misha Jaari, Mark Lwoff (Bufo)

POCHINOK (Spain)
Director/Writer: Daniel M. Caneiro
Producers: Pedro Palacios, Luis Ferrón (LaCima Producciones)

THE SAVIOURS (UK)
Director: Rosie Toner
Writers: Rosie Toner & Jonathan Barraclough
Producer: Kathy Speirs (Up Helly AA LTD)

VFC (Canada)
Director/Writer: C.S. Roy
Producer: Stéphanie Morissette, C.S. Roy (La Maison de prod)

Directed by Women: Pitch & Networking Session
Presented by Telefilm Canada & Women in Film + Television Vancouver

THE LOT
Director/Writer: Mariel Scammell

MARRIED TO MURDER
Writer: Samantha Loney

SLAXXX
Director: Elza Kephart
Writers: Patricia Gomez Zlatar & Elza Kephart
Producers: Patricia Gomez Zlatar (Head on the Door Productions) & Elza Kephart (Midnight Kingdom Films)

STRANGE THINGS DONE
Writer: Elle Wild (based on her novel)

SWITCHBACK
Director/Writer: Melanie Jones

TRICKS
Director/Writer: Gada Jane
Producers: John Orpheus, Atlin Mitchell (Velvet Icons Productions)

WATER FROM STONES
Writer: Bridget Canning

FRONTIÈRES is organised by the Fantasia International Film Festival, in partnership with the Marché du Film – Festival de Cannes, and is co-funded by the Creative Europe MEDIA programme of the European Union. Frontières 2017 is made possible thanks to our major partners: the Netherlands Film Fund, Wallimage, the Nordisk Film & TV Fond, Telefilm Canada and SODEC.

For more information, please visit frontieresmarket.com"

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The Passing Trailer, Clip & Poster: Press Release: "Los Angeles, California (June 12, 2017) - Global Digital Releasing recently announced the worldwide digital and VOD release date of the award winning film THE PASSING. Leading up to its official release on Tuesday, June 13th, the distributor is now debuting the official trailer, poster and newest clip, “The Visitor.”

The film, which was acquired for North America by XYZ Films, revolves around two young lovers (Annes Elwy and Dyfan Dwyfor). They crash their car into a ravine in the remote mountains of Wales. Dragged from the river by a mysterious figure they will later come to know him as Stanley (Mark Lewis Jones). Together, they are taken to a ramshackle farm, a place untouched by time. As events unfold, we learn the explosive truth about the young couple's past. More unsettling still, we discover the ghostly truth about Stanley and the tragedy of the valley he once called home.

Shot in the beautiful Welsh countryside, the film was written by Ed Talfan and directed by Gareth Bryn. In addition to winning three 2016 BAFTA Cymru awards: Best Actor: Mark Lewis Jones, Best Writer: Ed Talfan and Best Production Design: Tim Dickel, the film also won the Univercine Jury Award in the Nantes British Film Festival. Also, the film was nominated for Best Debut Screenplay, in the British Independent Film Awards 2016. The film has also been critically acclaimed by multiple press outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter and The Guardian. Sight and Sound Magazine stated: “watertight in its construction, and steeped in all manner of melancholic transgressions. As satisfying as it is profoundly sorrowful.” And Popoptiq.com exclaimed: “…The Passing is a masterstroke of allegory and mood that continues to haunt long after it’s over.”

The film will be available in North America and across the globe on major platforms such as iTunes, Amazon Instant, Seed & Spark, Google Play, Sony PSN, X-Box Live, Vudu, Vimeo on Demand, Steam, Roku, Crackle, Hoopla and Tubi TV. Cable VOD will follow at a later date. You can check out the official trailer and poster and the latest clip, titled “The Visitor,” right here!"

  • Derek Anderson
    About the Author - Derek Anderson

    Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.

    When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.