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5th Annual Ithaca Fantastik



5th Annual Ithaca Fantastik

Ithaca, NY- Thursday Nov. 9th to 13th 2016


For its 5th anniversary, the Ithaca Intl Fantastic Film Festival got a new name, a new logo, and a new competition series! For the last five years, our team has worked hard to offer our audience, not only movies—but also art exhibits, concerts and parties. We felt it was time to simplify the excessively long acronym (I.I.F.F.F.), as well as to reflect the diversity of the media we offer. We are returning this fall (from Nov, 9th to 13thunder the new moniker ITHACA FANTASTIK. We hope you dig the change! Read below for an early taste of what were cooking up for you this year!

 As our audience continues to grow each year, we decided to add a new competition series to our program. Our love of cinema always brings us back to its origin: the composition of movement, then captured on camera, and resulting in an imprint on celluloid.  A cinema focused on mise en scene and rhythm, a quest for the pure form of moving pictures which avant-garde French artists like Richter, Clair or Léger were already chasing in the early 1920s. We couldn’t be more excited to introduce the Cinema Pur competition series this fall, which takes its name from the French vanguard film movement. It will showcase six movies from young directors using challenging and innovative ways to tell stories in narrative or documentary filmmaking.



As genre fans, we wouldn’t be able to pass on putting together a special program to acknowledge the 35th anniversary of three of the most emblematic werewolves films in cinema: Dante’s THE HOWLING, Landiss AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and Wadleighs WOLFEN. You can expect surprises and side events—especially since our festival closes on the full moon of November! 




For our 5th Edition, we will dig into your deepest fears with our Retrospective series sponsored by the horror streaming platform SHUDDER! This year’s theme is The Known Unknowns” which will compile work ranging from Wilde’s mid-60s visceral masterpiece THE NAKED PREY to Camerons action packed sequel ALIENS, and onto Boormans ostensive depiction of xenophobia in his 1978 film DELIVERANCE! The full Retrospective line up will be announced in the near future.



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