Festivals: Fantasia
MINOR PREMISE: New Festival Poster For Sci-fi Drama, on VOD This December
Is there anything more terrifying than a face with too many eyes and teeth? I know that when you look at this poster below for Eric Schultz’s Minor Premise you're not thinking sci-fi drama. That's too many eyes and teeth...
Fantasia 2020 Interview: Lloyd Kaufman On #SHAKESPEARESSHITSTORM and Challenges of Independent Filmmaking
Even though Lloyd Kaufman, co-founder of Troma Entertainment and director/star of #ShakespearesShitstorm, has a new movie to promote, his mind is always on the problems that American independent cinema has faced for years. “The independents in America don’t have any...
Fantasia 2020 Interview: Director Sidharth Srinivasan Talks KRIYA, Death Rituals and Male Guilt
India’s representative at this year’s (virtual) Fantasia International Film Festival was Kriya, written and directed by Sidharth Srinivasan. At a nightclub party, the DJ, a young man named Neel (Noble Luke), ends up hooking up with a girl (Sitara, played...
Fantasia 2020 Review: THE BLOCK ISLAND SOUND Will Have Your Skin Crawling From The First Frame
It's often been said that the sea is the last great unexplored wilderness on Earth. We've tried to tame it, understand it, capitalize on it, but it never fails that at least once a year humanity discovers another seemingly impossible...
Fantasia 2020 Review: FEELS GOOD MAN, Pepe the Frog's Ruination and Reclamation
Art is a funny thing. When an artist creates a piece, it often means something to them. That meaning may be deep and personal, it may reflect their own culture, values, ideas, and beliefs. Sometimes, though, it's just something they...
Fantasia 2020 Review: FRIED BARRY, A Deep-Fried Stick of Sizzling Bloody Dynamite
My fok, Marelize! What a weird, wild, and wonderful road-trip through the psycho-delic-gorgiastic-extra-terror-restrial-killer-eidoscope of Fried Barry's human reconditioning. And if that motley and manic description doesn't pique your cinesense, then this film may not be to your tastes. It's an...
Fantasia 2020: Audience Awards, The People Have Meowed!
In the world of international genre film festivals there is no audience like the group of rascals and miscrients that make up the Fantasia audience. Brimming with unbridled enthusiasm and generosity they welcome each year's lineup with open arms. ...
Fantasia 2020: MARYGOROUND Rules Supreme in Awards Haul
Well. There you have it. That was the Fantasia Film Festival - Virtual Edition. Culminating last night with the world premiere of The Legend of Baron To'a the festival carried on for the last two weeks with over 85,000...
Fantasia 2020 Review: UNDERGODS, Get Caught Under Its Dystopian Spell
K and Z drive through a desolate wasteland, made up of crumbling infrastructure and empty apartment buildings. Picking up the scraps of humanity there are always stories to tell to fill the time. Ron and Ruth welcome a neighbour into...
Fantasia 2020 Review: FOR THE SAKE OF VICIOUS, Lean, Violent Storytelling
Romina returns home from a shift at the hospital to find a man, Alan, lying unconscious in her kitchen and another, Chris, in hiding. Chris has brought Alan here because he needs her to keep him alive. Chris needs a...
Fantasia 2020 Review: ME AND ME, a Confounding and Compelling Directorial Debut
An idyllic life in the Korean countryside turns tragic when a beloved local teacher turns out to be hiding a bizarre secret. Soo-hyuk (Bae Soo-bin) shares a lovely home with his perfect wife, Yi-young (Cha Soo-yeon), the two seem like...
Fantasia 2020 Review: SMALL GAUGE TRAUMA Shorts Program
[Still from Who Goes There.] Ever since I began attending Fantasia in 2005, I've looked forward to the Small Gauge Trauma shorts program. which is always filled with devious, cutting, creative, weird, quease-inducing, and shocking moments. Smash cut to 15 years...
Fantasia 2020 Review: COME TRUE, Nightmarish Terror Creeps Into Real Life
Sarah is finding it very difficult to get a good night’s sleep. She’s not staying at home, avoiding her mom as much as possible. Her friend will take her in whenever she can and some nights she’ll sleep in the...
Fantasia 2020 Review: THE PAPER TIGERS, Feel-Good Martial Arts Comedy Favorably Chooses Story And Character Over Action
Danny, Hing and Jim are the Paper Tigers, three Gung Fu prodigies who have lost their way and grown into washed-up, middle-aged men. Danny works in insurance and struggles to fulfill his shared time with his son. Hing is hobbled...
Fantasia 2020 Review: BLEED WITH ME, A Nightmare Slowly Blooms In A Cabin In The Woods
A young woman's sanity slow slips away on a woodsy getaway with friends in Bleed With Me, the debut feature from writer/director Amelia Moses. Rowan (Lee Marshall) is the quiet type, not one to make a fuss or inject herself...
Fantasia 2020 Review: CLAPBOARD JUNGLE Is A Love/Hate Letter To The Business Of Making Movies
Making movies is never easy, but making independent movies can sometimes require a level of masochism bordering on insanity. Justin McConnell's new documentary, Clapboard Jungle, takes an inside look at the nitty-gritty of indie filmmaking from a very personal place...
Fantasia 2020 Review: SANZARU Intrigues and Baffles
Genre film festivals are champions of the weird, and Fantasia is a champion of the highest order. Likewise, independent film is a prime channel for investigating the strangest ideas and themes: small crews can move quickly and easily, and filmmakers...
Fantasia 2020 Review: BORN OF WOMAN Shorts Program
[Still from Rioghnach Ni Ghrioghair's Break Us.] Since its inception, the Born of Woman shorts program at Fantasia has been a draw, selling out each screening at the De Seve auditorium at Concordia University every July. This year's program includes nine...
Fantasia 2020 Review: DETENTION Shines New Light On Taiwan's White Terror
Taiwan's White Terror was among the longest periods of a nation under martial law in modern history. From 1947 to 1987, the country was at the mercy of a government fearful of its own people. Dissenters were tortured, imprisoned, and...
Fantasia 2020 Review: MONSTER SEAFOOD WARS Plays Kaiju Karnage For Laughs
Longtime Screen Anarchy readers will no doubt be familiar with the unique oeuvre of director Kawasaki Minoru. A lover and devotee of old school man-in-suit kaiju and tokusatsu madness, Kawasaki created a niche for himself as the premier spoofster of...
