An electrifying trio of new Takashi Miike works, Izabel Pakzad’s FIND YOUR FRIENDS, Félix Dufour-Laperrière’s DEATH DOES NOT EXIST, Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s KAZAKH SCARY TALES, t.o.L’s TAMALA 2030: A PUNK CAT IN DARK, Ava Maria Safai’s FOREIGNER, Yuta Shimotsu’s NEW GROUP, Mickey Reece’s EVERY HEAVY THING, Simon Glassman’s BUFFET INFINITY, and more, plus Canadian Premieres of Michael Shanks’ TOGETHER, Alex Russell’s LURKER and Toshiaki Toyoda’s TRANSCENDING DIMENSIONS among the massive second wave of titles announced by Montreal fest
The Fantasia International Film Festival will celebrate its upcoming 29th edition with an electrifying program of screenings, workshops, and launch events running from July 16 through August 3, 2025, returning to the Concordia Hall and J.A. de Sève cinemas, with additional screenings and events at Montreal’s Cinéma du Musée. Please note that the festival is now starting one day earlier than previously announced. The full film lineup will be revealed in early July, but in the meantime, Fantasia is excited to announce its select second wave of features.
OFFICIAL OPENING FILM: ARI ASTER’S EDDINGTON
Fantasia’s 29th edition will open with a special screening of Ari Aster’s EDDINGTON. In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico. Also featuring Austin Butler, Emma Stone, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Michael Ward, and Clifton Collins Jr. EDDINGTON is Aster’s fourth feature in an extraordinary filmography of landmarks, following HEREDITARY, MIDSOMMAR, and BEAU IS AFRAID.
CANADIAN TRALBLAZER AWARD: GEORGE MIHALKA
Fantasia will bestow a 2025 Canadian Trailblazer award to filmmaker George Mihalka, whose 40-year career in cinema and television has crossed cultures and borders. Internationally, Mihalka is most celebrated for his 1981 slasher classic MY BLOODY VALENTINE, the Genie-nominated ETERNAL EVIL (1985), HOSTILE TAKEOVER (1988), BULLET TO BEIJING (1996), and WATCHTOWER (2001). In Quebec, Mihalka has made some of French Canada’s most beloved cult films, including SCANDALE (1982), LA FLORIDA (1993), L’HOMME IDÉAL (1996), and LES BOYS IV (2005), in addition to directing on some of the province’s greatest television series (SCOOP, OMERTA, LA LOI DU SILENCE…).
Mihalka’s history in filmmaking is as unconventional as it is exciting. He also happens to be a wonderful raconteur. To that end, Fantasia is happy to announce that the filmmaker will also be giving a master class at the festival, presented by the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC).
A TAKASHI MIIKE TRIPLE THREAT! NYAIGHT OF THE LIVING CAT, BLAZING FISTS, AND SHAM
A perennial of the festival’s programming since its earliest days, and recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, maverick, genre-jumping Japanese director Takashi Miike makes his mark at Fantasia again this year with not one but three titles—including an adorable J-horror anime series, with World Premiere episodes! Adapting the manga written by Hawkman and drawn by Mecha-Roots, and debuting on Crunchyroll this summer, NYAIGHT OF THE LIVING CAT presents a premise more terrifying than a half-empty food bowl—a virus sweeping the globe, causing anyone who touches a kitty to become one themselves! Executive director Miike and director Tomohiro Kamitani deliver a furry, purring parody of the natural-horror subgenre, an animated cataclysm of cuteness!
The pair of Miike films celebrating their Canadian Premieres pack a one-two punch, starting with BLAZING FISTS, in which two teenage hoodlums aim for better lives for themselves, and fighting in the ring is how they’ll get there. A convincing coming-of-age drama with a big heart to balance out the bruises and black eyes, its cast features J-pop superstar Gackt and MMA fighter Mikuru Asakura, who appears as himself. SHAM, inspired by a true story, follows the surreal legal and media battle of a teacher falsely accused of violence against a student. Miike delivers a breathtaking legal thriller that generates as much anxiety as his best horrific works, thanks in part to the crackling performance by Go Ayano (GANTZ).
FIND YOUR FRIENDS TURNS A DESERT PARTY INTO A GAME OF SURVIVAL
For her first feature, director Izabel Pakzad puts a sinister spin on party culture and the constant threat of violence facing young women, featuring a stellar cast including Helena Howard (MADELINE’S MADELINE, I SAW THE TV GLOW), Bella Thorne (DIVINITY), Zión Moreno (GOSSIP GIRL), Chloe Cherry (EUPHORIA), and Sophia Ali (UNCHARTED). Set against cinematic desert scenery, what starts as a wild girls trip quickly turns dangerous when the locals don’t want them there. As the hostile environment escalates, Amber’s friends uncover her past trauma and become fed up with toxic dynamics. Little do they know, their fun trip will transform into one of revenge—building to a jaw-dropping finale that audiences will never forget. Produced by Allison Friedman (THE MORTUARY COLLECTION, THE FIX), Gary Michael Walters (WHIPLASH, DRIVE), Andrea Iervolino (SKINCARE, FERRARI), Luca Matrundola (TO THE BONE, SKINCARE) and executive produced by Chris Hanley (THE VIRGIN SUICIDES, SPRING BREAKERS) and Eric Kohn (BABY INVASION), FIND YOUR FRIENDS presents surprising scenarios exploring how fragile the divide between the sexes really is. World Premiere.
A JOLTING FOLK HORROR VISION: ADILKHAN YERZHANOV’S KAZAKH SCARY TALES
Continuing a breathtaking marathon of creation, multi-time award-winner Adilkhan Yerzhanov (STEPPENWOLF, THE OWNERS, THE GENTLE INDIFFERENCE OF THE WORLD) has turned his visionary lens towards skin-crawling occult horror storytelling. A cop (Kuantai Abdimadi, MOUNTAIN ONION) ventures into a remote village to investigate a gruesome series of inexplicable events and soon finds himself in the center of an otherworldly storm of local witchcraft and death. It becomes clear that the curse of Albasty, a spirit said to devour infants, is horrifyingly real. Bringing nightmarish regional folk horror to the screen through a tense, neo-Noir Trojan horse, KAZAKH SCARY TALES was produced as an anthology series for a domestic streamer but deemed too frightening by focus groups. Fantasia will be presenting the first three episodes as a complete feature narrative, the first time that anything from the series will be shown anywhere in the world. A stunning, disturbing work featuring a cast from across Yerzhanov’s filmography, including Anna Starchenko, jury award winner at last summer’s Fantasia for her astonishing performance in STEPPENWOLF, Dinara Baktybayeva (A DARK, DARK MAN), Daniyar Alshinov (GOLIATH), Yerken Gubashev (THE ASSAULT), and Sanjar Madi (YELLOW CAT). World Premiere.
DEATH DOES NOT EXIST OPENS THE FANTASTIQUES WEEK-ENDS DU CINÉMA QUÉBÉCOIS
Fresh off its world premiere in Cannes, Félix Dufour-Laperrière’s magnificent animated feature DEATH DOES NOT EXIST (LA MORT N’EXISTE PAS) will open Fantasia’s Fantastiques Weekends du Cinéma Québécois.
A group of young activists take up arms against an affluent family, hoping to plant the seed that sows a rebellion. But when things don’t go according to plan, a woman finds herself haunted by the memory of her friend, intertwined with the shadows of her doubt and guilt. In a world threatened by growing inequalities, Félix’s masterpiece embraces the naiveté of youth to tell its story, weighing the burden of one’s responsibilities and the consequences of repercussions of the path they’ve taken. Over ten years in the making, DEATH DOES NOT EXIST is as timely a film as could be, and one of the most magnificent pictures made in recent years, where every hand drawn frame is a breathtaking work of art. The film plays off color and sound to shape its story, allowing the art to take a life of its own. The revolution may be bloody and violent, filled with loss and sorrow, but it’s never been this beautiful. Les Fantastiques Week-Ends du Cinéma Québécois Section. North American Premiere.
YUTA SHIMOTSU’S NEW GROUP BRILLIANTLY BLURS THE LINE BETWEEN HORROR AND REALITY
High school student Ai (Anna Yamada) sees her world collapse when a strange cult-like mentality gradually turns people around her into mindless followers who can transform simple gymnastics routines into a nightmarish dance of death. With only his second feature, co-writer and director Yuta Shimotsu (BEST WISHES TO ALL, produced by Takashi Shimizu) delivers one of the most well-scripted, masterfully directed, and incredibly creepy J-horror films of the last twenty years. Imagine a fusion between a harsh critique of Japanese society and the weird ideological movements that are growing in the Western World, portrayed in the twisted universe of legendary mangaka Junji Ito, author of the classic UZUMAKI, and you might be able to visualize all the fun this film packs. With its mind-blowing, surreal imagery in a very realistic context, a perfectly balanced and executed soundtrack, and something to say about the world we live in, NEW GROUP will only expand its number of devoted followers around the planet. North American Premiere.
EVERY HEAVY THING FINDS MICKEY REECE AT HIS MOST VISIONARY, BLENDING LO-FI AESTHETICS WITH HIGH-CONCEPT SATIRE IN THE HEART OF OKLAHOMA
Mickey Reece, the inspired maverick behind such singular cult favorites as COUNTRY GOLD, CLIMATE OF THE HUNTER, and AGNES, returns to Fantasia with EVERY HEAVY THING, a pitch-black comedy about an ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Set against the unsettling backdrop of a string of disappearances, the film follows Joe (Josh Fadem, BETTER CALL SAUL), an unassuming office worker at an online periodical who becomes entangled in a conspiracy after witnessing a murder. As a colleague begins to investigate, Joe struggles to conceal the truth as his carefully constructed life falls apart. With his signature blend of lo-fi aesthetics and sharp, high-concept wit, Reece delivers another visionary exploration of Oklahoma and a darkly comic meditation on the fractured American soul. Featuring an eclectic cast including Vera Drew (THE PEOPLE’S JOKER), Tipper Newton (THE MINDY PROJECT), John Ennis (RATS!), and genre icon Barbara Crampton (RE-ANIMATOR). World Premiere.
SUBVERSIVE SCI-FI GOES KAWAII IN TAMALA 2030: A PUNK CAT IN DARK
An astonishing, avant-garde anime anomaly, 2002’s eerie, erotic, and elaborately esoteric TAMALA 2010: A PUNK CAT IN SPACE, a Fantasia award-winner, remains an all-time highlight of the festival’s animation programming, and more than two decades had to pass before rumours of a follow-up TAMALA feature could at last be proven true. WithTAMALA 2030: A PUNK CAT IN DARK, the mysterious Japanese writer/composer/director duo K. and kuno, known together as t.o.L (“trees of Life”), have resumed, recalibrated, and resolved their tale of the cutest girl-cat in dystopian Cat Tokyo, surpassing themselves in their control of the cryptic, complex, and cuddly chaos they’ve unleashed. The kawaii paradigm of Hello Kitty and Hatsune Miku collides with cabalistic capitalism, cataclysmic prophecy, and the ruptured realities of Lynch, Pynchon, and Philip K. Dick in a deviously dreamlike, metaphysical mind-melt of high-fructose, retro-futuristic, paranoid pop-art brilliance. Animation Plus Section. World Premiere.
THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE BECOMES A HIGH SCHOOL NIGHTMARE IN FOREIGNER
For her debut feature film, FOREIGNER, Ava Maria Safai expertly harnesses the power of identity, social acceptance, horror, and comedy. It’s 2004, and Iranian immigrant Yasamin, or Yasi, is the new girl. Her high school experience is daunting, as she tries to improve her English by watching her favorite sitcom and befriends a trio of pastel-clad girls who feed Yasi’s need to fit in. Desperate for acceptance, she dyes her hair blonde and, in doing so, also attracts a demonic force. With a fun retro setting, great performances by Rose Dehgan as Yasi, Chloë MacLeod as the creepy high school “Queen Bee” Rachel, and a blend of our favorite teen horrors, FOREIGNER takes up space as a new entry to “bubblegum horror,” bringing a fresh narrative to the Canadian immigrant experience. Septentrion Shadows Section. World Premiere.
BLANK CANVAS: MY SO-CALLED ARTIST LIFE CELEBRATES ART AND PASSION
A young woman who dreams of becoming a manga artist enters an art school where her mentor uses harsh methods to push his students into classical painting. Fearful about her tenacious teacher’s reaction toward her secret passion, she will learn to keep her ground and find her place. Based on an autobiographical manga by renowned author Akiko Higashimura, BLANK CANVAS is a beautiful hymn to believing in our passions despite bumpy roads. Mei Nagano (MY BROKEN MARIKO) delivers a stellar performance as Akiko, while Yo Oizumi (I AM A HERO) manages to balance the abusive and endearing sides of his complex and often weirdly funny character from another era. Director Kazuaki Seki delivers a poignant film that embraces the value of pop culture while respecting the heritage of fine arts and tradition. North American Premiere.
BUFFET INFINITY BECOMES A COSMIC ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT DESCENT INTO HILARIOUS WORLD DOMINATION!
First-time feature director and award-winning comedian Simon Glassman comes to Fantasia with the cosmic horror, BUFFET INFINITY! Picking from hundreds of hours of original, low-budget TV ads, Glassman tells the sinister tale of two restaurants battling it out in the town of Westridge County. Insurance ads, used car rivals, and plugs for a local religious scholar and recording artist, Langdon P. Hershey, all converge to tell the story of an expanding sinkhole, a cult, and an ever-growing restaurant that becomes unsettlingly sentient. But don’t be fooled because that sinister vibe is drowned in a special sauce that brings laughs at lightning speed, and those who love absurdist comedy like the Canadian classic SCTV or TIM AND ERIC AWESOME SHOW, GREAT JOB! will definitely ask for seconds of this sure-to-be fan favorite! Septentrion Shadows Section. World Premiere.
A DEFIANT ODE TO THE WORKING CLASS IN CARDBOARD CITY
In Longueuil, a poet (Jean-Marc Desgent) stubbornly refuses to sell his house to a predatory, if not slightly unhinged, real estate developer (Pierre Curzi, THE DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE). But the fight isn’t new: In 1969, Longueuil absorbed the much larger, and poorer, city of Jacques-Cartier, where many people had constructed their homes with the materials available to them. Standing strong against the threat to his neighborhood, Desgent tells the stories of these women and men who built his city. In CARDBOARD CITY (VILLE JACQUES CARTON), Jean-Marc E. Roy (BLEU TONNERRE, CRÈME DE MENTHE) and André Forcier (ABABOUINÉ, AU CLAIR DE LA LUNE) join forces to create an oddball film where reality and fiction blend on a backdrop of poetry. Here, family photographs and archival footage share the spotlight with stellar performances from some of Quebec’s most beloved actors, including Gaston Lepage, France Castel, Sandrine Bisson, Charlotte Aubin, and Michèle Deslauriers. It’s funny, beautiful, and touching, but above all, it’s an ode to our people, our history, and our resilience. Les Fantastiques Week-Ends du Cinéma Québécois Section. World Premiere.
CHINESE ANIMATION FEATURE THE GIRL WHO STOLE TIME WILL STEAL YOUR HEART
“This very moment of being together is the gentlest magic we have against time.” Inspired by their own experience with sudden loss, writer-directors Yu Ao and Zhou Tienan created THE GIRL WHO STOLE TIME as a heartfelt response to impermanence. Qian Xiao, a cheerful girl from a fishing village, obtains a mysterious pendant, the Time Dial, which gives her the power to control time. But her new ability attracts danger, including Seventeen, a cold-faced assassin. When their paths collide, a surprising adventure begins. With an outstanding voice cast including Liu Xiaoyu (ARCANE), Wang Junkai (THE GREAT WALL), and special appearances by Zhou Shen (SUZUME’s Chinese theme song singer) and Huang Bo (CRAZY STONE), this feature debut couples top-tier animation and a solid emotional core with the co-creators’ signature comedic style, delivering a truly moving, laughing-through-tears experience. Animation Plus Section. North American Premiere.
LUCID GETS THE FEATURE TREATMENT – AND IT’S A WILD TRIP!
After coming to Fantasia as a short film selected for the Frontierés Market Shorts to Features Lab in 2022, directing duo Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall expand the world of Mia Sunshine Jones in their darkly trippy feature, LUCID. Mia is a rebellious art student who struggles to create the ultimate project for a demanding professor. Desperate to find her artistic voice, she takes Lucid, a candy elixir, to access her creativity, but taps into something much darker. Starring Caitlin Acken Taylor, who reprises her role from the short, and Georgia Acken (star of the 2023 Fantasia hit THE SACRIFICE GAME), Milligan and Fendall create a surreal nightmare with a vintage look that fully embraces the 90s grunge era with a punk art aesthetic. Using live on-set music, an eclectic cast, and loads of experimental and haunting visuals, the World Premiere of LUCID will be a nightmare-come-true. Septentrion Shadows Section. World Premiere.
JULIET & THE KING: FROM PARIS TO PERSIA, WITH LAUGHS AND LOVE
Complications abound for a lovestruck monarch, a Parisian actress, and her playwright pal bringing Shakespeare to the Persian stage in the charming, animated musical comedy JULIET & THE KING. Following the bloody, mythic fantasy THE LAST FICTION (2018), the second feature film from Iranian animator Ashkan Ragozar and his team at Hoorakhsh Studio is something lighter and brighter. It’s a lively historical flight of fancy about Nasser-al-Din Shah, Iran’s first ruler to visit Europe, in 1873, saluting his open mind and appetite for the arts, though Ragozar doesn’t spare him bouts of cartoon buffoonery. The frisky spirit of Shakespeare’s complicated ensemble comedies is ever-present, as are the exquisite delights of classical Persian aesthetics, as JULIET & THE KING counters the Orientalism in Western animated visions of West Asia and celebrates cross-cultural curiosity with love, laughter, and catchy tunes! My First Fantasia/Animation Plus Sections. International Premiere.
OLD GUYS IN BED CASTS AN UNCONVENTIONAL LENS ON ELDER MALE INTIMACY
OLD GUYS IN BED tells the story of Paul (Duff MacDonald), a 60-year-old film historian, who meets a man (Paul James Saunders) on a dating website. Unfamiliar with these new ways of making connections, he discovers a world that is both promising and confusing, one that will serve as his gateway through a modern and unpredictable journey of love. Directing his first feature at the age of 73, celebrated Quebec actor Jean-Pierre “JP” Bergeron (STICKY FINGERS), active for almost 60 years on both the big and small screens, has delivered an atypical romantic comedy that is tender, daring, and profoundly human. Bergeron had been directed by some of Quebec’s most important directors, from André Forcier to Robert Morin, Ken Scott to Robin Spry, and with OLD GUYS IN BED, he explores rarely-tread territory with great humor and heart. Les Fantastiques Week-Ends du Cinéma Québécois Section. World Premiere.
Additional Releases at: https://fantasiafestival.com/en/news/fantasia-2025-second-wave
The 29th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival is presented by MELS in collaboration with Concordia University and made possible by the financial support of Telefilm Canada, the Société́ de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC), the Ministère du Tourisme, the Ministère des Affaires municipales et de l’Habitation, the city of Montreal, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, Tourisme Montréal, and the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC).
The festival would like to thank all its private partners, friends of the event, as well as official suppliers, venues, and all participating filmmakers, sales agents, and distributors for their invaluable support.
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