My only screening on Day 14 of the Fantasia International Film Festival was a late selection for me, the Canadian Premiere of the US fantasy/horror thriller film Daniel Isn’t Real. The film had its World Premiere at SXSW back in March, where the poster you see above (designed by an artist named Jock) won the Excellence in Poster Design in the SXSW Film Design Awards section. The film has also played in many other festivals since then.
My second movie on Day 3 of the Fantasia International Film Festival was the Quebec Premiere of the South Korean crime thriller “Akinjeon” (literally “Villain Story”) aka The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil. The film opened in South Korean theaters on May 15th and was screened out of competition in the Midnight Screenings section at Cannes on May 22nd. It then played in a handful of US theaters in June.
My second film of the evening on Day 2 was the North American Premiere of the science-fiction thriller Vivarium. It is a co-production between Ireland, Belgium, and Denmark. The film had its World Premiere at Cannes during the Critic’s Week back in May. The film is also setup to be the closing film of the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival in Switzerland on July 13th.
It’s Day 2 of the Fantasia International Film Festival and I started the evening with the Quebec Premiere of the Australian zombie comedy Little Monsters. It had its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in their Midnight Program back in January. It then went on to play at SXSW and the Calgary Underground Film Festival. The film was written and directed by Abe Forsythe and stars Lupita Nyong’o, Alexander England, and Josh Gad.
Back for its 23rd edition, running from July 11th to August 1st, the Fantasia International Film Festival returns to Concordia University in downtown Montreal. To kick off my own 11th participation, I selected the Quebec Premiere of the US dark comedy The Art of Self-Defense. It was an advanced screening in a way because the film comes out on July 12th in the USA but only on July 19th in Canadian theaters. The Art of Self-Defense had its World Premiere at SXSW back in March to seemingly great reviews.
On Day 4 of the Fantasia Festival, I had one screening in the afternoon. This film tempted me very much after reading about it and watching the trailer. And it seems I was not the only one to be interested because it was the first of two sold out screenings (ed.: they’ve now added a third screening). A guy even offered me $40 for my ticket that I paid $9 for while I was waiting in the line to enter the theater! This was the Canadian Premiere of the Thai film Bad Genius (Chalard Games Goeng or Chalat Kem Kong, the latter of which is, apparently, the transliteration of it’s original title ฉลาดเกมส์โกง in Thai script).
On day 3 of the Fantasia Festival, I had one film to watch, one I had been looking forward to. I’m talking about the Canadian Premiere of the apparent splatter-fest Game of Death.
Day 2 of the Fantasia Festival has commenced and there are two films on my schedule. I started the evening with the Canadian premiere of the Australian thriller Killing Ground that was a sold out screening.
The time is finally here for the 21st edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival to begin in downtown Montreal, Quebec. It started on July 13th and runs until August 2nd. This year’s opening film was the North American premiere of the South Korean film The Villainess (Ak-Nyeo). It was my first of twenty-four screenings I’ll attend this year.
Cinephellas 