As far as we’re concerned around these parts, though we might cover a few film festivals over the course of the year, your faithful sickos Jeffery X Martin and Sachin Hingoo have a clear favourite. Sure, TIFF gets the glitz and Fantastic Fest often gets the glamourous goop, but the annual Fantasia Festival out of Montreal each year acts as the barometer and tastemaker for the upcoming year in horror, fantasy, science fiction, and downright weird celluloid being prepped for our eyes by some of the most unconventional filmmakers, both new and established, from around the world. Here’s just a few selections from 2026’s expansive lineup that are catching the eyes of Jeffery X Martin and Sachin Hingoo, your eyes on the ground.
Ancestral Beasts (Tim Riedel, Canada, 2026)
SH: This Indigenous-led, homegrown creature feature follows Elyse (Morgan Holmstrom), a young Métis woman, as she seeks to recalibrate after having severed her relationship with her toxic sister. Returning to her rural home, she is pursued by a physical manifestation of her trauma in the form of a giant centipede. There’s a lot at play here – haunted houses, mental health struggles, and did I mention the giant centipede?! I’m looking forward to this one being one of the bigger surprises of the Festival.
Hot Spot (Agnieszka Smoczyńska, Poland, 2026)
SH: I’ve been a huge fan of Agnieszka Smoczyńska ever since I first laid eyes on her 2015 debut, The Lure. That mermaid-themed horror-musical was so inventive that she instantly became one of those filmmakers whose work I’d always seek out. Hot Spot looks to move further into the sci-fi, techno-thriller genre set in a dystopian future world controlled by an AI.
You Are The Film (Makoto Ueda, Japan, 2026)
SH: Makoto Ueda’s no stranger to Fantasia and his debut feature, 2021’s time travel tale, Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes brought home so many Festival awards that year that Ueda almost certainly had to pay the excess baggage fee on the flight home from Montreal. LIkewise, 2023’s River also picked up an Audience Award and the Silver Best Asian Feature. Breaking from his other films’ themes, You Are The Film does not have a time-bending element to it, but Ueda’s unconventional writing promises an equally bizarre twist even in linear time. I can’t wait.
The Mouths (Takashi Shimizu, Japan, 2026)
SH: It’s hard to think of a movie that’s more influential and important to Japanese horror than Takashi Shimizu’s 2002 ghost story Ju-On (The Grudge). With The Mouths, the innovator returns with an adaptation of “A Questionnaire About the Mouth” by horror writer Sesuji. This one tells the story of a ghost that’s been conjured by a tree in a haunted cemetry (like there’s any other kind) and a group of university students who try to provoke it. This one looks to keep you scared long after the credits roll.
God Skin (Paween Purijitpanya, Thailand, 2026)
SH: Proving that it’s not just horror at Fantasia, the Panna Stunt Team, perhaps best known for choreographing the groundbreaking Ong Bak films, bring us this story of a dystopian future world with high-tech fighting rings where the audience can literally aid the fighters with virtual strength and health boosts. Top notch muay thai action in a video game come to life? I’m already seated, let’s fucking go.
Our Effed Up World (Alice Maio Mackay, Australia, 2026)
SH: Already a pillar of queer cinema, Alice Maio Mackay returns with an homage to their predecessors that’s all their own. Shades of Gregg Araki, Jane Shoenbrun (who produced the film), and the 90’s slacker vibes of Kevin Smith shine through while retaining Mackay’s singular voice and vision, this alien invasion, girl-power story is sure to be a highlight of Fantasia and of 2026.
Insectasy (Angus Silver, Canada, 2026)
SH: Let’s just say that this Canadian erotic comedy-drama about a woman who becomes sexually obsessed with insects is described in Justine Smith’s press blurb as “[f]or fans of Argento’s PHENOMENON and Lucky McKee’s MAY, INSECTASY is for the lonely perverts who’ve always wanted to be annihilated by the weight of their desire.” I have never clicked ‘Add to Favourites’ so fast.
JXM: I know people who love bugs, but I don’t think I know anyone who loves bugs, like physically. Do I need to see that? Yeah. I kinda do.
Tristes Tropiques (Park Hoon-jung, Korea, 2026)
SH: I’m a huge fan of Park Hoon-jung’s The Witch Part 1: Subversion and its seamless blend of action and horror. Tristes Tropiques seems to pick up on a lot of those themes by telling the tale of a group of children that have been trained as deadly assassins and then abandoned, who have now grown up and are beginning to turn on their Master and each other.
Sour Minnows (Harrison Atkins, USA, 2026)
JXM: What would you do if you saw people licking the street? Would you walk away whistling or would you allow that image to fundamentally alter your grasp on reality? It would probably be both for me, but I want to see how the characters in Sour Minnows handle that absurd situation.
Permanent Damage (Seth A Smith, USA, 2026)
JXM: Described as a “surreal caper,” Permanent Damage tells the story of an escaped prisoner who goes up against a wicked landlord. Starring Calem MacDonald, Olivia Scriven, and Stephen By Gawd Dorff, Permanent Damage sounds fun. Smith’s earlier film, The Crescent, is one of the most affecting movies I’ve ever seen, and I’m looking forward to seeing where Smith goes next.
The Leader (Michael Gallagher, USA, 2026)
JXM: Cults fascinate me, so the thought of seeing Tim Blake Nelson and Vera Farmiga portraying the leaders of the doomed Heaven’s Gate cult fills me with dread and a sick glee. This is based on a true story, so we know how the story ends (spoiler alert: almost everyone dies). But The Leader promises to tell audiences why things got so weird, tragic, and oddly stylish.
The Glorious Dead (John Adams and Toby Poser, USA, 2026)
JXM: The Adams Family returns to Fantasia with The Glorious Dead. When the dead arise from their graves and begin wandering about, the townspeople are not only afraid, they’re pissed. Toby Poser and Zelda Adams play police officers trying to sort out the whole situation. Nobody in the horror genre gets to the throbbing heart of a story as effectively as the Adams Family. This small-town take on the monsters we used to call friends should be gripping and fun.
SH: It’s become almost a yearly tradition for the Fantasia lineup to drop and X and I, in our groupchat, wonder aloud how the Adams Family manages to drop this level of heat on us each year with such relentless consistency of quality. From Hellbender (2021) to Where the Devil Roams (2023) to Hell Hole (2024) to Mother of Flies (2025), there’s almost no one else I can think of in horror that’s delivering such amazing films almost every year and doing it almost all themselves. With The Glorious Dead, the prolific storytellers are back again with a story that seems to be about zombies, but nothing is ever quite what it seems with John, Toby, and Zelda at the helm.
We may have been a little long-winded in our selections here, but rest assured that we’re only scratching the surface of what our pals at Fantasia have planned for us this year. Some of the most exciting horror of 2026 like Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Yeon Sang-Ho’s Colony, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s The Samurai and the Prisoner, and Casper “Too Many Cooks” Kelly’s Buddy are on the menu as well, cementing Fantasia as one of the essential events of the sicko calendar year, at least for film. Stay tuned here to BBP for our coverage starting next week!
The Fantasia International Film Festival emanates from Montreal, Quebec, Canada and runs from July 16 to August 2, 2026 and celebrates its 30th edition this year. Ticket and lineup information can be found on the Festival website and check out our coverage here on Biff Bam Pop! over the next few weeks.
