Fantasia Film Festival 2025 kicking off July 16th and running through August 3rd!
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Highlights for the upcoming festival!



OFFICIAL OPENING FILM: ARI ASTER’S EDDINGTON

Fantasia’s 29th edition will open with a special screening of Ari Aster’s EDDINGTON. In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico. Also featuring Austin Butler, Emma Stone, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O'Connell, Michael Ward, and Clifton Collins Jr. EDDINGTON is Aster’s fourth feature in an extraordinary filmography of landmarks, following HEREDITARY, MIDSOMMAR, and BEAU IS AFRAID.



CANADIAN TRAILBLAZER AWARD: GEORGE MIHALKA

Fantasia will bestow a 2025 Canadian Trailblazer award to filmmaker George Mihalka, whose 40-year career in cinema and television has crossed cultures and borders. Internationally, Mihalka is most celebrated for his 1981 slasher classic MY BLOODY VALENTINE, the Genie-nominated ETERNAL EVIL (1985), HOSTILE TAKEOVER (1988), BULLET TO BEIJING (1996), and WATCHTOWER (2001). In Quebec, Mihalka has made some of French Canada’s most beloved cult films, including SCANDALE (1982), LA FLORIDA (1993), L’HOMME IDÉAL (1996), and LES BOYS IV (2005), in addition to directing on some of the province’s greatest television series (SCOOP, OMERTA, LA LOI DU SILENCE…).

Mihalka’s history in filmmaking is as unconventional as it is exciting. He also happens to be a wonderful raconteur. To that end, Fantasia is happy to announce that the filmmaker will also be giving a master class at the festival, presented by the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC).



A JOLTING FOLK HORROR VISION: ADILKHAN YERZHANOV’S KAZAKH SCARY TALES

Continuing a breathtaking marathon of creation, multi-time award-winner Adilkhan Yerzhanov (STEPPENWOLF, THE OWNERS, THE GENTLE INDIFFERENCE OF THE WORLD) has turned his visionary lens towards skin-crawling occult horror storytelling. A cop (Kuantai Abdimadi, MOUNTAIN ONION) ventures into a remote village to investigate a gruesome series of inexplicable events and soon finds himself in the center of an otherworldly storm of local witchcraft and death. It becomes clear that the curse of Albasty, a spirit said to devour infants, is horrifyingly real. Bringing nightmarish regional folk horror to the screen through a tense, neo-Noir Trojan horse, KAZAKH SCARY TALES was produced as an anthology series for a domestic streamer but deemed too frightening by focus groups. Fantasia will be presenting the first three episodes as a complete feature narrative, the first time that anything from the series will be shown anywhere in the world. A stunning, disturbing work featuring a cast from across Yerzhanov’s filmography, including Anna Starchenko, jury award winner at last summer’s Fantasia for her astonishing performance in STEPPENWOLF, Dinara Baktybayeva (A DARK, DARK MAN), Daniyar Alshinov (GOLIATH), Yerken Gubashev (THE ASSAULT), and Sanjar Madi (YELLOW CAT). World Premiere.



YUTA SHIMOTSU'S NEW GROUP BRILLIANTLY BLURS THE LINE BETWEEN HORROR AND REALITY

High school student Ai (Anna Yamada) sees her world collapse when a strange cult-like mentality gradually turns people around her into mindless followers who can transform simple gymnastics routines into a nightmarish dance of death. With only his second feature, co-writer and director Yuta Shimotsu (BEST WISHES TO ALL, produced by Takashi Shimizu) delivers one of the most well-scripted, masterfully directed, and incredibly creepy J-horror films of the last twenty years. Imagine a fusion between a harsh critique of Japanese society and the weird ideological movements that are growing in the Western World, portrayed in the twisted universe of legendary mangaka Junji Ito, author of the classic UZUMAKI, and you might be able to visualize all the fun this film packs. With its mind-blowing, surreal imagery in a very realistic context, a perfectly balanced and executed soundtrack, and something to say about the world we live in, NEW GROUP will only expand its number of devoted followers around the planet. North American Premiere.



TOGETHER (USA) – dir. Michael Shanks

Years into their relationship, Tim and Millie (Dave Franco and Alison Brie) find themselves at a crossroads as they move to the country, abandoning all that is familiar in their lives except each other. With tensions already flaring, a nightmarish encounter with a mysterious, unnatural force threatens to corrupt their lives, their love, and their flesh. A smart, shocking marriage of body horror and troubled-relationship study. Official selection: Sundance 2025, SXSW 2025. Canadian Premiere.



JULIE PACINO MAKES HER DIRECTORIAL DEBUT WITH THE LYNCHIAN I LIVE HERE NOW

With her feature debut I LIVE HERE NOW, Julie Pacino plunges us into a vibrant and nightmarish psychodrama that reverberate with echoes of David Lynch, Dario Argento, and the Coen brothers. Starring Lucy Fry (BRIGHT) as Rose, a woman haunted by trauma and trapped in a motel where reality unravels, the film blurs the lines between past and present, dream and waking life, captured in vivid 16mm. The film pulses with competing anxieties: the pursuit of perfection, the weight of generational trauma, and the invisible fist of capitalism tightening its grip around the necks of its characters. Featuring an all-star supporting cast including Madeline Brewer (CAM), Sheryl Lee (TWIN PEAKS), Cara Seymour (ADAPTATION.), and an exceptionally slimy Matt Rife, I LIVE HERE NOW marks the emergence of a bold new voice in genre cinema. World Premiere.



A SUPERNATURAL RIDE DEEP INTO UNEXPECTED TERRITORY: HELLCAT

A woman (Dakota Gorman) wakes in the back of a moving camper trailer with a badly infected wound. A voice (Todd Terry) from the truck towing it tells her they must reach a mysterious doctor within the hour or she’ll suffer a horrific fate. Thus begins HELLCAT, the feature debut of writer/editor/director Brock Bodell, who previously cut the mind-bending ULTRASOUND (Fantasia 2021), among others. Bodell doesn’t take a wrong turn, delivering a twisty thrill ride of strong characters, shredding tension, and real surprises that takes viewers deep into unexpected places. Featuring SNL’s James Austin Johnson as the voice of a late-night DJ on a supernatural call-in show, and gripping performances from supporting cast Jordan Mullins and Liz Atwater. World Premiere.



NECROMANCY AND BELIEF VS CORPOREAL DECAY: MOTHER OF FLIES SPELLBINDS

When a young woman faces a deadly diagnosis, she seeks dark magic from a witch in the woods... but every cure has costs. Written and directed by John and Zelda Adams and Toby Poser (The Adams Family), who also star, shot, edited, and scored, MOTHER OF FLIES is the latest creation from the filmmaking family behind such singular landmarks as THE DEEPER YOU DIG, HELLBENDER, and WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS, each of which has World Premiered at Fantasia. Described by the filmmakers as their fairytale manipulation of the darkly shadowed, yet love-lined pathways between a human life and death, MOTHER OF FLIES is an extraordinary work of personal genre storytelling, gestated through the family’s own experiences battling and surviving cancer. It stands with the strongest of their work, a poetic, haunting, and moving film that glows with otherworldly imagination, exploring the concept of necromancy in connection with two women who have very intimate relationships with death. World Premiere.



DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES COLLIDE IN MEXICO’S FIRST STOP-MOTION FEATURE

The task of crafting Mexico’s very first stop-motion animated feature film could not have fallen to four more worthy hands than those of Rodolfo and Arturo Ambriz. Proteges of Guillermo del Toro, the brothers gained widespread recognition with the short film REVOLTOSO (Fantasia 2016), demonstrating daring ideas and a bedeviled attention to detail. Further acclaim arrived in 2021 with FRANKELDA’S BOOK OF SPOOKS, a five-episode miniseries on Cartoon Network Latin America and HBO Max, introducing the phantom author Frankelda and her companion Herneval, an enchanted book. It turns out that the most astonishing tale the two have to tell is their own! The dazzling I AM FRANKELDA explores the challenging childhood of Francisca Imelda, and how she came to befriend Herneval, prince of the realm that lies on the other side of our dreams. Discover that world of weirdness and wonder for yourself as a milestone of animation history comes to life on Fantasia’s big screen! Animation Plus section. North American Premiere.



A HAUNTING 8MM DESCENT INTO AUSTRALIA’S SURREAL UNDERBELLY

A GRAND MOCKERY, the feature debut from co-directors Adam C. Briggs and Sam Dixon, is a grimy, experimental descent into Australia’s dark underbelly, rendered in the raw textures of 8mm film. Starring Dixon as Josie, a man plagued by mental illness, addiction, and compulsion, the film follows his increasingly horrific, near-ritualistic wandering from Brisbane’s mundane outskirts to the sublime horrors of the Sunshine Coast. With a tone that veers from darkly funny to nightmarishly surreal, the film channels the disorienting psychology of its outcast protagonist. A technical triumph of underground cinema, A GRAND MOCKERY transforms the grain of 8mm into something painterly and visceral, evoking Francis Bacon’s dread-soaked visions while building a phantasmagoric world of blurred realities, hypnotic soundscapes, and cinematic obsession. At once grotesque and poetic, it’s a film that pulses with human chaos and defies categorization. Underground section. International Premiere.



INDIE MAVERICK AWARD: LLOYD KAUFMAN

When it comes to independent American cinema, Lloyd Kaufman is a true maverick, a one-of-a-kind filmmaker, distributor, entrepreneur, marketer, and full-on character who, alongside Michael Herz, built Troma: a film production company whose name defines excessive low-budget exploitation cinema the way Hitchcock defines suspense or Disney defines animation. From SQUEEZE PLAY, THE TOXIC AVENGER, and CLASS OF NUKE ‘EM HIGH to SGT. KABUKIMAN, NYPD, TROMEO & JULIET, POULTRYGEIST, and beyond, Troma movies offer radical entertainment the majors can never provide. In the process, they’ve given crucial first starts to generations of young talents at the dawns of their careers, from James Gunn and Jennifer Aspinall to Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Vincent D’Onofrio. Kaufman and Troma have always found alternative ways of making, creating, and promoting their unique entertainment, which has included a multitude of appearances in Fantasia's history. Now, at the World Premiere of OCCUPY CANNES, Fantasia celebrates Kaufman with our inaugural Indie Maverick Award - for 51 years of insane, gross, and just plain fun movies that no one else ever could have made. There will never be another like him.



FINE ART AND FREAKY FUN COLLIDE IN TAROMAN EXPO EXPLOSION

Osaka, Japan, was the site of Expo ‘70, and emblematic of that memorable event is the sculpture/building Tower of the Sun, envisioned and designed by renowned artist Taro Okamoto, “the Japanese Picasso”, a challenger of conventions driven to liberate creative expression for one and all. His works and ideas inspired director Ryo Fujii and the team behind the 2022 TV series TAROMAN, broadcast on the NHK network. Mixing mockumentary elements with the tropes and aesthetics of 1970s tokusatsu superhero shows - ULTRAMAN in particular - the series was purported to be an obscure archival find... and the result? A sublime mix of public art education, nostalgic invention, and gleeful weirdness for its own sake. With such big ideas and such a gigantic protagonist, Fujii and friends simply had to revive TAROMAN for the big screen. TAROMAN EXPO EXPLOSION has arrived, and with a bang! World Premiere.



AN ABSURDIST THRILL RIDE ON THE WINGS OF DRAINPIPES AND DEGENERACY: FLUSH

Middle-aged coke fiend Luke (R. Jonathan Lambert of Quentin Dupieux’s REALITY) has gone to confront his ex at the club where she works, determined to somehow win back her love. One thing leads to another and he soon finds himself wedged firmly in a toilet, effectively trapped in a bathroom stall - with a heap of drugs that he stole from the bar’s resident dealer. He’s soon found, setting off an increasingly crazy series of events as Luke’s world is assailed from every conceivable direction in a bizarro race against time that will leave you gasping for air. After years of winning awards everywhere from Clermont-Ferrand to Sitges with his inspired short film work (DERNIER CRI, PARIS BY NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD…), Parisian super force Grégory Morin has finally made a feature, and it’s utterly, gloriously insane. Evocative of Dupieux by way of Gaspar Noé and early Álex de la Iglesia, FLUSH is as inventively delirious as it is wickedly cinematic, a real-time, over-the-top blast of absurdist indie brilliance. World Premiere.



GET YOUR RAINCOATS OUT FOR THE BOOK OF SIJJIN AND ILLIYYIN

A woman regularly belittled and bullied by her employers calls upon evil forces to obtain her vengeance in the most heinous of ways. Blending Islamic folk horror, ocular torture à la Lucio Fulci, and imagery evoking THE EVIL DEAD, Indonesian director Hadrah Daeng Ratu’s THE BOOK OF SIJJIN AND ILLIYYIN will satiate even the most ravenous fans of gore and ultraviolence. Writer Laila Lele offers a gut-churning script that plunges us into the heart of a waking nightmare in which even children aren’t safe - and can end up splattering the walls like miniature Jackson Pollock artworks. Viewer discretion is highly advised here, as Indonesia has become an inexhaustible source of terrifying works, generous in their offerings of gore, twisted tales, and fascinating Muslim mythology populated by djinns and other demons. All we can really do is sit back and take pleasure in discovering and exploring - to our own risk and peril! North American Premiere.



DARK LAUGHS AND WARM HEARTS IN KAZAKH SCI-FI ADVENTURE STINKER

In a remote corner of Kazakhstan, three unlikely characters cross paths: a despairing old man, a grouchy shopkeeper, and an alien just trying to get home. With the gentle help of a curious granddaughter, walls begin to break down, but with a government motorcade soon to arrive - and a bumbling cop hot on their tails - can this misfit group somehow hold together? Renowned for his roles in SLOW HORSES (2022) and MCMAFIA (2018), Yerden Telemissov makes his directorial debut with STINKER, a darkly funny yet surprisingly sweet sci-fi adventure. Featuring excellent performances from Honored Worker of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakhytzhan Alpeis and acclaimed stage actress Irka Abdulmanova alongside Chingiz Kapin (DISSOLVE) and Dulyga Akmolda (SWEETIE, YOU WON’T BELIEVE), STINKER is a quirky and touching journey into what it means to accept “the other” - no matter how strange they may seem. North American Premiere.



A RIOTOUS STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENT ART UNFOLDS AS THE TROMA TEAM OCCUPY CANNES

This moving, hilarious, and inspirational documentary follows legendary filmmaker (and creator of THE TOXIC AVENGER) Lloyd Kaufman - recipient of this year’s inaugural Indie Maverick Award at Fantasia - leading the Troma Team’s fight to sustain independent art amidst an industry that increasingly removes any space for outsiders. Known for deliriously boundary-pushing works of maximalist insanity, NYC-based Troma Entertainment may be the last surviving truly independent film studio. They’re also at risk of going extinct. After 40 years of selling films at Cannes, OCCUPY CANNES follows them on what could be their final trip, as their notoriously crazy publicity stunts are consistently shut down by the authorities while they encounter endless obstacles in spaces they once had a place at. The film is presented through the lenses of Kaufman’s daughters, director Lily-Hayes and director of photography Charlotte, whose unparalleled access to Troma frees them to pose questions that no other filmmakers could: Does Kaufman’s defiant stance attract buyers or ostracize Troma from the industry’s inner circle? Can Troma survive in an ever-shifting and consolidating entertainment industry? Can any independent artist survive? Documentaries From the Edge Section. World Premiere.