After a three-day weekend, the 2026 Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival continues apace.
As with the previous three days, a full day is scheduled, beginning with a panel on A.I. and a puppet show (?!) that sounds like silly fun: "This is no fun! Josette is feeling down in the dumps. Her longtime companion, Ginette, has gone missing since the last load of laundry. She decides to go looking for her and meets a whole host of characters along the way: Françoise the silk sock, Ester the polyester sock, Marlène the wool sock... Her journey will gradually lead her to the Land of lost socks, a mysterious place from which no sock has ever returned!"
If you want to get right into a film, though, you can get serious right away with Volker Schlondorff's controversial Die Blechtrommel (aka The Tin Drum (1979). Back in 2012, our own J Hurtado acknowledged: "A lot has been written about Volker Schlondorff's film adaptation of Gunter Grass' The Tin Drum. The film is considered one of the most evocative pieces of cinematic art concerning World War II to come out of Germany."
The official synopsis: "Poland, 1920s. Armed with his precious drum, young Oskar moves through the upheavals of the 20th century while loudly asserting his rejection of the adult world."
For those who elect to skip The Tin Drum, you could spend some time at one of the various events in that time slot: play a few board games, make a deep dive into an "immersive experience [that] plunges visitors into the world of the fantasy-horror comic series La Source de nos Peurs (The Source of our Fears), exploring behind-the-scenes archives, stories and characters from each volume," or enjoy a couple of other exhibits termed "Virtual Words."
Of the events scheduled after that, you could see Hideki Anno's Ritual (2000), described thusly: "Each day, a pop heroine announces that tomorrow will be her birthday. Her encounter with a filmmaker suffering from creative paralysis gives rise to a gentle, hypnotic drift immersed in ultra-saturated colours. Balancing faux-kawaii aesthetics, hazy melancholy and dizzying repetition, the film transforms wandering into a sensory experience that is as strange as it is hypnotic."
In the late afternoon time slot, our recommendation is Guillaume Nicloux's Mi Amor, which screened earlier this year at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam. In his review, our own Ard Vijn wrote in part: "The heart of the film is formed by the awkward relationship between Pom Klementieff and Benoît Magimel, the great veteran actor who plays Vincent. Both deliver great work which is a good thing, or the film would have been too cold, too distant. ... Mi Amor is a decent European thriller with some very satisfying main performances."
Early evening brings the Swiss premiere of single-named director Edwin's "supernatural social horror" Sleep No More, which our own Daniel Eagan saw at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year. In his review, he wrote in part: "Not that the plot matters that much. Sleep No More works best as a communal experience, an opportunity for viewers to react in unison to scares everybody knows are laughable. The filmmakers throw in some half-hearted swipes at sweatshops, but the focus throughout remains on having a good time."
Late evening presents a dilemma, in that Bretten Hannam's At the Place of Ghosts is termed an "Indigenous Ghost Story" and synopsis is intriguing: "Separated by a deep family trauma, two Mi'kmaq brothers are forced to reunite when a malevolent spirit resurfaces. Their journey leads them into an ancestral forest where time slips away and past wounds come to life. Between coming-of-age story, Indigenous folklore, and supernatural haunting, a journey toward reconciliation and healing."
But I'm going with the international premiere of Eisuke Naito's Blood on Snow, in part because the festival shorthands it as "Snowbound Yokai Anxiety," and in part because of the tasty description: "Escaping urban turmoil, returning to their roots, a sick father. Blood on Snow initially seems like a family drama, until a yuki-onna (snow woman) makes her way into the home. Naito Eisuke here crafts a J-horror rooted in Japanese folklore, where the threat emerges less from darkness than from the dazzling whiteness of winter (and innocence!)."
If you're still awake after that and ready to go see another movie that begins after midnight, I'd stick with a known quantity: Robert Rodriguez' From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), which is a lot of bloody fun: "Gecko and Seth embark on a bloody escape. As their mistakes and crimes mount, the two brothers attempt to reach Mexico. Once there, the fugitives head to the place where a contact is waiting for them: the 'Titty Twister' nightclub, a meeting point they won't forget in a hurry. Split into two parts - a gritty crime thriller and a gothic horror - the film is powered by bold practical effects and genre-blending excess."
George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, and Salma Hayek star. (Screening details here.)
The Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival, hereafter referred to as Neuchatel 2026, is "the only Swiss festival dedicated to genre films," per their official description. "The event is mainly devoted to a specific film genre: fantasy. This main theme is complemented by two others: digital creation and Asian cinema."
As one of eight official media partners, we are publishing daily guides to the program, with links to our reviews, where available. You can bookmark our Neuchatel 2026 page for all our updates this year. The festival will run from 3-11 July.