Fantasia 2010: Ken Russell, Bluth and Goldman Honored, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis Receives Special Screening

While we’re still weeks away from the unveiling of the full programme of this year’s Fantasia Festival in Montreal, the good folks over at festival central have given us a sampling of some of the things we can expect from this year’s edition.

Director Ken Russell (Altered States, Tommy, Lair of the White Worm) will be there to receive a lifetime achievement award. On the same night, the provocative and daring auteur will present a rare 35mm copy of his 1971 masterpiece The Devils. With Russell on hand for an entire week, the evening will kick off a week-long career retrospective in Montreal’s repertory cinemas.

Not content to hand out a single lifetime achievement award, the Fantasia Festival will also see legendary animators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman (The Secret of Nimh, An American Tail) honored for their work. There’ll be a screening of The Land Before Time, as well as a round table discussion of the world of animated film.

Director Stuart Gordon and actor Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator, From Beyond), cult heroes to an entire generation of genre fans, will be there to present the international premiere of their one-man play Nevermore: An Evening With Edgar Allan Poe with Combs taking on the role of the godfather of the macabre. A huge critical and audience hit upon its debut in Los Angeles in July of 2009, the play received an extended run and has been playing ever since. Combs has been called the “definitive Poe” by many critics. As if this wasn’t enough, many fans know that this year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the duo’s collaboration on Re-Animator, and Fantasia is marking the occasion by presenting an uncensored 35mm print of their classic take on Lovecraft.

Last but most certainly not least, on July 28 Fantasia will be hosting a gala evening at Place Des Arts, Montreal’s premiere concert hall, where they will be presenting the recently discovered and meticulously restored The Complete Metropolis, Fritz Lang’s seminal 1927 film that changed the face of contemporary cinema. Not content to merely show the film, Fantasia enlisted the talents of internationally-renowned composer Gabriel Thibaudeau to create a brand new soundtrack for the film, which features over twenty-five minutes of lost footage, and this new soundtrack will be performed live during the screening. Kino Int. will be showing the film in select cities this Summer.

Sounds to us like this will be one special year for the festival! The full schedule for the fest will be announced in mid-June, and will feature more than 100 feature films and 200 short films. The 14th annual Fantasia International Film Festival will take place between July 8th and July 28th in Montreal.