Fantasia Celebrates 15 Years with Killer Line-up

Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival turns 15 years old this summer, and sandwiched between the official opening and closing films – Kevin Smith’s horror bow Red State and the Guillermo del Toro-scripted and -produced remake of 1973’s Don’t Be Afraid of The Dark, respectively – will be more than 120 features, 240 short films, 110 invited guests hosting screenings of their films, and numerous special events including the bestowing of lifetime achievement awards and round table discussions. Below is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what’s on offer this year.

Sticking to its familiar Asia-versus-the-rest-of-the-world format, the fest’s occidental category of genre fare features such high-profile fare as the aforementioned opening and closing films, as well as the world premiere of The Theatre Bizarre, a 7 filmmaker, 4 country horror anthology that includes segments directed by such genre luminaries as make-up effects wizard Tom Savini (1990’s Night of the Living Dead), Richard Stanley (Hardware), and Buddy Giovinazzo (Combat Shock). The U.S. is well-represented by Sundance items such as Mike Cahill’s Another Earth, newcomer Evan Glodell’s apocalyptic cars and romance flick Bellflower, Lucky Mckee’s The Woman, which he co-wrote with horror author Jack Ketchum and which sees him team up once again with Angela Bettis, who starred in his eerie classic May, we have Jed Stahm’s brutal Christmas Eve home invasion nightmare Knifepoint, and the John Landis-produced, Jack Perez-directed Some Guy Who Kills People, a darkly comic horror tale about, well, some guy who kills people who also happens to be trying to bond with his newly discovered teen daughter.

Landis, who will be on hand to accept a lifetime achievement award in honor of the 30th anniversary of his An American Werewolf in London, will also present his latest film, Burke And Hare, a black comedy from the U.K. about grave-robbing starring Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis, Isla Fisher, and Tim Curry. Also representing the U.K. is Little Deaths, a twisted psychosexual anthology with segments directed by Simon Rumley (last year’s festival fave Red, White and Blue), Sean Hogan (Lie Still), and Andrew Parkinson (Dead Creatures), as well as Julian Gilbey’s harrowing thriller A Lonely Place to Die, about a group of mountain climbers who find a child buried alive and the aftermath of her rescue, Joe Cornish’s SXSW crowd pleaser Attack the Block, in which a group of South London teens incite a full-blown alien invasion when they chase and kill a creature who took a swipe at one of them, and the world premiere of Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Tree, which sees the director revisit the pagan and religious themes of his 1973 classic The Wicker Man, to which this is more of a thematic brother than a straight sequel or re-imagining.

Among the Canadian entries are Exley, Larry Kent’s fully-improvised sexual and violent look at a hustler trying to drum up funds to visit his dying mother, and Xavier Gens’ The Divide, in which the Frontier(s) director goes even darker in depicting a group of American citizens trying to band together after a nuclear attack has forced them into hiding. Some of the other countries represented are Argentina (Nicolas Goldbart’s Phase 7), Australia (Andrew Traucki’s shark-infested The Reef), Denmark (Mikel Norgaard’s Clown), Germany (Andy Fetscher’s unsettling Urban Explorer), Finland (Jalmari Helander’s re-imagining of the Santa Claus myth, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale), Spain (Miguel Angel Vivas’ Kidnapped, another home invasion thriller that won Best Horror Feature at Fanatastic Fest), Israel (the witty and creative horror flick Rabies, from co-writers and -directors Navot Papushado and Aharon Keshales), and the Netherlands (Dick Maas’ Saint, a holiday-themed slasher pic in which the villain is none other than not-so-jolly old Saint Nick himself).

On the Asian side of things, prolific Fantasia fave Takashi Miike has two films playing the fest: the director’s cut of the feudal era-set 13 Assassins and his latest family-friendly film, Ninja Kids!!!. Sion Sono, another popular Fantasia vet whose previous films include Love Exposure and Suicide Cub, brings us Cold Fish, a darkly comic and murderous tale set in the world of Japan’s tropical fish industry. Noboru Iguchi’s Karate-Robo Zaborgar and Tomie: Unlimited will both play the fest, as will other Japanese gore-house Sushi Typhoon flicks such as Tak Sakaguchi and Yudai Yamaguchi’s Yakuza Weapon, Yamaguchi’s darkly comic Deadball, and Yoshihiro Nishimura’s bloody mutant-zombie film Helldriver.Award-winning South Korean action director Ryoo Seung-Wan returns to Fantasai with his latest, The Unjust. He’ll also be hosting a workshop on action cinema at the fest. From Thailand comes Panna Rittikrai’s Bangkok Knockout, feturing all the suicidal stunts the martial arts film expert is known for. This year there is a spotlight on Korean films, with a special focus on output from new directors like Yoon Sung-hyun (Bleak Night), Oh Young-doo (Invasion of Alien Bikini and Kim Min-suk (paranormal thriller Haunters).

Of course, Fantasia wouldn’t be Fantasia without its yearly spotlights and special events. Apart from the annual ‘Documentaries from the Edge’ and ‘Camera Lucida’ programs showcasing cutting edge docs and avant garde genre fare, this year the fest is presenting ‘Medicated Monsters: the Cinema of Adam Wingard’. Wingard, who was 19 when his first film, Home Sick, was screened at Fantasia’s 2007 edition, has quickly become a festival circuit favorite with his psychedelic mumblecore mash-ups. Wingard will be present for screenings of his films Pop Skull, A Horrible Way To Die, and the world premiere of his latest, What Fun We Were Having: 4 Stories About Date Rape. Also on deck is ‘Playback in Black: The Next Wave’, which will focus on a new era of POV films, including the world premiere of Victims, David Bryant’s real-time, single-take nailbiter about a possibly innocent man abducted by vigilantes on his wedding day, and the Canadian premiere of Norway’s Troll Hunter, directed by Andre Ovredal. The endearing film has been winning audiences over as it blazes a trail along the festival circuit. A Lifetime Achievement Award Ceremony for the maverick producing team of John Dunning and Andre Link, who founded what is now known as Lionsgate Films, will see many producers, filmmakers, and actors who have worked with them pay tribute to the duo before a screening of a 35mm print of David Cronenberg’s Shivers. Two of the more intriguing panels will be ‘Women in Horror’, in which four women horror filmmakers will discuss their experiences within the genre as well as whether gender is still a relevant topic in the industry today, and ‘Robin Hardy in converstion with Richard Stanley’, in which the two will sit down in front of a live audience and discuss their ouevre and the influence of the occult and faith in their films.

As if all this wasn’t enough, with the overwhelming success of last year’s screening of Metropolis with a live orchestra performing a newly written score, they’ve decided to do it again this year, only it will be a rare 35mm print of the 1925 Lon Chaney-starring The Phantom of the Opera! Once again, renowned composer Gabriel Thibodeau will be conducting a 30-piece orchestra who will be performing an original Thibodeau score to the film.

As mentioned, there’s just too much going on to go into full detail here. In fact, there’s so much going on at this year’s edition of Fantasia that it makes one wonder what they’ve got up their sleeves for their Sweet Sixteen party next year! For a full list of films and the schedule for Fantasia’s 15th edition, which runs for a whopping 25 days between July 14th and August 7th, visit their website.