Johnnie To's 'Two Gun Cohen' Leads Frontières Genre Showcase Heading to TIFF 2026
Johnnie To's Two Gun Cohen is among seven genre projects selected for Frontières at TIFF: The Market, a standalone showcase for co-producers, sales agents and buyers set to run during the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2026 (Variety).
Frontières is the international co-production market originally organized by Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival. The Toronto edition is open to genre projects at any stage — financing, production, or post-production — with a majority of Canadian titles in the mix (Frontières Market).
The showcase drew more than 100 submissions for what was initially meant to be five slots. The quality of the entries was strong enough that organisers expanded the selection to seven. Fantasia deputy director Tania Morissette told Variety the calibre of submissions made the selection process genuinely difficult (Variety).
To's Two Gun Cohen is produced by Todd Brown, formerly head of international acquisitions at XYZ Films, who has described the project as a "dim sum western" — a fusion of eastern and western genre traditions. To is one of Hong Kong cinema's most prolific directors, known across a career spanning decades for crime thrillers and action films that circulate widely on the international festival circuit.
The remaining six titles span horror, dark comedy, and fantasy. Ringing the Changes, a psychological horror about honeymooners who begin hearing bells in a deserted town, is based on a story by the British cult author Robert Aickman and directed by the U.K. filmmaker Felix Dembinski. Peter Kuplowsky — a producer on the breakout 2024 slasher In a Violent Nature — produces through his Low Sky Productions, alongside producer Ethan Harari and executive producer Jessy Kehra.
Fin, a fantasy dramedy from writer-director Lowell Dean, is produced through Dean's Lolofilm Productions with Danielle Masters and Mark Montague. The Pageant, a surreal folk horror by Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall, follows a lost French-Canadian backpacker who falls in with a femme cult worshipping a being kept in a mason jar. Wolf of the North, a dark comedy from 90th Parallel Productions and Beyond the Frame, is directed by Jerome Sable and co-written with Pat Thornton. Felt, a psychological body horror, is written and directed by Ran Jing and developed through her production company Black R.
TIFF 2026 runs September 10–20 in Toronto, with the full schedule now live across 293 titles in its Official Selection (TIFF; Gold Derby). The festival's first lineup announcement in July included world premieres of I Play Rocky, Chris Rock's Misty Green, Anton Corbijn's A Talent For Murder, and a new film from John Madden (Deadline).
For genre fans, the Frontières showcase is where early-stage films find the money and distribution deals that carry them to a screen — sometimes two or more years after the market itself. A sales agent or buyer walking through these seven titles in September may well be looking at a festival favourite, or a midnight hit, that no general audience has heard of yet.
