One of the biggest film festivals out there, the Fantasia International Film Festival, is just over a month away from bringing its massive roster of films to bear this summer. The long-running Montreal-based fest is coming into its 26th annual outing with a number of prominent titles that genre fans will be eager to see this year. While not the monumental celebration that last year’s silver jubilee was, there’s still a wide range of new films to really dig into and now the second wave of films is out there to give fans a taste of what’s to come. This year’s fest will run from July 14 through August 3.
Among the films unveiled in the second wave is Polaris, the leadoff film for the festival from KC Carthew. It’s a post-apocalyptic trudge through the Canadian wilds with tinges of Mad Max and an all-female-identifying cast starring Viva Lee. Lee plays Sumi, a woman with fierce powers who follows the north star Polaris on a treacherous journey with her adoptive polar bear mother. One thing that stands out with this year’s festival is the spotlight on queer genre cinema. The second wave highlights this angle with Swallowed, a “bug nuts” body horror from Carter Smith, and La Pietà, a surreal journey centering on the relationship between a mother and her son from Eduardo Casanova, among other titles.
With the announcement, Fantasia also unveiled that Kier-La Janisse will be honored at this year’s festival with the Canadian Trailblazer Award. Janisse is practically a rock star in the cinema world, putting together multiple film festivals including CinaMuerte Film Festival, The Big Smash! Music-on-Film Festival, and Plastic Paper: Winnipeg’s Festival of Animated, Illustrated and Puppet Film as well as founding the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies. She can also add head programmer at the legendary Alamo Drafthouse Cinema to her resume among much more. Beyond creating platforms for cinema, she’s also an accomplished author, filmmaker, and producer herself. Most recently, she made her first-ever documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror which earned high praise in the film festival circuit. Her book, House of Psychotic Women will also unveil a new edition at a dedication during the festival.
For fans of classic Japanese television, there’s a treat here too in the form of Shin Ultraman from director Shinji Higuchi and writer Hideaki Anno, the creator of the legendary anime Neon Genesis Evangeleon. The two are back together after their work on Shin Godzilla to revive the glimmering sci-fi superhero for a new era. Ultraman debuted all the way back in 1966 and became an icon for Japan that still holds a place of prominence in their culture. This will mark the North American premiere for the revival film, which was a massive success overseas.
Other highlights coming to the festival include Neil LaBute‘s new thriller House of Darkness, Patrice Leconte‘s Maigret, Toshiro Saiga‘s Red Shoes, Franklin Ritch‘s The Artifice Girl, and Yoon Seo-jin‘s Chorokbam. Some may remember LaBute specifically for writing the screenplay for the Nicholas Cage-led adaptation of The Wicker Man, though he deserves far more credit for his acclaimed films In the Company of Men and Nurse Betty. Kate Bosworth leads the cast of his latest film.
For more on the Fantasia Film Festival, check out their official website here.
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