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 year. At least three consistently make it into my annual Top 10. The Adams Family‘s latest bit of macabre magic, MOTHER OF FLIES, Michel Gondry‘s animated feature MAYA, GIVE ME A TITLE, and filmmaking team Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall return, having expanded their 2022 short LUCID into a feature. If you want a guaranteed good time filled with new and inventive films, Fantasia 2025 has more than you can handle. Here are just a few films we’ve got our eyes on this year. Fantasia 2025

TOUCH ME Fantasia 2025

Writer/director Addison Heinmann follows up his 2022 Fantasia hit HYPOCHONDRIAC with Touch Me.

The path to peace and happiness is an arduous one for Joey (Olivia Taylor Dudley of THE MAGICIANS, SHE DIES TOMORROW and CRAWLSPACE), as she also needs to navigate her shitty best friend Craig (Jordan Gavaris of HACKS and ORPHAN BLACK) and her cosmically problematic ex-boyfriend Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci of the 2013 EVIL DEAD and SPRING). To make matters worse, Joey and Craig are forced back into the grasp of the openly alien-jumpsuit-wearing ex who dispenses a euphoric toxin to all those he touches. The two dysfunctional slackers descend into a strange love triangle filled with dependence, violence, intoxication, and tentacles. But once the narcissistic alien’s motives take shape, a web of lies is revealed and a nefarious, Earth-threatening plan may be on the horizon.

MOTHER OF FLIES

When a young woman faces a deadly diagnosis, she seeks dark magic from a witch in the woods… but every cure has costs. Written and directed by John and Zelda Adams and Toby Poser (The Adams Family), who also star, shot, edited, and scored, MOTHER OF FLIES is the latest creation from the filmmaking family behind such singular landmarks as THE DEEPER YOU DIG, HELLBENDER, and WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS, each of which has World Premiered at Fantasia. Described by the filmmakers as their fairytale manipulation of the darkly shadowed, yet love-lined pathways between a human life and death, MOTHER OF FLIES is an extraordinary work of personal genre storytelling, gestated through the family’s own experiences battling and surviving cancer. It stands with the strongest of their work, a poetic, haunting, and moving film that glows with otherworldly imagination, exploring the concept of necromancy in connection with two women who have very intimate relationships with death. 

World Premiere. Fantasia 2025

IT ENDS 

In one of 2025’s major genre breakouts, four college friends find themselves on an infinite, unending road, forcing each of them to decide how to confront their fate in an unnerving journey into the unknown. Writer/director Alex Ullom and his gifted cast work miracles and offer a compelling, constantly intriguing, and often terrifying road trip into adulthood. Official Selection: SXSW 2025, Overlook 2025. 

International Premiere. Fantasia 2025

REDUX REDUX Fantasia 2025

Desperate to avenge her daughter’s murder, Irene Kelly (Michaela McManus) journeys through parallel dimensions to repeatedly track down and annihilate her killer (Jeremy Holm). A tense sci-fi vengeance thriller unlike any other, REDUX REDUX is the latest creation by Kevin and Matthew McManus, the Peabody award-winning writers and producers of AMERICAN VANDAL and COBRA KAI, and writers/directors of FUNERAL KINGS (Fantasia 2012) and THE BLOCK ISLAND SOUND (Fantasia 2020). Official Selection: SXSW 2025. Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival 2025. 

Canadian Premiere. Fantasia 2025

MAYA, GIVE ME A TITLE Fantasia 2025

In high demand for his cleverness and creativity, French director Michel Gondry (THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP, BE KIND REWIND, and legendary music videos for the likes of Björk, Daft Punk, and the White Stripes) is often away from home for work. To keep connected with his beloved daughter Maya, he made nightly calls with requests for story titles, to prompt quick, rough little animations crafted with colored paper, markers, and scissors, always starring Maya herself, with MAYA, GIVE ME A TITLE assembling an assortment of these little vignettes. Whether she’s a mermaid, a ship’s captain, an earthquake investigator, or just herself shrunk by “cucumber-reducing solution”, Maya’s tales are told in true Gondry style—wry, inventive, and tactile, favoring the excitement of process over polished final product. Oh, and it’s all voiced and narrated by Pierre Niney, star of last year’s Fantasia hit THE COUNT OF MONTE-CRISTO! 

My First Fantasia and Animation Plus Sections. North American Premiere. Fantasia 2025

NESTING Fantasia 2025

A familiar name to Fantasia audiences, Chloé Cinq-Mars returns to the festival with her debut feature, NESTING (PEAU À PEAU). Delving into the quiet horrors of early motherhood, the film opens with a scream in the night. Pénélope (Rose-Marie Perreault, FAKE TATTOOS), a new mother grappling with sleep deprivation and postpartum depression, finds herself unable to separate dream from reality. After witnessing a violent hold-up in a convenience store, her already fragile psyche begins to crack. Sensitive and haunting, NESTING offers an intimate, unsettling portrait of a mother unraveling. Perreault delivers a career-defining performance, capturing Pénélope’s disintegration and tender attempts at self-reclamation. Denied the idealized “glow” of new motherhood, she’s left to drift in darkness, slowly losing her grip on reality. What emerges is a chilling and deeply human exploration of identity, isolation, and the aching silence surrounding maternal mental health. 

Les Fantastiques Week-Ends du Cinéma Québécois Section. World Premiere. Fantasia 2025

ANYTHING THAT MOVES Fantasia 2025

80 mins | 2025 | USA | English Fantasia 2025

Synopsis: An avant-gutter psychedelic dream, ANYTHING THAT MOVES is an erotically charged, blood-soaked thriller set in the sticky corridors of Chicago. Shot on fleshy Super 16mm, director Alex Phillips’ rust belt giallo continues on his trajectory of taboo-shattering horror cinema with this tense, funny, and absolutely twisted murder mystery. The film follows nubile sex worker Liam who bikes with his girlfriend—his partner in both business and pleasure—through the city delivering snacks and divine satisfaction to his love-hungry clients. Meanwhile, a serial killer’s gory murders are piling up and all the evidence seems to point back to the lover’s bed… Produced in collaboration with cult home video outfit Vinegar Syndrome, the film features stand-out supporting performances from erotic film legends Ginger Lynn (The Devil’s Rejects) and Nina Hartley (Boogie Nights). With an original instrumental score by Chicago-based artists Cue Shop calling to mind the lush orchestrations of Bruno Nicolai and lurid visuals by acclaimed cinematographer Hunter Zimny (The Scary of Sixty-First, Funny Pages), ANYTHING THAT MOVES provides an immersive throwback to 70s exploitation flicks.

World Premiere: Fri July 25, 9:30pm, Salle J.A. De Seve 

Tue July 29, 11:45am, Salle J.A. De Seve 

Written and Directed By: Alex Phillips

Introducing: Hal Baum, Jeremy Everett, Andrea Huber, Maxton Koc, Jiana Nicole, Jade Perry and Cooper Whittlesey

Featuring: Ginger Lynn Allen, Trevor Dawkins, Jack Dunphy, Paul Gordon, Nina Hartley and Frank V. Ross

LUCID Fantasia 2025

After coming to Fantasia as a short film selected for the Frontierés Market Shorts to Features Lab in 2022 and Sitges Fanpitch that same year, directing duo Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall expand the world of Mia Sunshine Jones in their darkly trippy feature, LUCID. Mia is a rebellious art student who struggles to create the ultimate project for a demanding professor. Desperate to find her artistic voice, she takes Lucid, a candy elixir, to access her creativity, but taps into something much darker. Starring Caitlin Acken Taylor, who reprises her role from the short, and Georgia Acken (star of the 2023 Fantasia hit THE SACRIFICE GAME), Milligan and Fendall create a surreal nightmare with a vintage look that fully embraces the 90s grunge era with a punk art aesthetic. Using live on-set music, an eclectic cast, and loads of experimental and haunting visuals, the World Premiere of LUCID will be a nightmare-come-true. 

World Premiere at Fantasia, feature debut, July 31

The film is co-written and directed by actor turned filmmaker Deanna Milligan (21 Jump Street, The X-Files) and cinematographer turned director/writer Ramsey Fendall (Ethan Hawke’s Seymour: An Introduction).

Cast: Caitlin Acken Taylor (Pistol) and Georgia Acken (Under the Bridge, The Sacrifice Game), Vivian Vanderpuss from RuPaul’s Drag Race is in the film and also designed the Hair Monster and Ayla Tesler Mabe one of the Goth Girls a is a real life guitar god! She has been featured in Rolling Stone and formerly part of the band Calpurnia with Finn Wolfhard.

FOREIGNER Fantasia 2025

For her debut feature film, FOREIGNER, Ava Maria Safai (Zip) expertly harnesses the power of identity, social acceptance, horror, and comedy. It’s 2004, and Iranian immigrant Yasamin, or Yasi, is the new girl. Her high school experience is daunting, as she tries to improve her English by watching her favorite sitcom and befriends a trio of pastel-clad girls who feed Yasi’s need to fit in. Desperate for acceptance, she dyes her hair blonde and, in doing so, also attracts a demonic force. With a fun retro setting, great performances by Rose Dehgan as Yasi, Chloë MacLeod as the creepy high school “Queen Bee” Rachel, and a blend of our favorite teen horrors, FOREIGNER takes up space as a new entry to “bubblegum horror,” bringing a fresh narrative to the Canadian immigrant experience. The film has been referred to by some as Mean Girls meets The Exorcist and Ava is definitely a young director to watch. 

World Premiere at Fantasia, feature debut, July 21

Writer/director Ava Maria Safai is a Canadian-Iranian multidisciplinary artist from Vancouver, known for her work in acting, music, writing, and directing. She is a Dean’s List graduate from UBC’s BFA in Acting program and the artistic director of The Harlequin Theatre Society. She is also an accomplished musician and songwriter, with over 40 original songs and a Canada Council-funded musical. Her short film Zip won numerous awards on the festival circuit and her debut single “Finding Hope” was picked up on Lifetime’s Dance Moms. Ava Maria has released three albums and five singles and she co-wrote music for Unmasked (which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival). Ava Maria recently shadowed directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein on Final Destination Bloodlines. 

Cast: Rose Dehgan (Musician & TikTok star), Chloë MacLeod, Ashkan Nejati (Director of Tonight’s Homework which premiered at IDFA)

HELLCAT Fantasia 2025

A woman (Dakota Gorman) wakes in the back of a moving camper trailer. A voice (Todd Terry) from the truck towing it tells her they must reach a mysterious doctor within the hour. Thus begins HELLCAT, the feature debut of writer/editor/director Brock Bodell, who previously cut the mind-bending ULTRASOUND (Fantasia 2021), among others. Bodell doesn’t take a wrong turn, delivering a twisty thrill ride of strong characters, shredding tension, and real surprises that takes viewers deep into unexpected places. Featuring SNL’s James Austin Johnson as the voice of a late-night DJ on a supernatural call-in show, and gripping performances from supporting cast Jordan Mullins and Liz Atwater. 

World Premiere. Fantasia 2025

HOLD THE FORT Fantasia 2025

A HOA turns out to be more troublesome than usual in this wildly amusing, FX-heavy freak-out about newly minted suburbanites unexpectedly forced to take part in a struggle against monstrous forces. Narratives about motley groups of ill-equipped characters battling forces of evil are a staple of the modern horror/comedy world, but HOLD THE FORT, from writer/director William Bagley, is many yuks above the norm. With very funny dialogue, outrageous circumstances, and plenty of stylish splatstick as both the human and inhuman are dispatched in gruesome, sometimes giggle-worthy ways, with heaps of spurting, splashing gore and a nonstop parade of practically-created creatures and zombies. Starring Chris Mayers (OZARK), Haley Leary, sketch comic YouTube creator Julian Smith, and Tordy Clark (GLORIOUS), and featuring a charismatic turn from veteran stunt performer Hamid-Reza Benjamin Thompson (BLACK PANTHER, AVENGERS: ENDGAME). 

World Premiere. Fantasia 2025

The 29th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival is presented by MELS in collaboration with Concordia University and made possible by the financial support 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 city of Montreal, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, Tourisme Montréal, and the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC).

The festival would like to thank all its private partners, friends of the event, as well as official suppliers, venues, and all participating filmmakers, sales agents, and distributors for their invaluable support.

Fantasia 2025

Tickets to the festival can be found here!

For all things Fantasia 2025, click here!