THE SCHOOL DUEL Todd Wisemen Jr.’s heart-pounding feature debut, THE SCHOOL DUEL, gets its Canadian premiere at Fantasia 2025. Set in near-future Florida, they have outlawed gun control, and school shootings are at an all-time high. Students wear uniforms with patches on the shoulders. The emblem: a cross overlaid on top of the Liberty Bell. Hyper toxic masculinity is the Read More →
SHRIMP FRIED RICE Imagine MasterChef meets the Muppets, and you might be able to grasp the supreme silliness of Fantasia 2025 short, SHRIMP FRIED RICE. Filmmaker Dylan Pun gives audiences an adult Ratatouille, which ironically, Shrimp name-drops and threatens. It is part profile of this unexpected chef and part exposé. A father wishes to compliment the chef for his signature Read More →
THE UNDERTONE Established sci-fi author Ian Tuason brings his chilling directorial debut to Fantasia 2025 audiences. The film follows Evy, a full-time carer for her ailing mother and part-time spooky podcaster. Alongside her co-host Justin, Evy is the skeptic in the pair, searching for logic in the strange and unusual. THE UNDERTONE has arrived to f*ck you up. They receive Read More →
ANYTHING THAT MOVES Filmmaker Alex Phillips (All Jacked Up and Full of Worms) brings another entirely weird and one-of-a-kind film to Fantasia 2025 with ANYTHING THAT MOVES. The film follows Liam and his girlfriend, who are snack delivery sex workers. When their clients end up murdered, two detectives try to pin the gory violence on them. Don’t get ahead of Read More →
HELLCAT Filmmaker Brock Bodell brings his debut feature, HELLCAT, a genre-bending horror, to Fantasia 2025. Discussing HELLCAT is difficult without spoilers, which is always a compliment in my book. The basics (and I use that term loosely) are this: Lena wakes up groggy to discover she is being held captive in the back of a trailer. A man’s voice comes Read More →
LUCID Directors Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall‘s 2022 short film LUCID gets the feature treatment, and Fanatsia 2025 audiences are its first test subjects. The film follows Mia, a misunderstood art student who delivers more performance art than quality visual art. She’s stressed and overly dramatic, but that’s pretty much a requirement for us artsy folk. At risk of being Read More →
TERRESTRIAL Opening with a bang, Steve Pink‘s Fantasia 2025 film, TERRESTRIAL, has landed. It follows a sci-fi writer who is about to fulfill his dreams with a book and movie deal. Alan invites his college friends to his new mansion in the Hollywood Hills to celebrate his good fortune, but something feels off. In his driveway, stands a large, striped Read More →
THE BEARDED GIRL Jody Wilson delivers a special film to Fantasia 2025 audiences with THE BEARDED GIRL. Cleo is the heir to a sideshow as the next Bearded Woman. Feeling conflicted about her future, Cleo rejects familial expectations to find herself. Inheriting a legacy from an overbearing and proud mother, Cleo wants to choose her path. After discovering a secret Read More →
HOLD THE FORT Filmmaker William Bagley brings his horror comedy HOLD THE FORT to Fantasia 2025. The film follows a young couple’s move into the neighborhood, who are acutely unaware of the expectations of their HOA. Upon their invitation to an annual get-together, they learn the fine print involves a particular species of grass and fighting monsters from a hell Read More →
Fantasia 2025 The literal moment a certain NYC festival closes, I begin to get hyped for Fantasia. If you are a genre nerd like I am, this is the festival that I’m talking about all year. Home of upcoming filmmakers that ultimately become household names, Fantasia boasts some of the coolest, scariest, weirdest, goriest, and most shocking films of the Read More →
FANTASIA UNVEILS VIVID FIRST WAVE OF TITLES FOR ITS 29th EDITION Steve Pink’s TERRESTRIAL, Kenichi Ugana’s I FELL IN LOVE WITH A Z-GRADE DIRECTOR IN BROOKLYN, Julie Pacino’s I LIVE HERE NOW, Hwang Wook’s THE WOMAN, Hubert Davis’ THE WELL, Yasuhiro Aoki’s CHAO, Kurtis David Harder’s INFLUENCERS, The Adams Family’s MOTHER OF FLIES, Alex Philips’ ANYTHING THAT MOVES, Shuhei Read More →
INFINITE SUMMER In filmmaker Miguel Llansó‘s Fantasia 2024 film INFINITE SUMMER, Mia wants to enjoy the last few weeks before moving into higher education. When her close friend decides she’d rather hang out with people closer to her age, Mia dabbles a newfangled mindfulness app that goes awry. Too much of a good thing is never really true. Mindfulness has Read More →
CHAINSAWS WERE SINGING Young lovers Tom and Maria are interrupted by a chainsaw-wielding maniac. After Maria’s kidnapping, aided by the eternally upbeat Jaan, Tom tracks her down only to discover the dark secrets surrounding the killer’s past and present. If Monty Python and Mel Brooks decided to make a slasher film, Estonian filmmaker Sander Maran’s CHAINSAWS WERE SINGING would be Read More →
THE MISSING Eric has a well-paying job as an animator, a crush on a co-worker, and harbors a secret. Filmmaker director Carl Joseph Papa brings Fantasia 2024 audiences his third feature-length animated film, THE MISSING. Hindering Eric’s new romance are the memories triggered after discovering his estranged uncle dead. Can Eric finally find his voice? The longer Eric waits to Read More →
FACES Synopsis Following the disappearance of a local girl on a dark October evening, Judy, a college student visiting for the weekend, is invited to a fraternity party. For Judy, what could have been a night of fun and drinking spirals out of control when she encounters a mysterious, deadly entity. As the night unfolds, the entity’s uncanny quest brings Read More →
BANGS Montreal-based comedy duo Emelia Hellman and Nancy Webb (Hellgirl Productions) bring their paranoia-fueled short Bangs to Fantasia Festival’s Fantastiques week-ends du cinéma québécois this summer for the film’s Canadian premiere. On the eve of hosting a dinner party for her 30th birthday, a woman cuts her hair. When her friends don’t notice, it drives her mad. Nancy Webb‘s Fantasia Read More →
CUCKOO Abandonment and unresolved trauma collide with a monster movie and mad scientist in Tilman Singer‘s (LUZ) latest film, CUCKOO. Fantasia 2024 audiences, you are not ready for the authentic dread and mind-blowing chaos coming for you. Gretchen is shipped off to live on a mountain resort in the Alps with her estranged father, his new wife, and her nonverbal Read More →
BERTA The story of a woman called Berta who seeks understanding from a man that hurt her in the past. Despite her methods might be seen as unorthodox, she’ll make her point. Nerea Barros captivates as the titular character. She walks a perfect line between anxiety and persistence. Barros becomes a feminist icon we so desperately need. Think Hard Candy meets Read More →
DIRTY BAD WRONG Desperate to keep her promise to host the best superhero party for her 6-year-old, young mother Sid, a sex worker, takes extreme measures and books a last-minute client with a dark fetish. Dirty Bad Wrong is a drama/body horror that explores the darkest sides of capitalism, and just how far we’ll go for the ones we love. Life Read More →
THE TENANTS A commentary on environmental and economic realities, Eunkyoung Yoon‘s Fantasia 2024 feature THE TENANTS hypnotizes with Kafkaesque absurdity in stunning black and white. Shin-Dong lives an isolated life in the highly polluted near future Seoul. He grinds at a soulless desk job, generally miserable. When threatened with eviction, his only friend suggests taking on Tenants to prevent losing his Read More →
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