Yellow Veil Pictures

Overview

Yellow Veil Pictures is a New York City and Los Angeles-based worldwide film sales and distribution company founded in 2018 by Hugues Barbier, Justin Timms, and Joe Yanick. The company focuses exclusively on boundary-pushing genre cinema, championing emergent filmmakers who exist at the intersection of commercial genre and arthouse cinema. Yellow Veil launched at the 2018 Frontieres Market at the Fantasia International Film Festival with Tilman Singer's debut feature Luz.

The company operates as both a sales agent and a US distributor. This dual role means Yellow Veil can acquire worldwide rights from filmmakers, coordinate international sales territory by territory, and handle the US theatrical and digital release directly. Yanick has described this as becoming "a one-stop shop for filmmakers" after recognizing that smaller genre films often cannot find distribution footing through sales alone.

Yellow Veil's biggest release to date is Lucile Hadzihalilovic's The Ice Tower (2025), a Berlinale Competition selection starring Marion Cotillard, opening in approximately 50 cinemas. The company's typical releases run 17 days in theatrical exclusivity before moving to digital platforms.

Founders and Background

The three founders bring complementary festival and genre expertise:

• Hugues Barbier: Founder of the Ithaca Fantastik festival, former festival manager and acquisitions staffer at Raven Banner Entertainment
• Justin Timms: Founder of the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, former theatrical manager at FilmRise, co-founder of the North Bend genre festival
• Joe Yanick: Former festivals and non-theatrical assistant director at Visit Films, co-director of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies

The trio launched Yellow Veil to challenge the commercial viability limits of arthouse genre and foreign-language films. Their festival backgrounds give them early access to adventurous genre cinema seeking distribution and relationships with genre-focused festival programmers worldwide.

Distribution Model

Yellow Veil releases films theatrically in the US with a 17-day exclusive theatrical window before transitioning to digital platforms. The company licenses content to:

• SVOD: Mubi, Criterion, Shudder, Ovid TV, Night Flight
• AVOD: Tubi
• TVOD: Prime Video, Apple TV, Fandango at Home

The company also arranges limited theatrical runs, typically starting in New York City and expanding to Los Angeles and other markets based on performance. For Lux Aeterna (Gaspar Noe, 2022), Yellow Veil staged two sold-out screenings with Noe in attendance, followed by a 55-screen run that grossed approximately $50,000 in theatrical receipts.

Yellow Veil has increasingly taken worldwide rights pickups, enabling the founders to coordinate international rollout alongside the US release and share materials with partner distributors globally. Recent worldwide pickups include Australian genre titles A Grand Mockery and Salt Along the Tongue from 2024 SXSW Sydney.

The company also acts as a festival agent for Shudder titles including La Llorona, Blood Quantum, Horror Noire, Host, and The Ranger.

Release History and Notable Titles

Yellow Veil's first US distribution release was Knocking (Frida Kempff, 2021 Sundance). Subsequent releases include:

• Lux Aeterna (Gaspar Noe, 2022) - approximately $50,000 theatrical on 55 screens
• Falcon Lake (Charlotte le Bon, 2022 Cannes Directors' Fortnight)
• Riddle of Fire (Weston Razooli, 2023 Cannes Directors' Fortnight)
• The Ice Tower (Lucile Hadzihalilovic, 2025 Berlinale Competition) - starring Marion Cotillard, opening in ~50 cinemas, the company's largest release to date
• The Amusement Park (George A. Romero, 1975) - 4K re-release
• The Spine of Night (2021 SXSW) - fantasy animation
• Hellbender (Toby Poser, Zelda Adams, John Adams)

Sales highlights include Tilman Singer's Luz, whose filmmaker went on to make Cuckoo with Neon. The company has also worked with debuts from Josh Lobo (I Trapped the Devil), A.T. White (Starfish), Matthew Pope (Blood on Her Name), and Jack Henry Robbins (VHYES), plus films by Larry Fessenden (Depraved), Rob Grant (Harpoon), and Joel Potrykus (Relaxer).

2025-2026 Acquisitions

• Her Will Be Done (Julia Kowalski): French rural folk horror, world premiered at Cannes Directors' Fortnight May 2025, North American premiere at Fantastic Fest September 2025. Planned 2026 US release. Negotiated by Barbier, Timms, and Yanick with Gregory Chambet of WTFilms.
• Boorman and the Devil (David Kittredge): Documentary about the troubled production of John Boorman's Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). Premiered at Venice Film Festival 2025. 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Opens August 28, 2026 at Quad Cinema NYC, expanding to LA and nationwide September 4.
• Grind (Brea Grant, Ed Dougherty, Chelsea Stardust): Horror satire anthology premiering in SXSW 2026 Midnight section. Tackles modern work culture through four interconnected perspectives: MLM hustle culture, food delivery, content moderation, and coffee shop unionization.
• The Threshing (Sean Mannion): Psychological body horror from SXSW Sydney. North American release planned for late 2026.
• A Grand Mockery (Adam C Briggs, Sam Dixon): SXSW Sydney Best Feature winner, shot on Super 8. Worldwide rights pickup.
• Salt Along the Tongue (Parish Malfitano): SXSW Sydney title about a grieving woman possessed by her mother. Worldwide rights pickup.

What Filmmakers Should Know

Yellow Veil is an accessible acquisition target for genre and arthouse-genre crossover filmmakers whose work has the adventurousness and formal ambition that defines the company's catalog. The company's size and festival-genre focus make it more reachable than established boutique distributors like IFC Midnight or A24, while its quality threshold separates it from volume genre labels.

For international genre filmmakers seeking US distribution, Yellow Veil's interest in global arthouse-horror and formally adventurous genre cinema provides a realistic US distribution pathway. Films that have premiered at major festivals with genre credentials (SXSW, Fantastic Fest, Berlin, Cannes Directors' Fortnight) are the strongest candidates. The company regularly attends Cannes, EFM, SXSW, and Fantasia.

Yellow Veil also offers worldwide rights deals, which means filmmakers can work with a single entity for both US distribution and international sales rather than splitting rights across multiple companies. This is particularly valuable for micro-budget genre films where coordinating multiple distributors would consume a disproportionate share of revenue.

The company does not operate an open submission portal. Filmmakers should contact the founders through industry channels or via their sales representatives at festivals. Festival premieres remain the primary pathway into Yellow Veil's acquisition pipeline.

See Also

For premium horror streaming distribution alongside theatrical, see Shudder in this directory. For how adventurous genre cinema finds arthouse distribution, see Distribution Deals Explained. To model revenue from a 17-day theatrical window followed by digital licensing, use the Revenue Forecast Calculator. For comparison with other genre distributors, see IFC Films and Neon in this directory.