Happy Monday!
Things seem to have gone our way, Anthony’s Balls is heading to TIFF Next Wave 2026 for the Young Creators Showcase. But here’s the thing: this film was never supposed to exist.
Really quick: our Anthony Meet Up video is now live! Click here to watch :)
Let’s talk about it.
This all started with the writing process. When I wrote this film (about my friends) and sent it to Adrien last summer, it was meant to be a joke. but Adrien loved it. We had a few exchanges back and forth but soon enough, when I wanted to throw it in the trash, Adrien sent it to our network of film friends and suddenly this became our next slated project.
Then came auditions. Our casting director, Cheverny Baluca, helped us level things up, and a lot of people were interested. What we didn’t expect (but should have) was how skeptical agents would be.
Blake H. Phillips’ agent literally double-checked that Anthony’s Balls was the project he wanted to pursue. Blake trusted his gut and went for it. Same with Michael Molloy and Steel Bey, three serious actors taking a real risk on something this ridiculous.
And the chaos didn’t stop there.
Less than 12 hours before shooting, we almost had no sound, until Nick Milczarczyk clutched up and saved us. You can read all about that in our “The Legend Who Saved Our Film” newsletter we posted a few weeks back.
You might also remember our “Scrotum Font” situation (also a newsletter from the Fall of 2025). Adrien and our editor Nathan went deep down a rabbit hole trying to find the perfect font, eventually tracking down the creator through Google Images. He wasn’t even selling it, but after Adrien reached out, he gave it to us for free and loved our film. Daniel Reed, wherever you are, thank you for your service.
A wild factor was also how the film got edited. Normally we go through our always reliable editor Nathan, or Adrien takes it upon himself too. For some miraculous reason, this joke of a film got the most professional treatment we’ve ever had, colouring house, audio house, the works. Maybe Nathan saw something in the balls that we didn’t…
So that leaves us with the most recent wild situations. That revolves the decision to market our 3 minute scrotum short film with a promotional run unlike anything we’ve done before. That lead us down rabbit holes of viral reels, an Anthony Meet Up…
…and finally, the strangest part.
Unlike our other films which we submitted to so many different festivals and spent an amount of money I’m not happy to admit, we sent AB to two festivals. One of those was the Fairfield Productions Showcase (which I’m Not Supposed To Be Here got selected for) and TIFF Next Wave because it was free.
Our other films got rejected and this wonderful film about genitalia is now playing on April 19th.
There may be tickets available still so check them out here: TIFF Next Wave Tickets
All this to say, I believe in the understanding that everything in life happens for a reason. So were Anthony’s Balls destined for greatness from the start?
Time continues to tell.
Ciao ciao,
Pat and the Marquet Films team
MOVIE OF THE WEEK:
Pat Recommends: Transformers One (2024)
Adrien Recommends: Barton Fink (1991)