Today the festival launched its first wave of titles including the opening night film, and the above poster. Click along for the first volley of Fantasia titles.
MISS HOKUSAI
MISS HOKUSAI is the latest animated feature from director Keiichi Hara (COLORFUL) and Production I.G, the legendary studio behind such contemporary animated masterpieces as A LETTER TO MOMO and GIOVANNI'S ISLAND. The film is centered on their relationship and the young woman's rebellious personality, this mix of classical art and pop-culture, is based on Hinako Sugiura's manga and is the festival's official Opening Night Film.
ANT MAN
The smallest entry in the Marvel Comic Universe collective of mega-blockbusters is also getting its bow on opening night.
ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM
Beware the Happy Face!
Adapted from one of the most popular mangas in Japan and packed with young J-Pop stars, led by Arashi's Kazunari Ninomiya who is giving his voice to the monster, this unique sci-fi comedy by OPPAI VOLLEYBALL director Hasumi Eiichiro brings a heart-warming coming of age aspect to the School Mayhem genre first popularized by the BATTLE ROYALE films
JERUZALEM
The acclaimed Israeli filmmaking team of Yoav and Doron Paz, whose PHOBIDILIA was an official selection at the Berlin and Toronto International Film Festivals, has jumped heads-first into the horror genre with the chilling JERUZALEM. A group of American teenagers visiting Jerusalem on Yom Kippur find themselves inside their worst nightmare as the city’s prophecies and superstitions prove terrifyingly real. Starring Yael Grobglas (Jane the Virgin, Rabies), and told entirely from the perspective of a character’s increasingly battered Digital Glass headset, JERUZALEM offers whiplashing sights never before seen and will have audiences frozen in their seats when it World Premieres at Fantasia this summer!
TALES OF HALLOWEEN
The World Premiere of the all-star horror anthology features segments directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, Axelle Carolyn, Adam Gierasch, Neil Marshall, Lucky McKee, Mike Mendez, Dave Parker, Ryan Schifrin, John Skipp and Andrew Kasch, and Paul Solet.
The film encapsulates the spooky fun of the holiday and is a celebration of all things horror, with a cast which includes familiar faces such as Lin Shaye, Pat Healy, Barry Bostwick, Noah Segan, James Duval, Pollyana McIntosh, Kristina Klebe, Marc Senter, Joe Dante, Stuart Gordon, and John Landis.
TURBO KID
The inspired Quebec/NZ indie that’s has been lovingly received by audience at at Sundance and in Dallas, the Netherlands and Brussels, winning an audience award at SXSW - is coming home for its first screening in the country.
At the place of its birth, in fact, as TURBO KID came together at the first edition of Frontières, Fantasia’s International Co-Production Market. Don’t miss what’s sure to be a wild homecoming party for the directing team of François Simard, Annouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell AKA Roadkill Superstar.
THE VISIT
In alien encounter. A hypothetical visitor arrives from Outer Space. The authorities are immediately alerted - the military, defense and communication advisers, and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. How to deal with this unprecedented event? How to reassure Earth's inhabitants, who are prone to panic, when you have no previous experience to draw upon?
It's not likely that you've seen a film (or documentary) like The Visit before. A deeply cerebral film, it's nonetheless an entertaining one with compelling imagery and a fascinating premise. This speculative documentary is not for those easily distracted, but for those willing to take on the voyage into the unknown. It's a journey with many rewards.
CRUMBS
Decades after the apocalypse and after extraterrestrial life had been discovered the few inhabitants left in a hostile earth have struggled to survive by squatting and rummaging to make ends meet. For many years an alien spaceship has hovered in the skies, undisturbed and dormant, slowly rusting away. Tired of picking up the crumbs of gone-by civilizations, Gagano dreams his life away when not living in a state of perpetual fear. When the spaceship in the sky begins to turn on and after a series of freak incidents in the bowling alley that Gagano and Selam call home, our miniature sized hero will be forced to embark on a surreal epic journey that will lead him through the post apocalyptic Ethiopian landscape. As he confronts himself, his fears as well as witches, Santa Claus and second generation Nazis he will find himself only to discover that the memories that brought him on his journey and that he always thought he had were not really as he had been recalling them.
DEATHGASM
The riotous heavy metal Kiwi splatter-comedy is packed with lunatic gore reminiscent of early Peter Jackson and volume-11 riffage hearkening back to that same era’s most ferocious metal, DEATHGASM absolutely shreds. In every sense
And the rest of the titles from the Fantasia Film Festival Press Release:
THE DEMOLISHER
An unstable repairman tending to his crippled wife – an ex-cop brutalized by gang violence - sneaks out at night to unleash his rage on any criminals he can find. An atmospheric and poetic reinterpretation of the urban Vigilante Film as a psychological examination of trauma.
EXPERIMENTER
Gifted indie trailblazer Michael Almereyda (NADJA, CYMBELINE) turns his unconventional gaze towards the controversial social experiments of Stanley Milgram (brilliantly portrayed by Peter Sarsgaard). Co-starring Winona Ryder, Anton Yelchin, Taryn Manning, John Leguizamo and Anthony Edwards.
A deadly curse hits a gothic style convent in this brilliant atmospheric adaptation of the hit horror video game Fatal Frame, where flawless storytelling and character development, a creepy ambiance taking advantage of every inch of its location and a haunting music score bring the audience back to the golden age of J-Horror.
FULL STRIKE
When ex cons discovers their love for badminton, they ask a fallen former champion to lead them to victory. Derek Kwok and Henri Wong co-direct this hilarious comedy centered on over-the-top characters reminiscent of Stephen Chow's spectacular SHAOLIN SOCCER.
THE GOLDEN CANE WARRIOR
Aging female warrior Cempaka is the most respected fighter in the Golden Cane clan, but she must now find a successor among her disciples. Coming on the heels of the wildly popular THE RAID series, this flawlessly executed epic actioner by Ifa Isfansyah is here to confirm Indonesia's place in the leading nations of martial arts cinema.
LA LA LA AT ROCK BOTTOM
Nobuhiro Yamashita, director of the contemporary classic LINDA LINDA LINDA, is back in musical comedy/drama territory with a fighter attitude! Rising super star Fumi Nikaido (WHY DON'T YOU PLAY IN HELL?) and J-Pop sensation Subaru Shibutani, member of Kanjani Eight, shine in this remarkable underdog tale. Official Selection: Rotterdam International Film Festival.
OBSERVANCE
His job is to observe, observe a beautiful woman. Soon enough, he discovers his gig implies more than he ever asked for. A poignant and terrifying thriller in the vein of Polanski's REPULSION, Among first 2015 Camera Lucida selections to be announced, OBSERVANCE promises to haunt your nightmares.
POSSESSED
An instant-classic of wickedly fun (and imaginatively grotesque) stop-motion comedy/horror that many have described as PARANORMAN meets WALLACE & GROMIT by way of SOUTH PARK, POSSESED is the manic creation of Goya-nominated anima-lunatic Sam Ortí Martí, featuring the voices of Santiago Segura, Anabel Alonso and Nacho Vigalondo.
THEY LOOK LIKE PEOPLE
A smart, haunting psychological horror masterpiece that Verite Film hailed as “unbearably tense and profoundly moving”. Despite having only been playing on the fest circuit for five months, THEY LOOK LIKE PEOPLE has already won awards at Slamdance, SF Indiefest, IFF Boston and the Nashville Film Festival.