North American Premiere
Night after night, a family of four is tormented by an unseen presence inside their home — or so it seems. As the parents struggle to connect with their increasingly withdrawn son, they eagerly await the return of their eldest daughter from university. But her homecoming quickly turns confrontational when she urges the family to abandon the house and escape the nightly terrors they have seemingly learned to live with.
Director Cristian Ponce transforms the aesthetics of a late-night television special into an analogue nightmare, where abrupt commercial breaks and cavernous negative space make every shadow a possible threat. Rather than reveal what lurks in the darkness, Ponce exploits the anticipation of seeing it. As cameras, crew members, and other traces of production begin creeping into view, the distinction between spectator and spectre becomes increasingly unstable. Eerie — and playful — Family Fears Another Night of Terror transforms the mechanics of filmmaking into its own source of horror, asking what happens when watching becomes a form of haunting.
Content Considerations: Graphic violence, strobe effects
Supported by
Media Partner
Nadia Lozano, Diego Velázquez, Max Federico Aleman, Mora Magnarelli, Jeanette Bulzgis
Argentina
2026
In Spanish with English subtitles
At International Village
At Fifth Ave
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
Juan Protto Blanc
Screenwriter
Cristian Ponce
Cinematography
Franco Cerana
Editor
Hernán Biasotti, Cristian Ponce
Production Design
Laura Roldán
Original Music
Julián Di Pietro
Cristian Ponce
Cristian Ponce is a screenwriter and director. In 2019, he released the animated horror series The Kirlian Frequency on Netflix. In 2020, he released his first feature film, History of the Occult, which earned widespread critical and audience acclaim. In 2024, he directed Abraço de Mãe, produced in Brazil for Netflix, and the following year he directed the feature film adaptation of The Kirlian Frequency.
Filmography: History of the Occult (2020); A Mother’s Embrace (2024); The Kirlian Frequency (2025)
Altered States
See more films in this series
Jim Queen
When far-right activists infect gay influencer Jim Queen with a drug that turns him straight, he must join forces with a closeted follower to cure his ailment. Jim Queen is a film unafraid to skewer gay “body fascism” and bigoted conservatism alike.
Species
Species follows Margot, a young doctor who wakes covered in blood as the pressures of a demanding French ER take a physical toll. As lesions spread across her body, workplace burnout transforms into skin-tearing body horror.
Image: © ARP Sélection Trésor Films Windy Production
The Peril at Pincer Point
A hapless sound recordist sails to an island seeking a missing girl and the perfect sound for a monster’s roar, but faces a phantom pirate and giant crabs. Handmade and hilarious, The Peril at Pincer Point revels in the scrappy joy of indie filmmaking.
Gasmask
Part post-apocalyptic fable, part film essay, Harry Cepka's Gasmask is an enigmatic meditation on memory, ritual, and art. Evoking Chris Marker's La Jetée, it asks what remains of cinema after the world that created it has disappeared.
Freaks Part II
Freaks Part II follows Mary and her daughter Chloe as they flee the Abnormal Defence Force through a country where those with powers are hunted and identified through telltale blood-red tears. A tense, emotionally grounded second chapter.
Image: © Kailey Schwerman - Elevation Pictures
Family Fears Another Night of Terror
Night after night, a family of four is tormented by an unseen presence inside their home — or so it seems. Family Fears Another Night of Terror transforms the aesthetics of a late-night television special into an analogue nightmare.
Midnight Momo
Kunga, a waiter at a Queens momo shop, finds himself trapped in a loop of the final minutes of his shift. Midnight Momo is a frenetic, distinctly Tibetan American indie comedy that puts a working-class spin on the Buddhist cycle of suffering and rebirth.
Death Has No Master
When Caro returns to Venezuela to sell her late father’s cacao plantation, she finds the family mansion occupied by its former staff, who have no intention of leaving. After legal action proves ineffectual, Caro decides to dispense justice herself.
Ugly Cry
When her Ugly Cry costs an aspiring actor her dream role, she takes desperate measures in pursuit of perfection. A cheeky injection of dark humour and delirium, this genre-bending psychological thriller takes a clever jab at internet-age beauty standards.

