FOLLOWING FILMS

BIRTHDAY 2017 Directed by: Alberto Viavattene Italy Night. An abusive nurse wanders through the halls of a nursing home. She integrates her salary by secretly selling prescription drugs to junkies and stealing from the most vulnerable patients. The only thing she hates more than her job is old people. Upon entering room 12, occupied by three sisters, she discovers that one of them has just turned one-hundred years old: there must be a birthday present somewhere… that will change their lives forever. THE PECULIAR ABILITIES OF MR. MAHLER 2017 Directed by: Paul Philipp Germany East Germany 1987: Special investigator Mahler, who is said to possess paranormal abilities, is assigned to solve the case of a missing 6-year-old before this issue leads to political tensions with the West. PUMPKIN 2017 Directed by: Jay Rathore Canada Eric is your average suburban teenager, obsessed with the internet and constantly glued to his phone. ...

2017 Starring: Francesca Eastwood, Clifton Collins Jr., Marlon Young and Peter Vack Directed By: Natalia Leite A couple weeks ago, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced plans to roll back title IX protections for victims of sexual assault established under the Obama administration. Instead of helping victims of rape to navigate the legal process she hopes to protect the innocent victims of false accusation. Rape statistics vary greatly from source to source but I've yet to come across any study that postulates the number of false accusations out numbers actual assaults. And yet here we are. In a time where an equivalency is being drawn between the two. M.F.A. is the story of Noelle (Eastwood) an art student who is raped and decides to take decisive action when she sees a system that turns a blind eye. Early in the film Professor Rudd (Young) tells Noelle to "make something ugly." He encourages her to fail. He asks her to push herself outside of the comfort...

COCOLORS 2017 Directed By Toshihisa Yokoshima Aki isn’t a brave little boy, but he’s dedicated nonetheless to safeguarding his sickly, mute friend Fuyu. They and their little gang live deep underground, in the concrete warrens to which survivors have fled following the eruption of Mt. Fuji. The community is in decline, however, as illness and despair take their toll. Fuyu dreams of the outside world, which he is too frail to ever reach. But what colour is the sky out there? The second film in the Gasoline Mask project of maverick Shibuya-based animators Kamikaze Douga, COCOLORS showcases their signature skill with cel-shaded 3D CG. The film’s meticulous evocation of its grim and cluttered world owes a deliberate aesthetic debt to printmaking, a principle echoed in COCOLORS’ story. A distinctive work of high-standard animation, COCOLORS is a convincing expression of ecological truths and consequences. SCARECROW ISLAND 2017 Directed By Park Hyemi Among the...

2017 Directed By: Navin Ramaswaran Starring: Lora Burke, Robert Notman, and Will Conlon Written By: J. Gordon Ross Put simply, an unreliable narrator is a storyteller whose trustworthiness is questionable. An audience following a tale created by a compromised character is left unbalanced and questioning almost everything they see. POOR AGNES is told from the point of view of a delusional young woman (Burke) who has a less than firm grip on reality. She is vicious and cruel but oddly poetic in her personal philosophy. Through voice over and monologues performed to the camera we hear Agnes justify her indefensible actions. She kidnaps, kills, and rapes with no sense of remorse or regret. The only things she seems to feel are utter satisfaction and self-righteousness. She has pure conviction and lacks any self-doubt, a luxury not often granted to the emotionally stable.      Early in the film, Agnes crosses paths with Mike (Notman) a private investig...

The programmers at Fantasia Film Festival have discovered a lost print of legendary director George Mihalka's 1985 film, THE BLUE MAN (a.k.a. ETERNAL EVIL), deep in the vaults of the CINEMATHÈQUE QUÉBÉCOISE. This could well be the last print available of this film and we are proudly projecting it in glorious 35mm, exclusively for Montreal fans to enjoy. This special presentation will be accompanied by a Q & A with the director himself. A director going through a creative slump, Paul Sharpe is forced to shoot insipid TV commercials just to keep his Montreal-based production company afloat. Dissatisfied of his life both at work and at home, he finds solace in the arms of his mistress, Janus, who introduces him to the world of astral projections, an esoteric practice in which the spirit dissociates itself from the body to freely explore its surroundings. But are these astral journeys really harmless? Not only is Paul’s son convinced that he’s seeing a transparent blue bein...

The 2017 edition of The Fantasia International Film Festival is proud to announce that actor Robert Pattinson (The Twilight Saga, Cosmopolis) will be attending its North American Premiere of the Cannes sensation Good Time, directed by Ben and Josh Safdie. The film, which was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, will celebrate its North American Premiere at Concordia University's Auditorium des Diplômés de la SGWU (Théâtre Hall) on July 27th. Pattinson's unbelievable transformation into Good Time's troubled Constantine "Connie" Nikas has been hailed by critics worldwide, and Fantasia is honored to celebrate this incredible film's North American Premiere with the actor and directors in attendance. The Fantasia International Film Festival, North America's largest and longest-running genre film festival, is currently celebrating its 21st year in Montreal, Quebec, taking place fro...

21st EDITION – JULY 13-AUGUST 2, 2017 — Since its inception in 1996, the Fantasia International Film Festival is now recognized as the largest and most influential event of its kind in North America, a leader on the genre film scene and one of the country’s most popular film festivals. With a varied programming and an emphasis on the imaginative cinema of Asia, Europe and the Americas, Fantasia’s offerings range from unique and powerful personal visions to international commercial crowd-pleasers rarely seen in North America. As the festival gets started we want to highlight some of this years must see films. 78/52 2017 Directed By: Alexandre Philippe Screening July 20th An unprecedented look at the iconic shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s PSYCHO, the 'Man behind the Curtain', and the screen murder that profoundly changed the course of world cinema. 78/52 references the number of set-ups (78) and the number of cuts (52) in the shower scene from Alfred Hit...

21st EDITION – JULY 13-AUGUST 2, 2017 — Since its inception in 1996, the Fantasia International Film Festival is now recognized as the largest and most influential event of its kind in North America, a leader on the genre film scene and one of the country’s most popular film festivals. With a varied programming and an emphasis on the imaginative cinema of Asia, Europe, and the Americas, Fantasia’s offerings range from unique and powerful personal visions to international commercial crowd-pleasers rarely seen in North America. As the festival gets started we want to highlight some of this year's must-see films. DEAD SHACK 2017 Directed By: Peter Ricq Screening July 22nd On a weekend getaway at a rundown cabin in the woods, Jason, a cautious teen, his crude best friend Colin and his fearless older sister Summer are forced to work together, grow up and save their hard-partying parents from their predatory neighbor intent on feeding them all to her undead family...

21st EDITION – JULY 13-AUGUST 2, 2017 — Since its inception in 1996, the Fantasia International Film Festival is now recognized as the largest and most influential event of its kind in North America, a leader on the genre film scene and one of the country’s most popular film festivals. With a varied programming and an emphasis on the imaginative cinema of Asia, Europe and the Americas, Fantasia’s offerings range from unique and powerful personal visions to international commercial crowd-pleasers rarely seen in North America. As the festival gets started we want to highlight some of this years must see films. MOHAWK 2017 Directed By: Ted Geoghegan Screening July 15th A home invasion movie where North America is the home, and the invaders are the United States Army, Mohawk is a breathless, no-holds-barred action-horror hybrid representing the second team-up between director Ted Geoghegan, producer Travis Stevens, and cinematographer Karim Hussain after their award-winni...

The Fantasia International Film Festival celebrates its 21st Anniversary in Montreal this summer, taking place from July 13-August 2, with its Frontières International Co-Production Market and Industry Rendez-Vous Weekend being held July 20-23. The full lineup of over 130 feature films will be announced July 5. A POWERFUL OPENING NIGHT WITH JUNG BYUNG-GIL'S THE VILLAINESS and TAKASHI MIIKE'S JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE: DIAMOND IS UNBREAKABLE Fantasia 2017 will start with a thunderous smash! After leaving the Cannes audience absolutely mesmerized with its groundbreaking and spectacular fight scenes and Kim Ok-vin’s ferocious, yet poignant interpretation, Jung Byung-gil's action thriller THE VILLAINESS (North American Premiere) will be the Opening Film of this year's edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival. Following this astonishing jolt of raw adrenaline, who else than the Grand Maestro of international genre cinema could keep the pace? Fantasia...