In the age of rapid digital change and increased accesability, how we consume mass media has been forever altered. With such tiny miracles in our pockets at any moment we can pick our poison and watch content instantly.<\/p>\n
How we watch content has stretched beyond ‘on our phones’ to ‘how do you hold your phones’. To the chagrin of some, those raised in theaters specifically, the vertical format for a while has been the bane of our existence. It has been a losing battle from the start because, for younger generations, it’s what they know. It’s what they grew up on — the umpteen number of social media platforms around the World mostly present in the vertical format.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The arrival of micro-dramas in China eight years ago cemented the format over there. And since the genre’s migration into Western markets a couple of years ago the 9:16 aspect ratio is here to stay.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So what about fans of horror, sci-fi, fantasy and thrillers? What about us? There may not be a dedicated platform for it, yet, but there are a lot of filmmakers embracing the format and making their own micro-horror films.<\/p>\n
That leads us to our friends at Fantastic Pavilion and their first ever, Fantastic Pavilion Vertical Cinema Cannes 2026. It will be an international showcase of works in the vertical 9:16 format, focused exclusively on horror, fantasy, sci-fi, and thriller. It is comprised of 28 projects from 17 countries, from all corners of the World, brought together with the purpose to highlight the format and its possibilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the mix are a couple Mexican filmmakers that have graced our pages before. Our Mexican brother from another mother, Lex Ortega (Atros, Mexico Barbaro) y Carlos Mel\u00e9ndez (Mexico Barbaro II) both have vertical shorts in the program. Seeing as we spoke about China and the role that micro-dramas had in cementing the format there are two projects from China worth pointing out —\u00a0The Tower of Hunger\u00a0directed by Hui Kuang, and\u00a0The Golden Tomb Seekers\u00a0(dir. Yifan Zhang, Ran Ou, Yong Chen) which is adapted from The Grave Robbers’ Chronicles\u00a0(Daomu Biji) a massive literary IP back in China.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All of the projects, the filmmakers and countries of origin will be found in the full annoncement from our friends at Fantastic Pavilion, below.\u00a0<\/p>\n
FANTASTIC PAVILION VERTICAL CINEMA \u2014 CANNES 2026 Official Press Release<\/p>\n
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The audiovisual industry is no longer debating whether vertical format is legitimate. It has already happened. Mobile consumption, digital platforms, and a generation of filmmakers who grew up with a phone in their hand have produced a new narrative grammar \u2014 one that is short, immersive, and built for screens that fit in a pocket. The question now is not whether vertical cinema exists, but who is doing it with artistic ambition and genre DNA.<\/p>\n
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The answer, in part, arrives at Cannes.<\/p>\n
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In its first edition within the Fantastic Pavilion at the March\u00e9 du Film, Fantastic Pavilion Vertical Cinema Cannes 2026 presents an international showcase of works in the vertical 9:16 format, focused exclusively on horror, fantasy, sci-fi, and thriller. With submissions received from more than 17 countries and a rigorous selection process, the showcase brings together 28 projects that demonstrate something the industry has been slow to acknowledge: that genre filmmakers are the least afraid of formal risk, and that vertical format is not a limitation \u2014 it is a new kind of dread.<\/p>\n
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Established voices, new language<\/p>\n
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One of the most significant signals of this edition is the presence of filmmakers with consolidated careers who are choosing vertical format as creative territory worth exploring. Mexican filmmaker Lex Ortega \u2014 whose debut feature Atroz was described as the most violent film in the history of Mexican cinema, and who in 2025 directed Muertamorfosis, the first Mexican horror film created using artificial intelligence \u2014 presents Witness. Carlos Mel\u00e9ndez, director of two genre features, veteran of M\u00e9xico B\u00e1rbaro II, and director of Netflix series Mi Encuentro con el Mal, enters with two works: The Offering and The Blind Alley. Lauand Omar, the Syrian-born, Germany-based filmmaker whose Curse of Mesopotamia (2016) landed coverage from Paris Match, Al Jazeera, and BBC World and opened at #1 at the box office in Iraq, brings Bitten Soon. And I\u00f1aki Aguilar, the Mexican director based in Madrid whose debut feature Lujuria screened at Sitges in 2025 and won multiple Best Feature Film awards internationally, presents Garlic Clove.<\/p>\n
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Their presence alongside emerging and first-time directors is precisely the point: vertical genre cinema is not a consolation format for those who cannot access traditional production. It is a deliberate choice being made at every level of the industry.<\/p>\n
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The weight of IP: China enters the vertical<\/p>\n
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Two of the selected works arrive carrying the weight of major intellectual properties from the Chinese market \u2014 and their inclusion signals something larger about where vertical micro-drama is heading globally.<\/p>\n
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The Tower of Hunger (dir. Hui Kuang) is a sci-fi and fantasy work based on a strong Chinese IP. Its premise \u2014 a team of space adventurers stranded on a monster-driven planet with no food, forced to confront what humans become when pushed to the edge of survival \u2014 is exactly the kind of high-concept genre material that travels. The question the story asks is not how to survive monsters, but how humans become them.<\/p>\n
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The Golden Tomb Seekers (dir. Yifan Zhang, Ran Ou, Yong Chen) is an action, adventure, and fantasy piece adapted from The Grave Robbers’ Chronicles, one of China’s most significant literary IPs. The novel series has generated a film adaptation in 2017 that grossed $150 million at the box office, multiple television series, and an extensive universe of related content. Its adaptation into vertical micro-drama format for this showcase positions the Fantastic Pavilion at the intersection of one of the world’s largest entertainment markets and the emerging language of mobile-first storytelling. Chinese media attention for this selection is anticipated to be significant.<\/p>\n
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A Latin American bridge: the Cartagena Fantastic alliance<\/p>\n
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From its inception, the Fantastic Pavilion Vertical Cinema Showcase was designed as a global initiative. But building genuine Latin American representation required more than an open call \u2014 it required a deliberate alliance. That alliance came through Cartagena Fantastic, a partnership with M\u00f3rbido and AG Studios launched during the 65th edition of the Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival (FICCI) last April.<\/p>\n
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Cartagena Fantastic served as both a preview of what will become a major dedicated genre section at FICCI in 2027, and as an active creative laboratory: in addition to receiving completed micro-stories, five teams from Colombia, Mexico, and Peru filmed their vertical genre works on location within the walls of the Caribbean city itself. The goal was clear \u2014 to accelerate the experimentation with vertical storytelling among Latin American genre filmmakers, and to bring those voices directly into the Cannes showcase.<\/p>\n
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The result is visible in the official selection. Rodolfo Abdias Arrascue Navas (Peru, Tras los Espejos), whose feature documentary Ino Moxo: El Sue\u00f1o del Brujo won Best Latin American Feature Film at the Vi\u00f1a del Mar International Film Festival in 2024; Alejandra Rocas (Colombia, Subconsciente), editor and genre film curator with Netflix credits and a seat on the BOGOSHORTS selection committee; and Jes\u00fas Rodr\u00edguez “Chiva” (Mexico, Aldaba), feature director of Los Jefes (2015) \u2014 all emerged from the Cartagena process and now represent Latin American vertical genre cinema on the March\u00e9 du Film stage.<\/p>\n
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“The fantastic genre holds answers to some of the questions we ask ourselves today: it is capable of creating community, loyalty, and positive results, especially when one of the concerns is whether the decline in theater audiences is due to a thematic disconnect with current film proposals. Furthermore, when discussing changes in formats and consumption habits, genre is the field with the least fear of taking aesthetic and formal risks. From this perspective, for a festival like FICCI, which is characterized by its focus on emerging Ibero-American talent, the creation of a space like Cartagena Fantastic is only logical. The rest is made possible by the partners found along the way to conspire with: M\u00f3rbido, AG Studios, and of course, the Fantastic Pavilion \u2014 allies with the same drive and the necessary degree of madness to call for the challenge of narrating through genre and verticality, from Colombia, the micro-stories that bring us to the Pavilion today.” \u2014 M\u00f3nica Moya, Director of Industry, FICCI<\/p>\n
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“For me, what matters is the story and the universe it creates \u2014 not the size of the window you look through. Fantastic cinema has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to narrative risk and formal innovation \u2014 it doesn’t wait for permission to experiment, it leads. The Fantastic Pavilion Vertical Cinema Showcase exists because we believe a great horror story told in 9:16 is still a great horror story. The window is different. The dread is the same.” \u2014 Pablo Guisa Koestinger, Founder & Executive Director, Fantastic Pavilion<\/p>\n
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Official Selection \u2014 Fantastic Pavilion Vertical Cinema Cannes 2026<\/p>\n
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TAG \u2014 Mads Erichsen \u2014 Denmark<\/p>\n
Nahuales \u2014 Alejandro Cervantes Orozco \u2014 Mexico<\/p>\n
Snapshot \u2014 Joseph Archer \u2014 UK<\/p>\n
My Father’s Son \u2014 Miguel Angel Ferrer \u2014 USA<\/p>\n
Late Night With Me \u2014 Bari\u015f Fert \u2014 T\u00fcrkiye<\/p>\n
A Girl and her Demons \u2014 Brian Avenet-Bradley, Laurence Avenet-Bradley \u2014 USA<\/p>\n
The Tower of Hunger \u2014 Hui Kuang \u2014 China<\/p>\n
Witness \u2014 Lex Ortega \u2014 Mexico<\/p>\n
WANA \u2014 Quetzalli Bulnes Salazar \u2014 Mexico<\/p>\n
Again \u2014 Anastasia Sidorova \u2014 UK<\/p>\n
Chat GPTerror \u2014 Daniel Escobedo \u2014 Mexico<\/p>\n
The Offering \u2014 Carlos Mel\u00e9ndez \u2014 Mexico<\/p>\n
Dracula wants to die \u2014 Mauricio Peralta \u2014 Chile<\/p>\n
Garlic Clove \u2014 I\u00f1aki Aguilar \u2014 Spain<\/p>\n
The Blind Alley \u2014 Carlos Mel\u00e9ndez \u2014 Mexico<\/p>\n
The Golden Tomb Seekers \u2014 Yifan Zhang, Ran Ou, Yong Chen \u2014 China<\/p>\n
Bitten Soon \u2014 Lauand Omar \u2014 Germany<\/p>\n
Internal Fatal \u00c6rror \u2014 Elias Nathan Suarez \u2014 Ecuador<\/p>\n
Fruit \u2014 Cristiano de Oliveira Sousa \u2014 Brazil<\/p>\n
The Alley \u2014 Leandro Mark, Pablo Camaiti \u2014 Argentina \/ Uruguay<\/p>\n
The Walkers \u2014 Marcel Rutschmann \u2014 Mozambique<\/p>\n
A Destiempo \u2014 Laura Antonia Zambrano \u2014 Colombia<\/p>\n
Subconsciente \u2014 Alejandra Rocas \u2014 Colombia<\/p>\n
Visor \u2014 Carlos Armando Castillo \u2014 Colombia<\/p>\n
Aldaba \u2014 Jes\u00fas Rodr\u00edguez “Chiva” \u2014 Mexico<\/p>\n
Anima de Marea \u2014 Laury T. Herrera \u2014 Colombia<\/p>\n
No Nacidos \u2014 Liannys Badillo Acosta \u2014 Colombia<\/p>\n
Tras los Espejos \u2014 Rodolfo Abdias Arrascue Navas \u2014 Peru<\/p>\n
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Lex Ortega (Mexico) \u2014 Witness<\/p>\n
Filmmaker, screenwriter, sound designer. Debut feature Atroz was hailed as “the most violent film in the history of Mexican cinema” and became a worldwide cult sensation. Co-created the M\u00e9xico B\u00e1rbaro anthology franchise and contributed to the rebooted La Hora Marcada series \u2014 the show that originally launched the careers of Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n. In 2025 released Muertamorfosis, the first Mexican horror film created using artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
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Carlos Mel\u00e9ndez (Mexico) \u2014 The Offering \/ The Blind Alley<\/p>\n
Graduate of NYFA Los Angeles. Two features: After School (2014, Best Director\/Best Film at Encuentro Mundial de Cine) and Hysteria (2016, Best Director at Macabro Horror Film Festival). Part of M\u00e9xico B\u00e1rbaro II. Directed Netflix series El Desconocido and Mi Encuentro con el Mal. Over 10 short films screened at festivals worldwide including Morelia, Macabro, and Toulouse.<\/p>\n
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Lauand Omar (Germany) \u2014 Bitten Soon<\/p>\n
Born in Syria, raised in Germany, trained in Miami and Toronto. Feature Bekhal’s Tears (2005) premiered at the Emirates Film Competition in Abu Dhabi and became the first Kurdish film selected at an Arabic film festival. Second feature Curse of Mesopotamia (2016) gained international coverage from Paris Match, Al Jazeera, and BBC World, and premiered as the #1 film at the box office in Iraq.<\/p>\n
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I\u00f1aki Aguilar (Spain) \u2014 Garlic Clove<\/p>\n
Mexican filmmaker based in Madrid. Debut feature Lujuria (2025) screened at Sitges Film Festival and won multiple Best Feature Film awards at festivals worldwide. Short film El Exorcismo de Dolores won the Rivas Plat\u00f3 de Cine Award at the Rivas Film Festival in 2025.<\/p>\n
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Jes\u00fas Rodr\u00edguez “Chiva” (Mexico) \u2014 Aldaba<\/p>\n
Music video director who made his feature debut with Los Jefes (2015), produced by and starring members of the hip-hop group Cartel de Santa. The film portrays structural violence in northern Mexico using non-professional actors.<\/p>\n
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Leandro Mark & Pablo Camaiti (Argentina\/Uruguay) \u2014 The Alley<\/p>\n
Leandro Mark is known for co-directing the Argentine comedy El novio de mam\u00e1. Pablo Camaiti is a Buenos Aires-based director and producer who has specialized in integrating artificial intelligence into audiovisual projects.<\/p>\n
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Alejandro Cervantes Orozco (Mexico) \u2014 Nahuales<\/p>\n
Mexican director, screenwriter, editor and producer specializing in fantasy, horror, sci-fi and romance. Short film La Bestia received four awards at the 7SIFF in Argentina. Has screened work at Morelia and multiple genre-focused festivals.<\/p>\n
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Quetzalli Bulnes Salazar (Mexico) \u2014 WANA<\/p>\n
Primarily known as an actress and TV host (WWE en Espa\u00f1ol, Telemundo, Netflix). Pursuing a master’s degree in film and writing her first horror feature. WANA is likely part of her directorial debut. Notable for her massive reach with Spanish-speaking audiences.<\/p>\n
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Mads Erichsen (Denmark) \u2014 TAG<\/p>\n
Self-taught, award-winning director known for Heksen, Fishermen Vs. Bikers, and Vindm\u00f8llernes sus. Released feature Better Day in 2025, which circulated at European festivals.<\/p>\n
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Rodolfo Abdias Arrascue Navas (Peru) \u2014 Tras los Espejos<\/p>\n
Filmmaker, visual anthropologist, cinematographer, producer and university professor at the Pontificia Universidad Cat\u00f3lica del Per\u00fa. Co-founder of Casa Luz Films, recognized by Peru’s Ministry of Culture. Feature documentary Ino Moxo: El Sue\u00f1o del Brujo (2024) won Best Latin American Feature Film at the Vi\u00f1a del Mar International Film Festival in Chile.<\/p>\n
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Alejandra Rocas (Colombia) \u2014 Subconsciente<\/p>\n
Audiovisual editor, archive collector, and genre film curator in Colombia. Graduate of Universidad Nacional de Colombia’s Film and Television program. Edited Netflix series including Haunted, Ventino, and Arelys Henao, and served on the BOGOSHORTS selection committee. Subconsciente is likely her directorial debut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the age of rapid digital change and increased accesability, how we consume mass media has been forever…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,60,270],"class_list":["post-437811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}