Fantasia International Film Festival

The Fantasia International Film Festival, also known as FanTasia, is an annual genre film festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1996, it has since become the largest and most influential event of its kind in North America.

The FanTasia festival showcases all kinds of genre cinema including fantasy, science fiction, horror, B movies, etc. Its diverse and eclectic program focuses on Canadian and international films which are not likely to be widely released in Canada. While predominantly showcasing fantastic films, FanTasia gladly welcomes works whose individuality puts them in a genre of their own. The festival is held in Montreal every July.

The roots of the Fantasia Film Festival trace back to Montreal’s Asian film scene. Back in the 1990s, a group of local Asian film enthusiasts organized screenings of Hong Kong films and Japanese anime. These screenings were officially transformed into an annual film festival in 1996.

Over the years, the Fantasia International Film Festival has expanded to include the imaginative cinema of Asia, Europe and the Americas. FatTasia has featured many world and international premieres, including Shaun of the Dead by Edgar Wright, Perfect Blue by Satoshi Kon, Millennium Actress by Satoshi Kon, The Midnight Meat Train by Ryuhei Kitamura, Dread by Anthony DiBlasi, Curse of Chucky by Don Mancini, The Whisperer in Darkness by Sean Branney, and others.

Each edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival welcomes actors, directors and producers from different countries, including Canada, the United States, India, Japan, Finland, the United Kingdom, Albania, Australia, France, South Korea, Denmark, Mexico, Hong Kong, Israel, Uganda, Germany, Spain, Lithuania, Serbia, etc. International guests come to Montreal to promote their films that are screened at the festival.

Alongside world, international, North American and Canadian premieres, the program of the festival includes special screenings such as retrospectives, documentary and short film screenings. The Fantasia International Film Festival also hosts industry events, including panels and conferences on contemporary cinema and the Frontières International Co-Production Market.

In 2020, the event was held online due to the coronavirus pandemic.