Our friends at Fantaspoa in Brazil are gearing up for their annual genre film festival. Held in the coastal town of Porto Alegre this will be the festival's fifteenth year, devoted to bringing scares and thrills to local genre fans. They announced the first wave of titles today and there are some doozies in there.
There are three world premieres in this wave alone. Deodato Holocaust, a documentary from Brazilian filmmaker Felipe M. Guerra, will open the festival. Greek filmmaker Konstantinos Koutsouliotas' The Fear of Looking Up will close the fest and Drew Thomas' The Mongolian Connection will fit in there somewhere between
My friend Justin McConnell is leading the charge of Canadian titles with his latest, Lifechanger. Rob Grant will attend the festival with his film Alive. Rounding off the trio of titles is The Hoard from Jesse Thomas Cook and Matt Wiele.
Other titles of note are the cosmic horror Starfish, Josh Lobo's I Trapped the Devil and a couple titles from Argentina, You Have No Idea Who You're Talking To from Terrified's Demian Rugna and Punto Muerto (Dead End) from Daniel de la Vega.
This is just the first wave. You can see white Fanaspoa is one of the premiere Latin American genre festivals. We just gotta find a way to get ourselves down there now. Someone can have my plate of feijoada until that time comes.
Here is the full press release...
FANTASPOA ANNOUNCES FIRST WAVE OF 2019 FEATURE FILM SELECTIONSThe Acclaimed Brazilian Genre Fest Will Celebrate ItsFifteenth Year With Over 100 Incredible Features and ShortsPorto Alegre, Brazil - April 10, 2019 - Brazil's Fantaspoa, the largest genre film festival in Latin America, is proud to reveal the first wave of films selected for their upcoming fifteenth edition, running from May 16th through June 2nd, 2019. The celebrated film fest, which takes place annually in Porto Alegre will announce their full line-up, consisting of more than 100 films, on the first week of May.The whimsical poster for the festival's 2019 edition pays homage to Lewis Carroll’s Alice, one of literature and cinema's most memorable fantasy characters, who became an icon of pop culture and psychedelia. The image was drawn by filmmaker Elizabeth Schuch, with a design by Thalles Mourão. Alongside numerous other events and activities, FantasMercado, the film production market for Latin American filmmakers created last year, will have its second edition during the festival.Twenty in-competition features are being announced today, as well as the festival's opening and closing night night films. Fantaspoa 2019 proudly kicks off with the World Premieres of Deodato Holocaust, a documentary from Brazilian filmmaker Felipe M. Guerra that celebrates the career of exploitation legend Ruggero Deodato as the infamous director turns 80, and Drew Thomas’ incredible new action thriller The Mongolian Connection. Closing out the festival is the World Premiere of the stunning sophomore effort from Greek filmmaker Konstantinos Koutsouliotas, The Fear of Looking Up.Attending filmmakers will include Fernando Alle, Daniel-Konrad Cooper, Daniel de La Vega, Jordan Downey, Kapel Furman, Rob Grant, Konstantinos Koutsoliotas, Josh Lobo, Justin McConell, Juan Francisco Otaño, Julian Richards, Demian Rugna, Elizabeth Schuch, Koldo Serra, Kevin Stewart, Drew Thomas, and JJ Weber - with many more to be announced.The first round of fantastic features selected for Fantaspoa 2019 are:70 Binladens (Koldo Serra, Spain) – Latin American PremiereA Young Man with High Potential (Linus de Paoli, Germany) – Latin American PremiereAlive (Rob Grant, Canada) - Latin American PremiereDead in a Week: Or Your Money Back (Tom Edmunds, UK) - Latin American PremiereDeadtectives (Tony West, U.S.) - Brazilian PremiereDeodato Holocaust (Felipe M. Guerra, Brazil) - World PremiereI Trapped the Devil (Josh Lobo, U.S.) - Brazilian PremiereLifechanger (Justin McConnell, Canada) - Brazilian PremiereModel Home (Patrick Cunningham, U.S.) - Latin American PremiereMutant Blast (Fernando Alle, Portugal/U.S.) - Brazilian PremiereO Barco (Petrus Cariry, Brazil) - Regional PremierePunto Muerto (Daniel de la Vega, Argentina) - Brazilian PremiereRebobinado, la Película (Juan Francisco Otaño, Argentina) - Brazilian PremiereReborn (Julian Richards, U.S.) - Brazilian PremiereStarfish (A.T. White, U.S.) - Brazilian PremiereTejano (David Blue Garcia, U.S.) - Brazilian PremiereThe Fear of Looking Up (Konstantinos Koutsoliotas, U.K./Brazil) - World PremiereThe Head Hunter (Jordan Downey, Portugal/U.S.) - Brazilian PremiereThe Hoard (Jesse Thomas Cook and Matt Wiele, Canada) - Latin American PremiereThe Russalka (Perry Blackshear, U.S.) - Latin American PremiereYou Have No Idea Who You're Talking To (Demian Rugna, Argentina) - Brazilian PremiereLast Sunrise (Wen Ren, China) - Latin-American PremiereThe Mongolian Connection (Drew Thomas, Mongolia) - World Premiere