As the excitement builds amongst the global film industry ahead of Cannes kicking off next month, NZIFF are proud to announce that we will be presenting film project The Cage at Cannes Marché du Film’s prestigious Fantastic 7 finance market this May.

Fantastic 7, now in its fourth year, showcases seven upcoming projects from the global genre industry, presented by seven different film festivals, to an international film industry network during the Cannes Film Festival, enabling its participating filmmakers to pitch to distributors, investors, and production representatives.

We are in very good company, with other festivals participating in Fantastic 7 including SXSW (USA), Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival (Catalonia), Toronto International Film Festival (Canada), Cairo International Film Festival (Egypt), Guadalajara International Film Festival (Mexico) and BIFAN – Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (South Korea).

The Cage is based on Brian Keene’s seminal horror novel and centres on hostages being held captive in a home electronics store who must escape from a fanatic who intends to use them as human sacrifices to summon an evil interstellar deity. The film will be directed by Paul Campion (The Devil’s Rock).

NZIFF General Manager Sally Woodfield says, “NZIFF is delighted to be putting forward The Cage at this year’s Fantastic 7 and are exceptionally proud to endorse its producer, Jared Connon. Aotearoa has a long tradition of producing excellent horror, thriller and fantasy genre films and we’re so pleased to put our support behind Kiwi talent at a global level.”

Jared began his filmmaking career as a location manager, working on titles including The Lord of the Rings trilogy, River Queen, King Kong, The Hobbit trilogy and Ghost in the Shell. He then went on to be a Production Manager on films including Mulan and Da 5 Bloods, as well as The Lord of the Rings television series. Recently Jared was Line Producer on A24 horror films X and Pearl. Jared formed his production company Five Films to focus on creating engaging local content for international audiences.

The Cannes Marché du Film will run as both an in-person and online event in 2022, with Fantastic 7 taking place on Sunday, 22 May.