New Zealand International Film Festival to present horror film The Cage at Cannes Marché du Film this May

New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) will proudly present 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.

In addition to NZIFF, other festivals represented in Fantastic 7 include 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.”

The Cage producer Jared Connon says, "Collaborating with director and writer Paul Campion on The Cage has been an absolute privilege as we've delved deep into the horror genre together. Now stepping forward to begin financing the picture, we’re excited to be sharing our vision within an environment dedicated to the creation of amazing genre films."

Jared began his filmmaking career as a location manager, working on titles including The Lord of the Rings trilogy, River Queen, King Kong, 10,000 BC, The Hobbit trilogy, Ghost in the Shell and The Light Between Oceans. He then went on to be a Production Manager on films including Mortal Engines, Mulan, Da 5 Bloods, as well as The Lord of the Rings television series. Recently Jared was the Line Producer on A24 horror films X and Pearl. Jared has 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.