Variety Talent to Track Nicolas Wong Wins Fantastic Lab Central Am.

The winners are in. Fantastic Lab Central America & Caribbean has unveiled six finalists and one grand prize at the Cannes Fantastic Pavilion.

Presented by Baby Atómica, one of Fantastic Lab’s partners, the grand prize goes to “We Won’t Let the Goat Die” (“No dejaremos que muera la cabra “) a co-production involving Costa Rica, Perú and Panamá with Variety Talent to Track DoP Nicolas Wong (“La Llorona,” “Love is the Monster”) producing.

As part of the award, Baby Atómica will give its director Felipe Zúñiga and Wong the opportunity to shoot their proof of concept together with its team in Costa Rica.

Zúñiga was a producer of “Love is the Monster” and first AD on a host of acclaimed Central American films such as “Clara Sola” “and “Beloved Tropic.”

The fantasy drama follows 10-year-old Bernardo, who after his father’s death, clings fiercely to his mother while secretly caring for an injured baby goat deep in the rainforest. But when he witnesses an ocelot feeding its young with the same animal beneath a mysterious glowing sphere, he discovers that love and violence spring from the very same instinct.

Launched at the inaugural Costa Rica Media Market last year in partnership with Grupo Morbido, the Fantastic Lab Central America & Caribbean, coordinated by Costa Rican film commissioner Marysela Zamora and Grupo Morbido CEO Pablo Guisa, sent out an open call which lured 55 projects from across the region. Out of these, 15 were selected as part of the first phase, working closely with Grupo Morbido, led by Guisa and genre filmmaker Adrian Garcia Bogleano (“Night of the Wolf”), who also mentored.

The six finalists include a project from El Salvador, two from the Dominican Republic, one from Honduras in co-production with Mexico and Spain and two from Costa Rica.  Overall, they reflect a strong regional tendency toward politically charged genre cinema that transforms horror into a language for memory, history and lived social tension. They will go on to pitch their projects at the upcoming Costa Rica Media Market in July.

“The winning projects of this edition of Fantastic Lab demonstrate the growth and evolution of fantastic cinema in Central America and the Caribbean. This initiative, developed by the Fantastic Pavilion of the Cannes Marché du Film in partnership with the Costa Rica Media Market, helps strengthen talent development, foster collaborative networks and create greater opportunities for creators in the region to connect with the international audiovisual industry,” said Laura López, General Manager of Costa Rica’s Foreign Trade Promotion Agency.

Said Guisa: “This first edition of the Fantastic Lab Costa Rica was a tremendous success. Watching the projects grow through the online workshop — guided by our advisors — was genuinely exciting. The diversity of themes, countries and subgenres represented tells you everything about how vibrant Central America and the Caribbean are as a region, historically and culturally. The Fantastic Lab doesn’t just showcase that, it takes it to another level. This is exactly what the Fantastic Pavilion is here to do: support and enrich the genre community in every region of the world.”

The Six Finalists:

“Cacao Tea” (“Té de Cacao”), Marcia Isabel Arenas Víquez, Costa Rica, Spain, Mexico.

This psychological horror drama follows Alexa, a woman returning to Costa Rica with her partner in search of ancestral connection at a spiritual retreat that promises healing and authenticity. But as dubious therapies and unsettling postcolonial rituals blur the line between wellness and manipulation, Alexa begins uncovering the disturbing forces hidden beneath the retreat’s seductive façade. Sofía Meza Herrera of Blue Paradox Films produces.

“Echoes” (“Ecos”), Kryzz Gautier, Dominican Republic.

This gothic horror fantasy follows historian Catalina and her girlfriend Salomé after they uncover a mysterious artifact inside a colonial sugar plantation that transports them to the 17th century. There, they relive the tragic romance between an enslaved woman and the governor’s daughter — two lovers who share their faces. As past and present collapse into one another, the couple must confront inherited trauma, forbidden desire and a haunting cycle the house refuses to let die. Lead produced by Reclaimed Ent. with Rampante Films co-producing.

“Greetings from Maryland” (“Saludos desde Maryland”), Ricardo B’atz’, El Salvador.

This horror film follows a group of undocumented migrant workers in the United States who unknowingly unleash a cursed presence while demolishing an abandoned house. As the entity begins hunting them down one by one, the film blends supernatural terror with the precarity, exploitation and invisibility of immigrant labor. Cayaguanca Films produces.

“Macheteros,” Daniel Emilio Oramas, Dominican Republic.

This creature-feature horror film plunges into the jungles of the Dominican Republic, where a group of road workers battling brutal conditions encounter the Ciguapa — a terrifying figure from local folklore with backward feet and the power to possess men through her gaze. Blending survival horror, environmental tension and class conflict, the film reimagines Dominican mythology as a savage tale of revenge and “the law of the jungle.” Angélica Pérez-Castro produces.

“The Fire Within” (“El Fuego Interior”), Javier Suazo Mejía, Honduras, Mexico, Spain.

Produced by Zumo, Fosforito Films, El Médano and Aída Herrerías, the  supernatural horror film set on a Caribbean island, follows a successful priest who returns home after his adoptive brother dies from spontaneous human combustion. As he investigates the mysterious death, he uncovers buried family secrets and awakens a terrifying force that threatens to consume everything around him.

“What Comes With the Storm” (“Lo que trae la tormenta”), Miguel Angel Ferrer, Costa Rica, U.S.

This creature-feature horror film follows a reclusive ex-military doctor who shelters a desperate mother and daughter as a deadly hurricane tears through the Caribbean, only to discover a terrifying creature has followed them into his home. Trapped by the storm, he must battle both the monster stalking the house and the darkness within himself to survive the night. Produced by La Pajara Cine and Magic Films. Dinga Haines produces.