The Fantasia International Film Festival will be celebrating its 20th Anniversary in Montreal this summer, taking place from July 14-August 2, with its Frontiéres international co-production market and Industry Rendez-Vous weekend being held July 21-24. The full lineup of over 130 feature films will be announced July 5th. In the meantime, the festival is excited to announce a selected first wave of titles, along with several special happenings.
A CHEVAL NOIR FOR GUILLERMO DEL TORO
The 20th edition of the Fantasia Film Festival will be presenting leading genre filmmaker Guillermo del Toro with its prestigious Cheval Noir Award, which del Toro will accept in person in his first-ever Montreal appearance. Del Toro, best known for such fantasy and horror classics as PAN’S LABYRINTH, THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE, CRONOS, CRIMSON PEAK, and the HELLBOY movies, will also deliver a Master Class at Fantasia. In addition, del Toro will host the Canadian premiere of Gilles Penso and Alexandre Poncet’s CREATURE DESIGNERS: THE FRANKENSTEIN COMPLEX, a fascinating documentary on the history of movie monstermakers, in which he is featured prominently in.
A LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR TAKASHI MIIKE
The Fantasia International Film Festival is proud to be presenting Director Takashi Miike, one of the most groundbreaking filmmakers of his generation, a Lifetime Achievement Award. No other filmmaker has left a mark on Fantasia’s first 20 years as he has. Since our screening of FUDOH: THE NEW GENERATION in 1997, which was the first time Miike’s unique vision was shown in North America, no fewer than 29 of his films were showcased at the festival, including such modern classics as AUDITION, ICHI THE KILLER, and VISITOR Q. Miike’s work also opened Fantasia three times with YATTERMAN and North American premieres of the Cannes selections FOR LOVE’S SAKE and SHIELD OF STRAW. In addition to receiving his award, Takashi Miike will be hosting the North American Premiere of TERRA FORMARS, a sci-fi extravaganza where a team of misfits must fight humanoid cockroaches to colonize Mars, and AS THE GODS WILL, a surreal deathgame where Japanese traditional objects turn playground amusement into modern video-game blood baths.
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF STEVEN SHAINBERG’S RUPTURE
Steven Shainberg, celebrated iconoclastic filmmaker behind SECRETARY and FUR: AN IMAGINARY PORTRAIT OF DIANE ARBUS has returned to the director’s chair with his first full-on genre work, which we are thrilled to be unveiling to the world. RUPTURE is a provocative and startling sci-fi/horror/thriller about a single mother struggling to escape from a mysterious organization that have abducted her, starring Noomi Rapace, Peter Stormare, and Michael Chiklis. Produced by Andrew Lazar, Christina Weiss Lurie, Steven Shainberg of Tango Pictures, and Andrea Iervolino, Monika Bacardi of AMBI.
KIYOSHI KUROSAWA’S CREEPY BERLINALE SMASH COMES TO CANADA
After forays into auteur cinema like the magnificent TOKYO SONATA (Un certain regard Jury Prize at Cannes 2008), J-horror pioneer Kiyoshi Kurosawa, whose classics CURE and SÉANCE were adored at Fantasia in their day, makes a triumphant return to the horror thriller genre with the Berlin Film Festival selected Hitchcockian horror thriller CREEPY, which will be screened in Canadian Premiere. Kurosawa brings terror to a quiet neighborhood where an ex detective and his wife have to deal with their deranged new neighbor spectacularly brought to the screen by the excellent Teruyuki Kagawa.
GET READY TO SCREAM AS FANTASIA TURNS THE LIGHTS OUT
Fantasia will be presenting a Special Screening of David F. Sandberg’s hotly anticipated horror film LIGHTS OUT, in which a woman is haunted by a creature that only appears when the lights go out. Teresa Palmer, Maria Bello, Billy Burke, and Alicia Vela-Bailey star.
IT’S ALIVE!? NO, IT’S REALIVE (World Premiere)
The provocative new film (formerly PROJECT LAZARUS) from acclaimed Spanish filmmaker Mateo Gil (screenwriter of THE SEA INSIDE, VANILLA SKY, director of NOBODY KNOWS ANYBODY, BLACKTHORN) presents a modern spin on FRANKENSTEIN, where the emphasis rests on the emotional and psychological ramifications of reanimating the dead. Tom Hughes stars as a man awakened from cryogenic sleep 60 years into the future who must adjust to a life that left all his loved ones behind.
A SPECTRAL WHITE COFFIN FROM ARGENTINA
Argentinean horror steps into a bold, new dimension in Daniel de la Vega’s grisly supernatural shocker WHITE COFFIN (World Premiere), scripted by brilliant filmmaking siblings Adrian and Ramiro Garcia Bogliano. Fantasia is thrilled to be opening WHITE COFFIN’s diabolical lid for the world to discover its horrific secrets, where child kidnapping, afterdeath resurrection and occult ritualism are intertwined for an unspeakable purpose.
The Fantasia International Film Festival takes place in Montreal July 14 – August 2, 2016, once again returning to the mammoth Concordia Hall Cinema as its main base.
