The first Fantastic Fest was held from October 6–9, 2005. It was founded by entrepreneur and film producer Tim League (the founder of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema), film critic Harry Knowles, film producer Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and screenwriter Tim McCanlies. The program of the inaugural festival featured sneak preview screenings of the films Feast by John Gulager, Wolf Creek by Greg McLean, and Zathura by Jon Favreau.
One of the debut festival’s main highlights was a display of costumers, props and creatures from the film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Fantastic Fest also hosted a special effects Q&A featuring Howard Berger, an Academy Award-winning make-up and effect supervisor known for his work on The Chronicles of Narnia films.
The first Fanrastic Fest was a success, so it was decided to hold it annually. It has been growing ever since. In 2007, Variety publisher Charles Koones mentioned it on the list of “ten festivals we love”. A year later, American magazine MovieMaker named it “one of the 25 film festivals worth the entry fee”.
Today’s Fantastic Fest is an eight-day film festival. Along with official screenings, its program includes the so-called secret screenings organized by Harry Knowles. For these screenings, the audience doesn’t known what film is going to be screened up until the very last moment. Films that have been screened “secretly” include The Skin I Live In, Paranormal Activity 3, Cloud Atlas, Sightseers, The Green Inferno, Gravity, and Child of God.
Festival-goers can also attend panels featuring filmmakers and actors, themed parties, film-themed “feasts”, outings, and other exciting events. Every year, Fantastic Fest welcomes many well-known actors and filmmakers as guests. Past guests have included Mel Gibson, Bill Murray, Kevin Smith, Paul Rudd, Dolph Lundgren, Jon Favreau, Darren Aronofsky, Elijah Wood, and Tim Burton. Notable international and world premieres at the festival have included There Will Be Blood by Paul Thomas Anderson, Apocalypto by Mel Gibson, Frankenweenie by Tim Burton, and Zombieland by Ruben Fleischer.
Photo: fantasticfest.com
