Biff Bam Pop! has been covering the annual Fantasia Film Festival out of Montreal for the last couple of years, but the 24th edition of one of the premiere genre showcases of the year will be like no other. Eschewing one of the things that makes this festival truly special – its unique live programming and special events – Fantasia, like many film festivals, will move entirely online for the first time in 2020. What hasn’t changed, though, is Fantasia’s commitment to seeking out and highlighting the very best of genre cinema. This first wave of announcements from the festival shows that even in quarantine, there’s a crop of exciting horror, science fiction, and genre-bending titles in the lineup. And for the first time, the festival will be accessible to almost anyone (in Canada) from home! Here’s a few of the titles we’re most excited about.
THE RECKONING (Neil Marshall)
Starring: Charlotte Kirk (OCEAN’S 8, NO PANIC WITH A HINT OF HYSTERIA), Sean Pertwee (DOG SOLDIERS, DOOMSDAY), Joe Anderson (THE GREY, THE CRAZIES), Steven Waddington (THE IMITATION GAME, LAST OF THE MOHICANS), and Emma Campbell-Jones (DOCTOR WHO)
From the mind of the prolific Neil Marshall (The Descent, Dog Soldiers) comes a poignant and prescient thriller set in 1665 London, at the height of the Great Plague and the infamous witch hunts, this will be an unmissable opener for the festival.
TEZUKA’S BARBARA (Makoto Tezuka)
A daring and dark adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s adult manga, a major departure from his best-known work, Astro Boy, makes it’s North American premiere at Fantasia 2020. Shot by master cinematographer Christopher Doyle (In The Mood For Love, Hero), this erotic and occult meditation on creativity will make you feel all the things.
12 HOUR SHIFT (Brea Grant)
Starring: Angela Bettis (May, The Woman), Chloe Farnworth (Bloodshot, Departure), David Arquette (Scream), Mick Foley (The Peanut Butter Falcon)
Sure to be a breakout film for writer/director Brea Grant (Lucky), 12 Hour Shift follows an opioid-addicted nurse who turns to organ harvesting to fund her habit. Shot in real-time, 12 Hour Shift will have people talking long after the credits roll.
UNDERGODS (Chino Moya)
Starring: Geza Rohrig (SON OF SAUL), Johann Meyers (SNATCH), Hayley Carmichael (LES MISERABLES), Eric Godon (IN BRUGES), Kate Dickie (THE WITCH), Adrian Rawlins (CHERNOBYL), Ned Dennehy (MANDY), and Jan Bijvoet (BORGMAN)
Purported to be one of the most visually-arresting features in the Fantasia lineup, Chino Moya (St Vincent: Digital Witness) presents the world premiere of Undergods. It’s a fantasy-horror with an undercurrent of dark humour, and brings together talents from Belgium, Serbia, Estonia, and Sweden.
LUCKY (Natasha Kermani)
Starring: Brea Grant (After Midnight), Kristina Klebe (Proxy, Hellboy)
Natasha Kermani’s second feature (following 2017’s Imitation Girl) stars Brea Grant (who co-wrote on Lucky and directed/wrote on Fantasia selection 12 Hour Shift as well) as an author who is being stalked nightly by a masked man. Delving into many of the themes of 2020’s The Invisible Man, Lucky mines horror out of the reality-bending disorientation that comes with gaslighting.
THE CURSE OF AUDREY EARNSHAW (Thomas Robert Lee)
Starring: Catherine Walker (A DARK SONG), Jared Abrahamson (HELLO DESTROYER), Hannah Emily Anderson (WHAT KEEPS YOU ALIVE), Don McKellar (LAST NIGHT), and Sean McGinley (BRAVEHEART)
Said to be “one of the most unsettling and surprising occult horror films since Hereditary”, Thomas Robert Lee tells the tale of a mother and daughter who are suspected of witchcraft in a deeply religious, rural community.
SPECIAL ACTORS (Shinichiro Ueda)
Following on the heels of one of the most groundbreaking horrors of the past few years, Shinichiro Ueda (ONE CUT OF THE DEAD) is back with his highly anticipated sophomore film SPECIAL ACTORS! Not one to rest on the laurels of his genre-twisting debut, Ueda widens the scope of his meta-storytelling to the entire world. Actor Kazuto is hired by an agency that uses thespians to stage events in real life, but that’s only the beginning. Like One Cut before it, Special Actors will liquify your brain, in the most pleasurable way.
There’s so much more in this first wave of titles for the 2020 edition of Fantasia, with two more waves of announcements to come, so stay tuned to Biff Bam Pop and the Fantasia website for news.
Fantasia’s virtual edition will take place August 20 through September 2, 2020. All film screenings will be geo-blocked to Canadian audiences and only accessible from within the country. Screenings will be delivered by Festival Scope and SHIFT72 via their newly-launched online festival platform, most recently utilized for CPH:DOX and Visions du Réel’s celebrated virtual editions.
The full list of first-wave titles:
#SHAKESPEARESSHITSTORM
Dir. Lloyd Kaufman
USA
World Premiere
12 HOUR SHIFT
Dir. Brea Grant
USA
International Premiere
A COSTUME FOR NICHOLAS
Dir. Eduardo Rivero
Mexico
Canadian Premiere
COME TRUE
Dir. Anthony Scott Burns
Canada
World Premiere
THE CURSE OF AUDREY EARNSHAW
Dir. Thomas Robert Lee
Canada
World Premiere
FRIED BARRY
Dir. Ryan Kruger
South Africa
Canadian Premiere
KRIYA
Dir. Sidharth Srinivasan
India/UK
World Premiere
LABYRINTH OF CINEMA
Dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi
Japan
Canadian Premiere
LAPSIS
Dir. Noah Hutton
USA
Canadian Premiere
LUCKY
Dir. Natasha Kermani
USA
International Premiere
THE OLD MAN MOVIE
Dirs. Oskar Lehemaa and Mikk Magi
Estonia
North American Premiere
THE RECKONING
Dir. Neil Marshall
UK
Special Screening
SLEEP (Schlaf)
Dir. Michael Venus
Germany
North American Premiere
SPECIAL ACTORS
Dir. Shinichiro Ueda
Japan
Canadian Premiere
TEZUKA’S BARBARA
Dir. Macoto Tezuka
Japan
North American Premiere
TIME OF MOULTING
Dir. Sabrina Mertens
Germany
North American Premiere
TINY TIM: KING FOR A DAY
Dir. Henrik Von Sydow
Sweden
World Premiere
UNDERGODS
Dir. Chino Moya
UK/Belgium/Estonia/Serbia/Sweden
World Premiere
THE UNDERTAKER’S HOME (La Funeraria)
Dir. Mauro Iván Ojeda
Argentina
World Premiere
UNEARTH
Dirs. John C. Lyons & Dorota Swies
USA
World Premiere
YUMMY
Dir. Lars Damoiseaux
Belgium
Quebec Premiere
Update: A previous version of this post incorrectly listed the title of Thomas Robert Lee’s film as THE BALLAD OF AUDREY EARNSHAW, which was a working title. It has been corrected to THE CURSE OF AUDREY EARNSHAW. Additionally, the film LAPSIS was listed as an International Premiere when it is a Canadian Premiere, and Mikk Magi was omitted as co-director of THE OLD MAN MOVIE. BBP regrets the error!
