A film shot entirely in Powassan, Ont., will make its debut Thursday night at the Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival. Several of the cast and crew, including writer-director Brandon Cox, will be on hand for the premiere. Last Moon, a horror-western, was shot on a farm during the summer of 2025, with several locations on the property being used for “micro-sets,” Cox told CTV News via Zoom from Toronto. “We scouted North Bay, we scouted Sudbury. There’s a lot of different places that you can use for a movie up there. There’s so many different sets. There’s so many versatile locations,” he said. The story is that of a grieving father and daughter, who live on an isolated farm in Canada in 1895. “There’s something spooky lurking in the woods,” Cox said. “Powassan, for us, felt like the right choice. It was the right mixture of isolation but also close to town and all the places that we needed to help make a movie,” he said. Although Cox admitted that making a movie in a farmer’s field in the middle of summer was “challenging,” it ‘maintained (the film’s) authenticity.’ “We wanted it to feel real, feel tactile, feel like it would be in that period,” he said, adding that the crew built a cabin on the property for the main set and used period clothes and weapons. Cox went on to praise the performance of Mina Borody of North Bay. She was just 11 when they shot the film in Powassan – her first movie. “She’s a huge standout, and I feel like she’s got a bright future ahead,” he said. Cox said this will be his first Cinéfest experience and he’s looking forward to hearing what northern audiences think of the film. “We’ll be playing for the home crowd,” he said. “I think we’re all just looking forward to seeing it in a movie theatre, which is a really exciting way to view a movie that you’ve made.” Cox said Last Moon was mainly financed by the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation. “They’re all about stimulating the economy for film workers in the community up there. All the residual workers that come with a film production,” Cox said. “They call it Hollywood North for a reason because there’s so much opportunity. And the community is really close and they really support film,” added Cox.
