The Fantasia International Film Festival is nearly upon us! The summer tradition of celebrating the cinema of the world is ready to start its 29th edition! This year’s festival runs from July 16th through August 3rd across six venues in Montreal! Check out our preview below!
The Fantasia International Film Festival, now in its 29th year, has been a yearly pinnacle in genre cinema, presenting a slew of awesome films for the lovers of the strange, bizarre, and even the more regular flicks if that’s your style. With so many premieres, Fantasia is always one to watch to see what great cinema is coming down the pike. This year, there are five of us covering the festival: Bob, Nikki, K. Bly, Graylan, and Emilie! That’s great to have so many voices since Fantasia is offering so many films to cover!
The slate is full of a plethora of features (over 125) and shorts (over 200). In addition to the films, the festival is hosting a slew of workshops and special events. See their website www.fantasiafestival.com for the full line-up and more!
Bob Foster checking in with some of the titles I’m excited to check out at the fest!
These are just some features, but I fully intend to dig into as many shorts as I can as well. For SIFF, I was able to write up 29 films (and see a few more still under embargo, including Good Boy, playing here – it’s solid, BTW); that was during the school year, let’s see if I can top that hurdle! At least with 3 others, we can give wider coverage. As seen below and for my other coverage, I gravitate to the horrorfic and weird (and Fantasia offers PLENTY of weird, so I’m in strange stuff heaven). My fellow reviewers might focus elsewhere. Check back to the site – whether it be this page or individual posts (we’ll see and I’ll edit as needed) for their previews.
In addition to the below, the festival opens with Ari Aster’s Eddington and closes with Michael Shanks’ Together.
Mother of Flies – Written & Directed by Zelda Adams, John Adams, Toby Poser
I love the films of the Adams family. The Deeper You Dig, Hellbender, and Where the Devil Roam are all minor masterpieces of DIY horror-cinema, with the family pulling writing-staring-directing-editing-etc roles in their particular brand of strange film. Now they premiere Mother of Flies. A young woman is diagnosed with cancer, and she convinces her father to visit a witch in the woods. I expect a deepening darkness of personal connection and truths gone too far.
Buffet Infinity – Written & Directed by Simon Glassman
On the flip side, Buffet Infinity leaps into absurdism. I love the weird and wild real-life local TV oddities: commercials, strange public access programs, and the like. (Any Found Footage Festival or Everything is Terrible fans out there?). Fake versions of the same hit well with purposeful absurdity and no-rules storytelling (See also VHYes). Buffet Infinity strings together fake commercials to create a conspiracy in a small town. It sounds wild and clever, running with a concept of the unreal and bizarre.
Hold the Fort – Written & Directed by William Bagley
An Evil-Dead-style bloody horror comedy of a dark side of an HOA (we all know there are so many). A new couple meet their neighbors and discover the weirdos they live near hold a secret: the neighborhood holds a portal to hell. Monsters abound to wreak havoc! Bring on the blood, laughs, and all-around fun.
I Live Here Now – Written & Directed by Julie Pacino
A woman (Lucy Fry) is trapped in a motel, forced to deal with everything falling apart around her, physically, emotionally, and mentally. It’s noted to be surreal and darkly comic, in the mold of David Lynch (featuring Twin Peaks’ Sheryl Lee in a supporting role), Dario Argento, and the Coen Brothers. So everything I love. Bring on the strange.
Reflet Dans Un Diamant Mort (Reflections in a Dead Diamond) – Written & Directed by Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani
I’ve had three different people tell me they think I’d love this movie. That must count for something. As I noted in my review for They Call Her Death, I love a good retro flick, lovingly homaging past decades in cinema. These filmmakers have done so with previously, mostly in gialli, with Amer, Let the Corpses Tan, and The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears. From the poster and details, I’m looking at a throwback spy thriller (Danger Diabolic anyone?). I’m sold. I trust my friends, and I trust my own interests.
Obex – Written by Pete Ohs & Albert Birney; Directed by Albert Birney
Dungeons & Dragons meets Eraserhead (hey, more Lynch) as Conor’s life becomes the new fantasy game, Obex. But let’s not forget the Eraserhead portion, as it apparently is a very strange other world.
Finally, I want to implore everyone to run to a film I have already seen, loved, and reviewed. Fucktoys was a favorite of mine at the Seattle International Film Festival back in May, where it played for two sold-out, appreciative audiences. A trash-film odyssey, or as the writer-director-star-producer Annapurna Sriham calls it, bubblegum grindhouse. It’s a wild trip of an insane vision. Sriham has a fantastic vision, brought to life with a dirty, lived-in world of debauchery and filth. 
Of course, there are so many more on my “if I can, I will” list. Check back often to Cinema Crazed for our coverage. What are you interested in?
Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 16th through August 3rd, 2025, in Montreal. See FantasiaFestival.com for more.