The Fantasia International Film Festival celebrates its upcoming 30th edition with an electrifying program of screenings, workshops, and events.
Each year’s edition is focused on showcasing the most exciting examples of contemporary international genre cinema from every corner of the globe and hosts over 100 filmmakers each summer.
I keep saying “this year I will go to Fantasia”… alas! I am unable to attend this year, but I have compiled a modest yet carefully chosen list of short and feature films that sound tantalizing, intriguing, exciting and promise to expand your minds.
Hye’s Picks
Short Films
Beasts of Death (Bestias de la Muerte)
Dir. Sandra Powers
Bereaved teenager Claudia wants her dear, departed mother back from the other side, and she’s willing to gamble her own soul to make that happen. Three trials await her in the underworld, three monsters to defeat, three levels of loss and lamentation to transcend.
Breeder
Dir. Sapphire Sandalo
A woman under immense family pressure to become a mother risks losing her ability to choose when she’s visited by the Tikbalang, a frightening creature of Philippine folklore.
Entelechy (Entelequia)
Dir. Marcos Sánchez
An anxious monster spots a bug and thinks it has crawled out of his brain. A simple chase turns into a spiraling adventure through shifting landscapes, where nothing stays still. The film involved 20 Chilean animators, a dizzying succession of tones, styles, materials, and techniques.
I’m in Love with a Stripper
Dir. Julie Phan
Alone on Christmas Eve, Michael makes a last-ditch effort to win back his ex-girlfriend. Although repelled by his sudden reappearance, the promise of $1,000 buys ten minutes of Honey’s time as she reluctantly sits through his declaration of love.
Lost Wax
Dir. Omorose Osagie
When a young girl disappears from her apartment complex, Osas, a craftswoman and outsider within her community, is haunted by her grief for someone she only knew from a distance. In this surrealist drama weaving live action and 2D animation, we follow the thread between the disappearance of an Edo girl from Benin city and the stolen art of the Benin kingdom.
Man Eating Pussy
Dir. Emily Lawson
When a dying man (Julian Richings) visits a mysterious sex worker (Grace Glowicki), his intentions reveal themselves as he seeks to be born again
Feature Films
Ancestral Beasts
Dir. Tim Riedel
Four years after the loss of her mother, Elyse can’t get her head right. She’s messing up at work, needs stress leave, and her sister, Nikki, is on her case about everything. Feeling like she can’t win, Elyse takes off to their auntie’s house outside the city to regroup. But there’s something lurking in the house’s foundation, and the more Elyse tries to deal with her mental health, the more she notices a dark presence surrounding her.
Attack on Paradise
Dir. Bob Colaers
After seven years in prison, Suleyman is released and determined to pick up his life again. During his incarceration, his home, the flat block ‘Paradise’, has been taken over by gangs and drug dealers. When the police decide to raid Paradise, Suleyman gets caught in the violence, with only one goal: to get back to his mother and get her to safety. Alongside rookie police officer Yasmine, Suleyman battles his way up, floor by floor.
Black Zombie
Dir. Maya Annik Bedward
From colonial Haiti’s haunted cane fields to the flickering screens of Hollywood horror, the living dead’s buried origins are unearthed and reclaimed as a symbol of survival and spiritual resistance. Starting as a 2018 Frontieres project, and now a fully realized film, there is plenty of accessible information from historians, the influential Black horror writer/filmmaker Tananarive Due, makeup great Tom Savini and zombie enthusiasts alike.
Blades of the Guardians: Wind Rises in the Desert
Dir. Yuen Wo-Ping
Legendary action master Yuen Woo-ping brings together martial arts icons Wu Jing, Nicholas Tse, Max Zhang, and Jet Li on an epic wuxia adventure across the desert sands. Bounty hunter Doa Ma takes a job escorting the empire’s most wanted man, Zhi Shi Lang, to Chang’an city. As word gets out, his group is hunted down by warriors across the land. The chase is relentless, the action is non-stop, and the blades cut deep.
Cherry and Virgin
Dir. Masanao Kawajiri
Ami and Ryo have a lot in common. They’re both around 30 years old, and they both draw. Ami is a commercial illustrator, Ryo creates erotic manga. Smart but socially uneasy, neither of them has ever had sex. Each feeling compelled to correct that, they’ve connected via a dating app.
Godhead
Dir. Mark H. Rapaport
The film follows eccentric twins who proclaim themselves prophets, blurring reality and delusion as they draw a priest into their supposedly divine mission.
Her Private Hell
Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn
When a mysterious mist engulfs a futuristic metropolis, unleashing a deadly and elusive entity, a troubled young woman searches for her father. Her quest collides with an American GI on a harrowing odyssey to rescue his daughter from Hell.
The Eyes (Nundongja)
Dir. Yeom Ji-oh
A year after being brutally attacked by a former boyfriend who had become obsessed with her, Seo-jin remains traumatized. Suffering from hereditary, degenerative blindness, her efforts to secure a corneal transplant are interrupted by the apparent suicide of her twin sister, just as her attacker is released from prison. Convinced it was murder, Seo-jin sets out to find the culprit before she loses her sight completely.
Los Vampires
Dir. Craig Mitchell
In 1930 Hollywood, a Spanish actor (Henry Ian Cusick) is cast in the night shoot of a soon-to-be-legendary vampire film, forced to imitate the English-speaking star (Thomas Kretschmann) who performs the same role by day. The two actors regularly meet at the transitory hours of their shoots, and a rivalry stirs between them. The film is a fantastical fictionalized account of the making of George Melford’s Spanish Dracula (1931), the arguably superior version of the Universal Horror classic which had been shot overnight on the same sets Tod Browning’s landmark pictured used during the day.
Our Effed Up World
Dir. Alice Maio Mackay
Sheri thought her biggest problem in life was dealing with the recent loss of her beloved grandma. But when a mysterious entity crash lands in the woods, only she and her group of shitkicker friends are what stands in the way of an insatiable, intergalactic hunger.
Unholy Night
Dir. Michael Gabriele
Gino’s traditional family Christmas Eve turns into a bloody battle for survival when his long-dead grandma drops by and goes on a murderous rampage. Amid the chaos, Gino reunites with his ex and the dysfunctional duo must avoid his dead Italian relatives popping up all around the neighbourhood as they search for a way to get rid of these Yuletide revenants and survive his family Christmas.
The 30th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival takes over Montréal from July 16 to August 2, 2026. For full program listings, screening times and tickets, please visit fantasiafestival.com.
