Le Frisson qui vient (1)

Festival start: 16 April 2027      Festival end: 18 April 2027

[Indicative date: the festival will take place in April 2027, though possibly on a different weekend]

Le Frisson qui vient is a festival powered by the association Le Cinéma qui vient, founded in April 2026. The association’s mission is to bring cinema to rural areas and to offer high-quality artistic programming to territories with limited access to cultural experiences.

The Festival’s Core Principles
— Showcasing new voices

Le Frisson qui vient is a discovery-driven festival. We seek out first features, second films, and works created outside established circuits—films that don’t tick the “right” boxes. Innovation, boldness, and surprise are our guiding principles.

— Reinventing genre

Genre cinema has its codes. We are interested in those who dare to bend them. What matters to us is fear as it has not yet been seen: emerging from a frame, a sound, an image, or the unspoken. The kind that settles in before anything even happens. Each edition of Le Frisson qui vient is a laboratory—a mapping of what the genre can still invent.

— Atmosphere over gore

We do not program gore films. This is not a moral stance, but an aesthetic one. The kind of thrill we champion is built through atmosphere, tension, and ambiguity. The most lasting fear, in our view, is the one the viewer constructs themselves—in silence, between two shots, in subtext, in what remains off-screen.

— Doing more with less

Some of the most important films in horror history were made with very limited means: a handheld camera, a forest, a night. Constraints foster invention, and invention can yield remarkable results. In this spirit, Le Frisson qui vient awards each year a Found Footage Prize, paying tribute to a form that turned limitation into its own language.

— More than a festival

Le Frisson qui vient is as much an experience as it is a screening event. The festival is conceived as a work in itself: recurring characters appear, voices emerge from the darkness, fragments of narrative accumulate year after year. At the edge of a medieval castle, you discover not only a program, but a universe. We cultivate uncertainty—the very source of the thrill. Each edition reveals a little more. And compels you to return…

— Found Footage Prize

For each category:
— Jury Prize
— Audience Award

Dotations to be announced at a later date.

Le Frisson qui vient is looking for works that evoke fear differently: through atmosphere, image, sound, and silence. Films that have something to say about fear—and a singular way of expressing it.

* What We’re Looking For
- A strong aesthetic intention

Form matters as much as content. We are looking for films in which every directorial choice—lighting, framing, editing, sound—contributes to building the sense of unease.

- A new approach to fear

We prioritize films that reinvent the codes of the genre—whether through psychological horror, atmospheric tension, or pure strangeness.

- Emerging filmmakers

The festival highlights new voices. First and second features, young filmmakers, independent projects: you are at the heart of our selection.

- No gore

The festival is not a space for graphic violence. Films whose impact relies solely on bloodshed do not align with our editorial vision.

- Accepted Formats

Short film: Up to 40 minutes

Feature film: From 60 minutes

Experimental film: Any duration

- Geographic Scope

All nationalities are welcome. Le Frisson qui vient is an international festival. We believe that fear is a universal language.

For French productions, special attention is given to films made outside the Île-de-France region—in support of filmmaking rooted in diverse territories.

- How It Works

1. Submission via Festhome
Submit your film directly on the platform. Please include a password-protected screening link, a complete technical sheet, and a director’s statement.

2. Review by the selection committee
Each film is watched in full. We read the director’s statements—they matter.

3. Individual response
Whether selected or not, all filmmakers receive a response. Selected films will be contacted directly regarding screening arrangements.