Fantasia 2020: Second Wave of Titles Announced! Home Grown Thrills, International Scares And The World's Most Dangerous Amusement Park!

The second wave of titles for this year's virtual edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival were announced an hour ago. As expected there is a tonne of genre goodness coming to our screens at the end of August.
 
First we need to start with a bit of hometown pride. There are a number of Canadian titles having their world premieres during the festival. Bleed With Me from Amelia Moses, For The Sake of Vicious from Gabriel Carrer & Reese Eveneshen, The Oak Room from Cody Calahan and Slaxx from Elza Kephart. Kephart's film was presented during the Frontieres Coproduction Market in Montreal. It's always nice to see successful projects return to where it wall began. 
 
The U.S. may be on figurative fire right now for all sorts of reasons but that hasn't stopped a good number of titles to find their way to the festival. The documentary Class Action Park from Seth Porges & Chris Charles Scott III looks especially intersting. I found Mickey Reece's Climate of the Hunter to be especially engrossing and parculiar. There is also the new film The Dark and The Wicked from Bryan Bertino, director of The Strangers
 
Countries from the Asian continant have always had at home at Fantasia and there are some must-sees in this second wave, just based on description alone. Starting with the obvious, Crazy Samurai Musashi, starring one of our favorite Japanese action stars, Tak Sakaguchi. It's a single 77-minute action sequence shot by Sakaguchi collbaorator Yûji Shimomura (Death Trance and Re:Born) featuring Tak against 588 foes! Whaaaaaaaaaaaat!?!
 
The Tawainese horror flick Detention should be fun. When has a horror flick ever won five of it's local top film awards? Detention was nominated for twelve prizes at the 56th Golden Horse Awards. Someone knows how to show respect for horror in their homeland. 
 
My Punch-Drunk Boxer from Jung Hyuk-ki promises a boxing drama and a rom-com about a boxer who gets a devistating diagnoses. Sounds like it is going to be incredibly infectious before it rips out your heart at the end. Where do we sign up? 
 
And Cho Kyung-hun's animated flick Beauty Water sounds specifically frightening and horrific as it speaks on South Korea's obsession with physical appearance. Sounds like an animated body horror in on it's way. Wheee!
 
There's lots to see and read about in the gallery below. Despite the changes the festival has had to made in this crazy Covid-affected world they've still managed to wrangle together an impressive lineup of titles, with more to still be announced. 
 
FANTASIA VIRTUAL ANNOUNCES THRILLING SECOND WAVE OF TITLES
 
Bryan Bertino’s THE DARK AND THE WICKED, Tsutomu Hanabusa’s PROJECT DREAMS - HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z'S HANGAR, John Hyams’ ALONE, Mathias Malzieu’s A MERMAID IN PARIS, Yûji Shimomura’s CRAZY SAMURAI MUSASHI, Elza Kephart’s SLAXX, Yoav Shamir’s THE PROPHET AND THE SPACE ALIENS, and THE BLOCK ISLAND SOUND from celebrated Fantasia alumnus the McManus Brothers among highlights from the second wave of programming for the festival’s 24th edition.
 
The Fantasia International Film Festival will launch its 24th edition next month as an exciting virtual event composed of scheduled live screenings, program library, panels, and workshops, taking place from August 20th to September 2nd, 2020. The festival will be accessible across Canada, geo-locked to the country, and will maintain unique film admittance quantities in line with the cinema experience. 
 
Fantasia is thrilled to reveal its second wave of programming and will return in early August with its third and final line-up announcement. 
 
Fantasia will announce the full programming lineup for its 24th edition on August 6, 2020.
 
 
For more information, visit us on the web at www.fantasiafestival.com
 
SECOND WAVE FILM LIST
 
ALONE
Dir. Marc Menchaca
USA
International Premiere
 
BEAUTY WATER
Dir. Cho Kyung-hun
South Korea
North American Premiere
 
BLEED WITH ME
Dir. Amelia Moses
Canada
World Premiere
 
THE BLOCK ISLAND SOUND
Dirs. Kevin & Matthew McManus 
USA
World Premiere
 
CLASS ACTION PARK
Dirs. Seth Porges & Chris Charles Scott III
USA
International Premiere
 
CLIMATE OF THE HUNTER
Dir. Mickey Reece
USA
Quebec Premiere
 
THE COLUMNIST
Dir. Ivo van Aart 
Netherlands
North American Premiere
 
CRAZY SAMURAI MUSASHI
Dir. Yûji Shimomura
Japan
Canadian Premiere
 
THE DARK AND THE WICKED
Dir. Bryan Bertino
USA
International Premiere
 
DETENTION
Dir. John Hsu
Taiwan
Canadian Premiere
 
LA DOSIS
Dir. Martin Kraut
Argentina
North American Premiere
 
THE FIVE RULES OF SUCCESS
Dir. Orson Oblowitz
USA
World Premiere
 
FOR THE SAKE OF VICIOUS
Dirs. Gabriel Carrer & Reese Eveneshen
Canada
World Premiere
 
FUGITIVE DREAMS
Dir. Jason Neulander
USA
World Premiere
 
I WeirDo
Dir. Liao Ming-Yi
Taiwan
Canadian Premiere
 
JESTERS: THE GAME CHANGERS
Dir. Kim Joo-ho
South Korean
North American Premiere
 
LIFE: UNTITLED
Dir. Kana Yamada
Japan
Canadian Premiere
 
ME AND ME 
Dir. Jung Jin-young
South Korea
North American Premiere
 
A MERMAID IN PARIS (Une sirène à Paris)
Dir. Mathias Malzieu
France
North American Premiere
 
MINOR PREMISE
Dir. Eric Schultz
USA
World Premiere
 
MY PUNCH-DRUNK BOXER
Dir. Jung Hyuk-ki
South Korea
North American Premiere
 
THE OAK ROOM
Dir. Cody Calahan
Canada
World Premiere
 
PROJECT DREAMS - HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z'S HANGAR
Dir. Tsutomu Hanabusa
Japan
International Premiere
 
THE PROPHET AND THE SPACE ALIENS
Dir. Yoav Shamir
Israel/Austria/South Africa
North American Premiere
 
PVT CHAT
Dir. Ben Hozie
USA
International Premiere
 
SANZARU
Dir. Xia Magnus
USA
International Premiere
 
SAVAGE STATE
Dir. David Perrault
France/Canada/Belgium
North American Premiere
 
SLAXX
Dir. Elza Kephart
Canada
World Premiere
 
VERTIGO
Dir. Jeon Gye-soo
South Korea
Canadian Premiere
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