An auteur-driven trend commands greatest consensus among experts. Matteo Lovadina, CEO of Paris-based sales and co-production company Reel Suspects, observed that some great examples recently of genre film have, “thanks to their clever storytelling,” been able to attract both auteur and genre audiences.

“Films like Joachim Trier’s ‘Thelma,’ Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’, David Robert Mitchell’s ‘It Follows’ or ‘Hereditary,’ have brought genre cinema again into focus and restored a certain credit to this hidden part of the cinematic world,” Lovadina observed.

A “pure genre player,” Reel Suspects has sold genre from its inception, witnessing large change: “Only recently festival programmers, sellers and buyers have found a new faith in clever genre films,” Lovadina adds, mentioning other key titles in the last years –Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’ “Goodnight Mommy,” Emiliano Rocha Minter’s “We are the Flesh.”

Ángel Sala, director of October’s Sitges Intl. Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, Europe’s biggest genre movie meet, said: “Smart genre is a trend which is strongly consolidating. Directors tend to be young, and use genre motives in different ways.” Doing so, they have won selection at non-specialized festivals like Sundance or Cannes. Sala believes some productions to be excessively minimalist and pretentious and others brilliant such as Jennifer Kent’s “The Babadook,” “It Follows” or Luca Guadagnino’s “Suspiria,” –the re-visitation of Dario Argento’s 1977 iconic movie, which opens Sitges Oct. 4.

The festival director also points out that established auteurs, such as Lars Von Trier, have occasionally used genre elements in order to develop a personal cinema.

Mike Hostench, Sitges deputy director and a jury member for upcoming Sitges Pitchbox, doesn’t much like the tag “smart genre” (“as if Roman Polanski’s ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ wasn’t ‘smart’,” he says). But “there’s really an increasing trend of auteur terror, or so-called smart genre,” he says. “It’s a phenomenon that is very much rooted in the U.S., although there’ are some examples in Austria or Germany. Directors love genre cinema, but they look for some twists in order to intellectually defy audiences,” he adds.

Many smart genre titles come from Latin America. Examples at Sitges Pichbox: ”The Monster Within,” Rodrigo Susarte’s awaited feature debut, produced by Chile’s Forastero. “They Vanished,”—featuring this year— a fantasy thriller directed by Inti Carrizo-Ortiz and also produced out of Chile, this time by Estudio 19 Producciones.

A second trend: Zombies. Jongsuk Thomas Nam, managing director at the Bucheon Int’l Fantastic Film Festival and jury member at Sitges Pitchbox, mentions everything from throwback living dead features, musicals – John McPhail’s “Anna and The Apocalypse,” youthful longing – Justin P. Lange and Klemens Hufnagl’s “The Dark,” love stories – Mathieu Turi’s “Hostile” and Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke’s “Cargo,” and the Apocalypse – Trey Edward Shults’ “It Comes at Night.”

“Globally, stories about zombies are all over the map these days.” Jongsuk says. “The common thread with these titles seems to be less emphasis on ‘shock value’ and more on strong storyline presence.”

Sala points out that this trend has arisen since 9-11. “It’s the ‘angst,’ the anguish hooked into the population since then, afraid of an invisible enemy. This not only encompasses zombies, but also sci-fi movies and other sub-genres. Think titles like Zack Snyder’s “Dawn of the Dead,” Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later,” the “Resident Evil” franchise or Steven Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds.” All of them are from after 2001,” Sala notes, adding that many terror movies keep finding inspiration in this societal fear. He mentions another recent sample— Crazy Pictures’ “The Unthinkable.”

A third trend: Throwbacks to the ‘70s and ‘80s. Series like “Stranger Things” and features like François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell’s “Summer of ’84” or Panos Cosmatos’ “Mandy” pay large tribute to that period not just through visuals, but musical aspects as well.

”With filmmakers having watched the classic horror movies while growing up, these new auteurs are creating original stories with influences from their early viewing experiences.”

But trends in genre are quickly changing, Sala says: “Some time ago, tendencies were changing every five years; now, every two years.”

Some new ones may surface at the Sitges Festival, running Oct. 4-14 and at Sitges Pitchbox, which takes place on Oct. 5.

Optimale will release the film theatrically in France, second quarter 2018.

Written by Choosy, “My Life with James Dean” turns on a buff tyro film director Géraud Champreux (Johnny Basse) who finds fresh inspiration in France’s deep Channel coast North when dispatched to present his first feature in three cinema houses in Calais and environs.

There is a fish-out-of-water comedic element to his promotion tour: Geraud is lost as soon as he steps off the coach at his first stop after a boy steals his cell phone. His movie – a frank Jean Genet-ish LGBT tale of carnal passion – doesn’t see the most likely title to move waves at the cinemas; and Géraud is as concerned about breaking up with the film’s leading man as in promoting his movie.

And yet, and this is the magic of filmmaking, the title and Géraud himself begin to collect supporters, from the frumpy receptionist at the chintzy hotel he puts up at, to a local cultural activist who books the cinemas and has love problems of her own, to the young projectionist at the first cinema where it plays, who falls head-over-heels in love with Géraud. In maybe the film’s most moving scene, an aging woman who catches all the sessions is revealed to be Géraud’s estranged mother.

As the promo tour careers from dire screenings to trawler trips and drunken evenings, Géraud gets the inkling of inspiration for a movie which will pay an upbeat, musical homage to the warmth of reception he finally receives in this windswept part of France.

“My Life with James Dean” is shot by Laurent Coltelloni whose in-frame framing and use of primal colors makes some of the action look like a film within a film. The orchestrated physical comedy of some scenes, with couples shadowing other couples along the street, also pays homage to silent cinema.

Produced by François Drouot, Marie Sonne-Jensen and Nathalie Agazi at Paris’ La Voie Lactée, “My Life With James Dean” has other countries in sales negotiations which should be finalized before the Berlinale’s European Film Market, Lovadina said.

“Dominique Choisy’s sweet craziness is back again after ‘Les Fraises des bois,’ mixing universal themes with matters of intimacy matters in a magical atmosphere thanks to a masterful cinematography and direction of actors,” said Lovadina.

He added: “This is funny and subtle storytelling, generous and human that plays on all the strings of melancholia. A pure cinematographic moment, and a perfect fit for our elevated authors’ line-up.”

An alum of Paris’ prestigious L’Idhec film school and an editor at French pubcaster channel France 3 and teacher at the college of Amiens, Choisy broke out to attention with his debut, “Confort Moderne,” a drama about a woman attempting to shape her own life which shared the Fipresci award at Argentina’s 2001 Mar del Plata Festival. Choisy’s second feature, 2012’s “Les fraises des bois” – recounting the bonding of two social misfits, a gay supermarket cashier and a farm girl, each with a secret – was also knit with a visual humor and unspooled in northern France. “My Life with James Dean” represents a more upbeat turn.

Sasidharan moved the Kerala High Court, who ordered the festival to screen the film. The version to be screened was a censored version certified by the CBFC where the title was changed to ‘S Durga’ (Durga is the name of an Indian goddess and a popular female name) to avoid offending Hindu religious sentiments. Swear words were also muted. India’s information and broadcasting ministry appealed against the court decision, but it was quashed.

The Panorama selectors, with three new members replacing the ones who resigned, viewed the film again on Nov. 27, the penultimate day of IFFI, and put it to a vote. The jury voted 7-4 in favor of screening the film.

On Nov. 28, the last day of IFFI, the CBFC issued a letter to the film’s producer Shaji Mathew stating: “We have received complaints from the IFFI (selectors) at Goa that the title of the film on the title card is shown by the film maker as “S### Durga” (where the # means rectangular white boxes) which has totally different implications and are effectively undermining and attempting to defeat the very basis of the title registration and changes effected thereby.”

The CBFC said that the filmmakers are in violation of the Cinematograph Act and the film will be re-examined. Until then, the film cannot be exhibited. IFFI concluded without screening the film. The CBFC letter provided an excuse to the festival and the ministry who would have been in contempt of court if they had not screened the film.

The censored “S Durga” played at the Mumbai Film Festival and at a commercial screening in Thiruvananthapuram without a hitch. It will now have to go through another battle before the rest of India can watch it.