Each year, the Fantasia International Film Festival offers what artistic director Mitch Davis describes as a “kaleidoscope of cultures, personalities and points of view” from the world of genre cinema.
And one of the things reflected most vividly by the line-up of more than 125 features and 200-plus shorts at this year’s Montreal event – the festival’s 28th edition, running from July 18 to August 4 – is the troubled state of the wider world.
“Genre films have always been amazing at speaking truth to power and discussing taboo topics subtextually,” suggests Davis, who also serves as the festival’s director of international programming. “What we’re seeing more of now is genre films foregrounding those social issues, in really confrontational and unsettling ways.”
Davis cites two of the films getting world premieres in Fantasia’s 14-title Cheval Noir international competition section as examples. Guatemalan filmmaker Jayro Bustamante’s Rita, based on a real-life tragedy in which dozens of young women burned to death in an orphanage, “uses magical realism to talk about the most horrific emotions imaginable,” says Davis.
Meanwhile, In Our Blood, the narrative feature debut of Brazilian documentarian Pedro Kos, tells a found-footage horror story of addiction and recovery with “an authenticity that’s just overwhelming.”
Further highlights of this year’s Fantasia reveal other aspects of the expanding genre universe.
Opening night world premiere Bookworm, from New Zealander and frequent Fantasia attendee Ant Timpson, is a film Davis tags as “a weird take on PG-rated family comedy, and one of the most charming films of the year”.
Closing night world premiere Ababouine is a black comedy about the Catholic church in 1950’s Canada from Andre Forcier, who Davis labels “a legend in Quebecois filmmaking”. Forcier is being presented the festival’s Prix Denis-Heroux for his contribution to Quebec genre cinema.
US filmmaker Mike Flanagan, whose early feature Absentia screened at Fantasia seven years before he hit big with streaming series The Haunting Of Hill House, will be presented with Fantasia’s Cheval Noir career award. (The busy Flanagan is also an executive producer on festival world premiere Shelby Oaks).
Also on the awards front, a new Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) juried award for best feature director – replacing last year’s inaugural DGC audience award for best Canadian film – will make its debut when the festival wraps.
International guests at this year’s event will include Flanagan, Bustamante, Timpson and Bookworm stars Elijah Wood and Nell Fisher, along with famed US genre multi-hyphenate Chuck Russell, whose horror remake Witchboard is a festival world premiere. Also heading to Montreal are South Korean director Hwang Wook, whose action comedy Mash Ville is another world first, and UK filmmaker Alexander Farrell, whose Kit Harrington horror tale The Beast Within is itself a Montreal debutant.
Like other festivals – and the wider world – Fantasia has faced some challenges in recent years. Davis reports to help control costs in the face of a budget deficit, a unionisation push by its staff and an ongoing struggle for corporate sponsorship, the festival (which gets some support from government and institutional partners including Telefilm Canada) has this year shortened its run by two days, moved its full programme guide online and limited its hospitality budget.
Another challenge, Davis explains, has been posed by some streaming platforms making early acquisitions of genre films “and then not being that interested in theatrical support. They might be open to playing at one of the three biggest festivals, but short of that they’re just closed to the idea of [films] playing festivals.”
Though some streamers – like genre specialist Shudder, which just acquired Bustamante’s Rita – remain supportive, Davis concedes, the overall trend “takes a slew of films out of consideration” for festivals like Fantasia.
Fantasia screenings with filmmakers in attendance are a vital experience, for audiences and emerging filmmaking talents alike, Davis insists.
“It’s the most gratifying thing in the world to have indie filmmakers at their screenings at the festival,” the Fantasia artistic director says. “Because our audience is super-engaged, and they feel they’re part of the filmmaker’s journey.
“There are great audiences everywhere but there’s something about this Montreal audience. It’ll sound like a rock concert audience when the right moment in the film warrants it, but no one will ever speak over dialogue and you don’t hear cell phones going off. It’s just beautiful the way films come to life in front of this audience.”
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