New Voices In Horror Slate Launches, First Project To Star ‘Queer’ Actor Colin Bates

EXCLUSIVE: New York-based indie film company CinemaStreet Pictures is launching the New Voices in Horror slate of films, company CEO Dana Offenbach has confirmed.

The slate will champion queer, female identifying, immigrant, and BIPOC voices and will consist of four-six films annually. Dhruv Sud, CinemaStreet’s Head of Development, will oversee the slate and report to Offenbach.

Offenbach is repped by Ramo law, whose Stu Arbury and Tiffany Boyle are advising on the slate, project packaging and sales.

The first project in production is I Am Very Lonely, a genre-bending thriller from writer-director Anika Benkov (The Binding of Itzik) and starring Colin Bates (Queer) and Benkov. Vadim Egoul and Dhruv Sud are producing, with Dana Offenbach executive-producing.

In the film, a non-binary Jewish game designer (Benkov), living a secret double life as an online ‘sub’ (submissive), goes down the rabbit hole when they discover their internet dom is a real-life fascist.

CinemaStreet Pictures was founded in 2011 with a mission to amplify and uplift underserved and marginalized voices. Born and raised in Washington Heights, New York City, NAACP nominee Dana Offenbach founded the company after wrapping production on Qasim Basir’s first film Moozlum. Other early credits include Julius Onah ’s The Girl Is in Trouble, executive-produced by Spike Lee and released domestically on multi platforms (including theatrical) by E One Films in 2015 and through Odin’s Eye internationally.

“In my career, I’ve never been afraid to cultivate new talent. I have always taken risks on upcoming voices that don’t have the industry’s traditional seal of approval. It’s in this space that I’ve thrived. I aim to nurture the next generation of undiscovered talent with essential voices. To that end, Dhruv Sud is the perfect collaborator to bring this division to life and manage the fresh unconventional roster of diverse perspectives of our slate,” said Dana Offenbach.

“Horror deals with ostracization and otherness in a way that many people from marginalized communities, like myself and the other filmmakers on our slate, resonate with on a core level. If you look at what’s currently happening at the box office, it’s clear we are at a transformative time for independent genre film and we as artists can, and should, collectively build a more equitable and inclusive future,” added Dhruv Sud.