The twenty ninth version of the Fantasia Worldwide Movie Pageant is about to run from from July seventeenth by way of August third on the Concordia Corridor and J.A. de Sève cinemas in Montreal, with extra screenings and occasions at Cinéma du Musée – and at this time the pageant introduced the primary wave of titles that will likely be screening there this 12 months! The total line-up will likely be introduced in early July, however for right here’s a pattern of what attendees can count on to see there, with the data coming instantly from the Fantasia press launch:
TERRESTRIAL REVEALS A DIFFERENT SHADE OF (STEVE) PINK: As director of the HOT TUB TIME MACHINE movies, ACCEPTED, and ABOUT LAST NIGHT, and the co-writer of HIGH FIDELITY and GROSSE POINT BLANK, Steve Pink has made a particular identify for himself with individualistic comedy works that ooze character. Now, he’s exploring darker edges of his sensibilities with TERRESTRIAL, a provocative thriller with unconventional comedy and sci-fi parts, nonetheless rooted in character and conduct, however filtered by way of paranoia and concern. A reunion weekend spirals uncontrolled for 4 faculty pals when the host (Jermaine Fowler, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU) a science fiction author on the verge of newfound success, fights to keep up his sense of actuality within the face of sudden, uncanny risks. Fowler is good right here and is flanked by a forged that features James Morosini (I LOVE MY DAD), Pauline Chalamet (SEX LIFE OF COLLEGE GIRLS), Edy Modica (JURY DUTY), with Rob Yang (SUCCESSION) and Brendan Hunt (TED LASSO). World Premiere.
I FELL IN LOVE WITH A Z-GRADE DIRECTOR IN BROOKLYN IS A HEARTFELT LOVE LETTER TO INDIE HORROR FILMMAKING AND UNDERGROUND CULTURE: Display screen star Shina Mizuhara has misplaced her ardour for filmmaking and is now a impolite and cynical imply machine. She decides to journey to New York along with her good boyfriend who dumps her on arrival, leaving Shina with out her pockets and cellphone. Talking solely Japanese, she meets Jack, a passionate z-grade director. He and his crew will persuade her to star of their subsequent movie. Prolific producer/author/director/MacGyver Kenichi Ugana (THE GESUIDOUZ) shares his love for Unbiased horror filmmaking and underground tradition within the sensible, hilarious, and deeply touching romantic comedy I FELL IN LOVE WITH A Z-GRADE DIRECTOR IN BROOKLYN. Actress Ui Mihara (LESSON IN MURDER) delivers a wonderful efficiency as Shina, conveying her journey to regain misplaced ardour with shifting honesty and precision. Estevan Muñoz completely embodies the spontaneity and allure of Jack. Followers of Jim Jarmusch, Kevin Smith, and obscure horror gems alike will adore this soulful and by some means fairly bloody rom-com! World Premiere.
JULIE PACINO MAKES HER DIRECTORIAL DEBUT WITH THE LYNCHIAN I LIVE HERE NOW: Along with her characteristic debut I LIVE HERE NOW, Julie Pacino plunges us right into a vibrant and nightmarish psychodrama that reverberate with echoes of David Lynch, Dario Argento, and the Coen brothers. Starring Lucy Fry (BRIGHT) as Rose, a lady haunted by trauma and trapped in a motel the place actuality unravels, the movie blurs the strains between previous and current, dream and waking life, captured in vivid 16mm. The movie pulses with competing anxieties: the pursuit of perfection, the burden of generational trauma, and the invisible fist of capitalism tightening its grip across the necks of its characters. That includes an all-star supporting forged together with Madeline Brewer (CAM), Sheryl Lee (TWIN PEAKS), Cara Seymour (ADAPTATION.), and an exceptionally slimy Matt Rife, I LIVE HERE NOW marks the emergence of a daring new voice in style cinema. World Premiere.
J-POP IS A BATTLEFIELD IN YA BOY KONGMIN! THE MOVIE: Zhuge Kongmin, the legendary army strategist of China’s Struggle of the Three Kingdoms, has been inexplicably reincarnated in modern-day Tokyo. He’s now managing the profession of a younger novice singer, Eiko. Satisfied that her music might result in common peace, Kongmin engages in a sequence of schemes to get Eiko a spot in a high-stakes pop-music competitors. Nonetheless, he who seeks peace should put together for conflict… Created by author Tato Yotsuba and manga artist Ryo Ogawa, the YA BOY KONGMIN! franchise has seen large success as a manga, anime, and live-action TV sequence, so it was solely a matter of time earlier than this unusual and hilarious story discovered its solution to cinemas, and by chance, it’s finished so below the dynamic helm of director Shuhei Shibue. That includes exhilarating performances by J-pop icons corresponding to Avantgardey, Avu-chan from Queen Bees with famend pianist Kamei Masaya, and Korean band &TEAM, and with a theme track by Lilas Ikuta from the group YOASOBI, YA BOY KONGMIN! THE MOVIE will thrill audiences as its hero pulls out all of the stops to win. North American Premiere.
OUR FAVORITE BAD GIRL IS BACK! GET READY TO BE LED ASTRAY AND BETRAYED WITH INFLUENCERS!: Simply once you thought it was protected to journey once more, CW pops into your feed and prompts your FOMO. After 2022’s smash hit INFLUENCER, Kurtis David More durable takes us to the South of France with darkish persuasions and deadly outcomes. Starring the one and solely Cassandra Naud because the mysterious chameleon CW, there’s no imposter syndrome right here! Alongside along with her improbable co-stars, Veronica Lengthy (BILLY THE KID) and Jonathan Whitesell (HAPPY FACE), they carry a brand new timeline and sicker-than-ever plans as CW opens her coronary heart to a gorgeous new girlfriend, performed by Lisa Delamar (SURVIVE). This time, jealousy rears its ugly head as CW locks in on a preferred British Influencer named Charlotte (Georgina Campbell, BARBARIAN, LOVELY, DARK AND DEEP), who throws a wrench in her anniversary plans with Diane. Attractive cinematography, nasty twists, and an consequence you received’t wish to miss, INFLUENCERS will make you fact-check your socials endlessly! Septentrion Shadows part. World Premiere.
INDIE KOREAN THRILLER THE WOMAN TRADES IN TENSION AND SUSPENSE: An harmless change of strawberries and a secondhand equipment takes a really darkish flip for Solar-kyung when it precedes her classmate’s suspicious suicide, and places her on the path of a mysterious, sinister stranger. Hwang Wook, the director of the hysterical, award-winning neo-Western black comedy MASH VILLE, an acclaimed World Premiere ultimately 12 months’s Fantasia, returns to the pageant with a brand new movie in a very totally different style. THE WOMAN is a riveting, character-driven psychological thriller, stuffed with continuous stress and suspense, because of its eerie musical rating and gorgeous cinematography, and boasting an excellent lead efficiency by Han Hye-ji. THE WOMAN is one more glorious slice of unbiased Korean filmmaking, by a director who must be in your radar. World Premiere.
BUCKLE IN AND HOLD THE FORT: A HOA seems to be extra troublesome than normal on this wildly amusing, FX-heavy freak-out about newly minted suburbanites unexpectedly pressured to participate in a wrestle in opposition to monstrous forces. Narratives about motley teams of ill-equipped characters battling forces of evil are a staple of the fashionable horror/comedy world, however HOLD THE FORT, from author/director William Bagley, is many yuks above the norm. With very humorous dialogue, outrageous circumstances, and loads of fashionable splatstick as each the human and inhuman are dispatched in ugly, typically giggle-worthy methods, with heaps of spurting, splashing gore and a nonstop parade of practically-created creatures and zombies. Starring Chris Mayers (OZARK), Haley Leary, sketch comedian YouTube creator Julian Smith, and Tordy Clark (GLORIOUS), and that includes a charismatic flip from veteran stunt performer Hamid-Reza Benjamin Thompson (BLACK PANTHER, AVENGERS: ENDGAME). World Premiere.
POST-APOCALYPTIC ECO-THRILLER THE WELL FORETELLS OF ENVIRONMENTAL COLLAPSE: For his narrative characteristic debut, the Oscar-nominated documentarian Hubert Davis (HARDWOOD, BLACK ICE) seems to the longer term with a bleak prediction of environmental collapse. Because the world’s assets dwindle and a lethal virus retains individuals aside, a household protects their contemporary water supply from outsiders. When a younger, injured man disrupts their solitude, and their daughter’s defiance threatens to disclose their valuable properly to a different camp led by a charismatic however steely matriarch, hazard brings the 2 factions collectively in an exhilarating journey. THE WELL units up a chilling state of affairs of what might occur in our very close to future and is executive-produced by Clement Virgo (BROTHER) and Damon D’Oliveira (WILDHOOD); and stars Arnold Pinnock (THE PORTER), Shailyn Pierre-Dixon (THE BOOK OF NEGROS), Idrissa Sanogo (ROBIN HOOD), and Canadian display and stage royalty Sheila McCarthy (WOMEN TALKING) because the matriarch Gabriel. Septentrion Shadows part. World Premiere.
STRANGE STUDENTS WITH STRANGER TALENTS KEEP WATCH IN HONEKO AKABANE’S BODYGUARDS: Regardless of her recognition, allure, kindness, and sense of justice, schoolgirl Honeko Akabane has hordes of assassins after her, though she doesn’t comprehend it. Her organic father, whom she by no means met, hires a loud-mouthed younger brawler to guard her with out her data, as a result of Honeko’s purity and innocence have to be maintained. Fortuitously, he’s not alone. Winner of Finest Director on the Fantasporto movie pageant, director Jun Ishikawa pulls out all of the stops with this exhilarating and hilarious adaptation that completely captures the candy insanity of Masamitsu Nigatsu’s manga, brilliantly tailored by scriptwriter Hiroyuki Yatsu (Takashi Miike’s AS THE GODS WILL). The panoply of eccentric characters with formidable and typically disturbing abilities are performed marvelously by a wonderful forged of younger actors who preserve the light-hearted tone of this hilarious and electrifying action-comedy. North American Premiere.
FANTASY ROMCOM ANIME CHAO MAKES A BIG SPLASH: A junior designer on the main shipbuilding firm may need the important thing to peaceable relations between people and merfolk. His function in reaching detente, nevertheless, abruptly turns into quite a bit stranger when the mermaid princess proclaims that she has chosen Stephen as her fiancé! A Twenty first-century transforming of Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid story set in a psychedelic, cyberpunk Shanghai, the frenzied and fantastical romantic comedy CHAO comes care of that almost all distinctive and creative of anime factories, Studio 4ºC. The primary full characteristic movie from director Yasuhiro Aoki (BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT, TWEENY WITCHES) took seven years and over 100,000 drawings to convey to life, and the laborious work has paid off. CHAO is a daring and dazzling burst of animated brilliance, one that may catapult Aoki and his punky, unconventional fashion to the highest tier of the anime world. Animation Plus part. North American Premiere.
A WILD TRIBUTE TO Nineteen Seventies PORNOGRAPHY AND EROTIC THRILLERS WITH ANYTHING THAT MOVES: Shot in gorgeous Tremendous 16mm, ANYTHING THAT MOVES is the steamy follow-up characteristic from director Alex Phillips who made audiences snicker and wretch with 2022’s ALL JACKED UP AND FULL OF WORMS, a World Premiere at Fantasia). He’s again with a surreal tackle the erotic thriller that strikes the steadiness between riotous tribute and filthy horror in a movie that follows intercourse employee and bike courier Liam on his adventures making purchasers proud of orgasms and sandwiches. Liam’s joyful existence is quickly interrupted by the arrival of a serial killer, which throws his life into the realm of paranoia and conspiracy, casting a darkish shadow over the town of Chicago. Within the midst of its juicy gore, weird poetry, and switchback storytelling the movie options actual grownup stars Nina Hartley and Ginger Lynn Allen, in addition to a superb music rating by Cue Store. Underground part. World Premiere.
A SUPERNATURAL RIDE DEEP INTO UNEXPECTED TERRITORY: HELLCAT: A lady (Dakota Gorman) wakes at the back of a shifting camper trailer with a badly contaminated wound. A voice (Todd Terry) from the truck towing it tells her they need to attain a mysterious physician inside the hour or she’ll endure a horrific destiny. Thus begins HELLCAT, the characteristic debut of author/editor/director Brock Bodell, who beforehand reduce the mind-bending ULTRASOUND (Fantasia 2021), amongst others. Bodell doesn’t take a incorrect flip, delivering a twisty thrill journey of sturdy characters, shredding stress, and actual surprises that takes viewers deep into sudden locations. That includes SNL’s James Austin Johnson because the voice of a late-night DJ on a supernatural call-in present, and gripping performances from supporting forged Jordan Mullins and Liz Atwater. World Premiere.
NECROMANCY AND BELIEF VS CORPOREAL DECAY: MOTHER OF FLIES SPELLBINDS: When a younger lady faces a lethal analysis, she seeks darkish magic from a witch within the woods… however each remedy has prices. Written and directed by John and Zelda Adams and Toby Poser (The Adams Household), who additionally star, shot, edited, and scored, MOTHER OF FLIES is the newest creation from the filmmaking household behind such singular landmarks as THE DEEPER YOU DIG, HELLBENDER, and WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS, every of which has World Premiered at Fantasia. Described by the filmmakers as their fairytale manipulation of the darkly shadowed, but love-lined pathways between a human life and demise, MOTHER OF FLIES is a unprecedented work of private style storytelling, gestated by way of the household’s personal experiences battling and surviving most cancers. It stands with the strongest of their work, a poetic, haunting, and shifting movie that glows with otherworldly creativeness, exploring the idea of necromancy in reference to two ladies who’ve very intimate relationships with demise. World Premiere.
WHOSE TALE IS TRUE IN KYRGYZ MYSTERY BURNING?: One stormy night time, a hearth engulfs a household house. In a close-by comfort retailer, neighbors gossip and speculate: was it black magic, a lady’s insanity, or a person crushed by life? Director Radik Eshimov, an rising Kyrgyz expertise identified for mixing sharp social commentary with humor in hits like EL EMNE DEIT, steps boldly into new territory with the suspenseful BURNING. Anchored by standout performances from its three leads, Aysanat Edigeeva (TAXI), Ömürbek Izrailov (DEAL AT THE BORDER), and Kyrgyz Republic Individuals’s Artist Kalicha Seydalieva, BURNING delivers a gripping thriller informed in true RASHOMON trend. Pay attention carefully, sift by way of the lies, and resolve for your self: Who actually began the fireplace? North American Premiere.
THE BEARDED GIRL BLENDS SIDESHOW CHARM WITH A COMING-OF-AGE STORY YOU WON’T FORGET: Jody Wilson captures the allure of a fairy story with a Western sensibility in THE BEARDED GIRL. Cleo is able to unfold her wings and, bored with custom and feeling like an oddball, she leaves her sheltered carnival life to search out love and journey. Starring Anwen O’Driscoll of BET and YOU CAN LIVE FOREVER as the subsequent era of sword-swallowing bearded ladies and MAD MEN’s Jessica Paré as her overbearing mom, Wilson takes her private expertise rising up in Western Canada as a nonconformist to create a assured first characteristic that highlights queer themes with dry humor and sensitivity. Septentrion Shadows part. World Premiere.
DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES COLLIDE IN MEXICO’S FIRST STOP-MOTION FEATURE: The duty of crafting Mexico’s very first stop-motion animated characteristic movie couldn’t have fallen to 4 extra worthy palms than these of Rodolfo and Arturo Ambriz. Proteges of Guillermo del Toro, the brothers gained widespread recognition with the brief movie REVOLTOSO (Fantasia 2016), demonstrating daring concepts and a bedeviled consideration to element. Additional acclaim arrived in 2021 with FRANKELDA’S BOOK OF SPOOKS, a five-episode miniseries on Cartoon Community Latin America and HBO Max, introducing the phantom writer Frankelda and her companion Herneval, an enchanted e book. It seems that essentially the most astonishing story the 2 have to inform is their very own! The dazzling I AM FRANKELDA explores the difficult childhood of Francisca Imelda, and the way she got here to befriend Herneval, prince of the realm that lies on the opposite facet of our goals. Uncover that world of weirdness and surprise for your self as a milestone of animation historical past involves life on Fantasia’s huge display! Animation Plus part. North American Premiere.
THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH JUMPS INTO CINEMA’S GENDER DIVIDE: Hanah’s pitch for her movie faculty venture, a satirical revenge story in opposition to males, isn’t going over properly along with her classmates. Particularly Cheol, who accuses her of misandry (which she doesn’t deny). Cheol, in the meantime, can’t get funding for his personal movie due to the dearth of feminine perspective in his script. A really fraught artistic partnership begins. Yeum Moon-kyoung and Lee Jong-min star collectively in what’s additionally their characteristic directorial debut, THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH a unusual and immensely entertaining comedy in regards to the distinctive world of filmmaking and the challenges of gender equality in cinematic storytelling. The dynamic between Yeum and Lee, in addition to the extremely imaginative B-movie vitality of the film-within-the-film scenes, will paste a smile in your face all through the characters’ artistic course of. Worldwide Premiere.
A HAUNTING 8MM DESCENT INTO AUSTRALIA’S SURREAL UNDERBELLY: A GRAND MOCKERY, the characteristic debut from co-directors Adam C. Briggs and Sam Dixon, is a dirty, experimental descent into Australia’s darkish underbelly, rendered within the uncooked textures of 8mm movie. Starring Dixon as Josie, a person stricken by psychological sickness, habit, and compulsion, the movie follows his more and more horrific, near-ritualistic wandering from Brisbane’s mundane outskirts to the chic horrors of the Sunshine Coast. With a tone that veers from darkly humorous to nightmarishly surreal, the movie channels the disorienting psychology of its outcast protagonist. A technical triumph of underground cinema, A GRAND MOCKERY transforms the grain of 8mm into one thing painterly and visceral, evoking Francis Bacon’s dread-soaked visions whereas constructing a phantasmagoric world of blurred realities, hypnotic soundscapes, and cinematic obsession. Without delay grotesque and poetic, it’s a movie that pulses with human chaos and defies categorization. Underground part. Worldwide Premiere.
MORE SPECTACULAR SPOOKINESS IN MONONOKE THE MOVIE: CHAPTER II – THE ASHES OF RAGE
After the primary movie’s sold-out world premiere ultimately 12 months’s Fantasia, the mysterious Drugs Vendor is again for an additional journey as director Kenji Nakamura continues his impressed revival of his pop-psychedelic, paranormal-procedural anime phenomenon. The primary chapter’s wildly creative method to design and method, immersing the viewer in an amazing whirlwind of Edo-period iconography, earned MONONOKE THE MOVIE: PHANTOM IN THE RAIN a Satoshi Kon Award for Finest Animated Function, and its sequel isn’t any much less daring, dynamic, and visually dazzling. It digs even deeper into the secrets and techniques of a paradise poisoned by patriarchal cruelty, the place ladies are decreased to mere vessels for the offspring of their social betters, for their very own households’ cynical ambitions… or for the vengeful spirits of others wronged prior to now. Animation Plus part. North American Premiere.
Fantasia has additionally introduced that they’ve signed a three-year settlement with MELS as Presenting Sponsor. “Known for its world class soundstages and highly qualified staff, MELS is one of the largest providers of film and television services in Canada. Its turnkey service covers everything from script to screen. Most of MELS’ stages are in downtown Montreal. They have serviced major feature film productions like SCREAM VI, HOME SWEET HOME ALONE, TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS, and more. The studio’s post-production services include offline editing, image finishing, a full range of sound services and one of North America’s few remaining Kodak-accredited photochemical labs for film-stock processing, supporting 16mm and 35mm. Its services extend to film restoration, deliverables, and digital archiving. MELS also has a very large mixing stage where the sound mix for Denis Villeneuve’s Oscar-winning ARRIVAL (also shot at MELS) was done. MELS is part of Quebecor Inc., a Canadian leader in telecommunications, media, and entertainment. Fantasia has been working closely with Quebecor and its various subsidiaries since 2016.”
The twenty ninth version of the Fantasia Worldwide Movie Pageant is being offered by MELS, in collaboration with Concordia College. The pageant was made doable by the monetary assist of Telefilm Canada, the Société́ de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC), the Ministère du Tourisme, the Ministère des Affaires municipales et de l’Habitation, the town of Montreal, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, Tourisme Montréal, and the Administrators Guild of Canada (DGC). The pageant sends out a because of all of its personal companions, pals of the occasion, in addition to official suppliers, venues, and all collaborating filmmakers, gross sales brokers, and distributors for his or her invaluable assist.
Will you be attending the twenty ninth version of the Fantasia Worldwide Movie Pageant? What do you consider the primary wave of titles? Tell us by leaving a remark under.
