Fantasia has all but wrapped up for 2026. We returned home after taking up the final leg of the festival after Kurt kicked us off opening weekend and Josh held the line during the industry heavy first full week of programming. Some of us still have a couple reviews to fine tune before officially calling it on coverage for this year, so stay tuned.
The Audience Awards, Prix du Public, have just been announced and French mockumentary I Love Paris won the Gold Audience Award for Best International Feature. Yusuke Iwasaki's AnyMart took home the Gold Audience Award for Best Asian Feature and Masanao Kawajiri's Cherry and Virgin, received the Gold Audience Award for Best Animated Feature. Harrison Houde's dramady Tight Lettuce received the Gold Audience Award for Best Quebec Feature and Michael Gabriele's Unholy Night for Best Canadian Feature.
All the winners are announced below.
The Fantasia International Film FestivalAnnounces Its 2026 Audience Awardsand 2027 DatesIndie Darling I LOVE PARIS Takes Home Top Honorsfor Best International Feature at Long-Running Montreal FestThe 2026 edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival closed on Sunday, August 2nd, with its organizers confirming a record number of attendees and sold-out screenings. In addition, the Montreal-based fest hosted hundreds of filmmakers, industry guests, and media from around the world and garnered over 500,000 cross-platform social media mentions. Planning for next year's event has already begun, with North America's largest and longest-running genre film festival returning for its 31st edition from July 15 through August 1, 2027.Having tabulated thousands of votes from this Summer's enthusiastic attendees, Fantasia is also ready to announce its array of 2026 Audience Awards. Nicky Murphy's uproariously entertaining mockumentary I Love Paris, which blends comedy, music, and horror into an unforgettable underground package, has been awarded the 2026 Fantasia International Film Festival's prestigious Gold Audience Award for Best International Feature. In second place behind it was Kasper Kalle's haunting, critically-lauded No Rest for the Wicked, and in a close third, Oliver Bernsen's hallucinatory Bagworm.Yusuke Iwasaki's AnyMart took home the Gold Audience Award for Best Asian Feature, and Masanao Kawajiri's Cherry and Virgin, which became the talk of Fantasia's thirtieth edition after its World Premiere there, received the Gold Audience Award for Best Animated Feature.Other top winners included Michael Gabriele's Unholy Night for Best Canadian Feature, Harrison Houde's Tight Lettuce for Best Quebec Feature, and Cho Chul-young, Kim Jong-woo, and Kim Shin-wan's The Seoul Guardians for Best Documentary.The full list of Audience Award winners is below:► BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATUREGold: I Love Paris (dir. Nicky Murphy, France/Australia)Silver: No Rest for the Wicked (dir. Kasper Kalle, Denmark/Faroe Islands/Iceland)Bronze: Bagworm (dir. Oliver Bernsen, USA)► BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORTGold: Bruised Sky (dir. Gary Kent, UK)Silver: Reset (dirs. Jerry Hsu and Celine Tien, USA)Bronze: Pimple (dir. Fernando Alle, Portugal)► BEST ASIAN FEATUREGold: Anymart (dir. Yusuke Iwasaki, Japan)Silver: The Specials (dir. Eiji Uchida, Japan)Bronze: TOKYO BURST: Crime City (dir. Eiji Uchida, Japan/South Korea)► BEST ASIAN SHORTGold: The Last Jiangshi (dir. Yu Chih Chieh, China/Hong Kong/Taiwan)Silver: Tongue (dir. Lim Da-seul, South Korea)Bronze (tie): Chaar Diwaari (dir. Syed Shadan, India) and Wish You Were Dead (dir. Lee Min-hyuk, South Korea)► BEST ANIMATED FEATUREGold: Cherry and Virgin (dir. Masanao Kawajiri, Japan)Silver: Jim Queen (dirs. Nicolas Athane and Marco Nguyen, France)Bronze: Zsazsa Zaturnnah (dir. Avid Liongoren, Philippines / France)► BEST ANIMATED SHORTGold: The Lovers (dirs. Alice Mao and Sophia Paez, USA)Silver: Echo (dir. Asuka Dokai, Japan)Bronze: Trading Cards (dir. Radheya Jang, Australia/UK)► BEST CANADIAN FEATUREGold: Unholy Night (dir. Michael Gabriele, Canada)Silver: Castration Movie Chapter iii. Junior Ghosts—Premorphic Drift; A Fragmentary Passage (dir. Louise Weard, Canada)Bronze (tie): Insectasy (dir. Angus Silver, Canada) and A Safe Distance (dir. Gloria Mercer, Canada)► BEST CANADIAN SHORTGold: Something Borrowed (dir. Findlay Ironside, Canada)Silver (tie): Bagman (dirs. Connor Gaston and Vaughn Gaston, Canada) and Man Eating Pussy (dir. Emily Lawson, Canada)Bronze: Sleep Through Summer (dir. Erin Mick, Canada)► BEST QUÉBEC FEATUREGold: Tight Lettuce (dir. Harrison Houde, Canada)Silver: Romin (dirs. Jassen Charron and Anthony Dionne, Canada)Bronze: Someone’s Daughter (dir. Wiebke von Carolsfeld, Canada)► BEST QUÉBEC SHORTGold: Neighbors (dir. Andre Bendahan, Canada)Silver: Serenity (dir. Frank Tremblay, Canada)Bronze: Sol Vivant (dir. Émile Lavoie, Canada)► BEST DOCUMENTARYBest Documentary: The Seoul Guardians (dirs. Cho Chul-young, Kim Jong-woo, and Kim Shin-wan, South Korea)► ÉCRAN FANTASTIQUEÉcran Fantastique: Suzuki=Bakudan (dir. Akira Nagai, Japan)