Fantasia 2025: FLUSH, BURNING And THE UNDERTONE Score Audience Awards
I have been back a day since leaving the final leg of Fantasia, and I quickly started hating everything, everyone, and everywhere that isn't the festival. Feels good to be back to normal.
All throughout the festival, attendees were reminded that they could vote on their favorite features and shorts throughout the event. And this is quite the surprise, French comedy thriller Flush took home gold for Best International Feature. It's good, like really good. The biggest surprise for me during my time at the fest. Hey, you never know what sticks with an audience.
The Best Asian Feature deservedly went to the horror thriller, Burning, with the crowd-pleasing superhero action movie Hi-Five following up with Silver. And Best Canadian Feature went to The Undertone with Foreigner in the silver position.
I've got a couple more reviews coming but for now, links to any of our reviews from the festival will be found below.
The 29th massive edition of The Fantasia International Film Festival came to a close on the eve of August 3rd with the Canadian Premiere of Genndy Tartakovsky’s FIXED, where the gifted filmmaker and animator was presented with a Cheval Noir career achievement award.With record-breaking ticket sales and sold-out screenings in a lineup of nearly 120 features, Fantasia also showcased an unprecedented number of short films, with over 200 international titles alongside slews of Canadian works, and hosted nearly 1500 accredited filmmakers, press and industry guests from 49 countries, another record-smasher for the event.The long-running Canadian fest will be returning for its 30th edition in 2026, from July 16th to August 2nd.Having tabulated thousands of votes from enthusiastic attendees, Fantasia is now very proud to announce its array of Audience Awards:► BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATUREGold: Flush (Dir. Grégory Morin, France)Silver: Fucktoys (Dir. Annapurna Sriram, United States)Bronze (Tie): Terrestrial (Dir. Steve Pink, United States) and The Forbidden City (Dir. Gabriele Mainetti, Italy)► BEST ASIAN FEATUREGold: Burning (Dir. Radik Eshimov, Kyrgyzstan)Silver: Hi-Five (Dir. Kang Hyung-chul, South Korea)Bronze: I Fell In Love With A Z-Grade Director In Brooklyn (Dir. Kenichi Ugana, Japan)► BEST ANIMATED FEATUREGold: Death Does Not Exist (Dir. Félix Dufour-Lapperrière, Canada)Silver: I Am Frankelda (Dirs. Arturo Ambriz and Roy Ambriz, Mexico)Bronze: Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (Dirs. Kenji Nakamura and Kiyotaka Suzuki, Japan)► BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORTGold: Let's Settle This! (Dir. Jack Woon, New Zealand)Silver (Tie): Steak Dinner (Dir. Nathan Ginter, United States) and Skin (Dir. Urvashi Pathania, United States)Bronze: Check Please (Dir. Shane Chung, United States) and The Nightwalker (Dir. Mark Reyes, United States)► BEST ASIAN SHORTGold: Floor (Dir. Jo Ba-reun, South Korea)Silver: The Last Ride (Dirs. Yashoda Parthasarthy and Vijesh Rajan, India)Bronze: Red Spider Lilies: The Ascension (Dir. Koji Shiraishi, Japan)► BEST ANIMATED SHORTGold: Loca! (Dirs. Ion Miyamoto and Yuta Uchiya, Japan)Silver: Mamiko’s Poop (Dir. Yasuteru Ohno, Japan)Bronze: Beyond The Trail (Dir. Vab.png, Japan) and Maybe Blue (Dir. Zhou Qian, China)► BEST CANADIAN FEATUREGold: The Undertone (Dir. Ian Tuason, Canada)Silver: Foreigner (Dir. Ava Maria Safai, Canada)Bronze: Buffet Infinity (Dir. Simon Glassman, Canada)► BEST CANADIAN SHORTGold: The Sphinx (Dir. Jesse Padveen, Canada)Silver: Shrimp Fried Rice (Dir. Dylan Pun, Canada)Bronze: Heirlooms (Dir. Dan Abramovici, Canada)► BEST QUÉBEC FEATUREGold: Messy Legends (Dirs. Kelly Kay Hurcomb and James Watts, Canada)Silver: Au Pied Du Mur (Dir. Alexandra Elkin, Canada)Bronze: Anna Kiri (Dir. Francis Bordeleau, Canada)► BEST QUÉBEC SHORTGold: Duchess 17 (Dir. Daly Sonesaksith, Canada)Silver: Steal My Life (Dir. Annie Wren, Canada)Bronze: Le Punk de Natashquan (Dir. Nicolas Lachapelle, Canada)► L’ÉCRAN FANTASTIQUE AWARDI Am Frankelda (Dirs. Arturo Ambriz and Roy Ambriz, Mexico)
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