What to expect from a genre festival honoring the un-expected? The Fantasia International Film Festival returns to Montréal for its 28th edition from July 18 to August 4 and it promises a killer lineup — with over 125 features and more than 200 shorts in total. The festival’s third and final programming announcement, made exclusive to IndieWire first, includes features from Steven Kostanski, Eugene Kotlyarenko, Scooter McCrae, and more.
André Forcier will show on closing night for the festival with the world premiere of “Ababouiné.” The filmmaker’s latest is a distinctly regional period piece and buzzy potential masterpiece about a group of kids growing up in 1950s Quebec under the harsh eye of the Catholic Church. Fantasia has awarded the film’s director the Prix Denis-Héroux, an accolade “bestowed for exceptional contribution to the development of Quebec genre cinema.”
Oscar-nominated documentarian Pedro Kos makes his narrative feature debut with “In Our Blood,” starring TV favorites Brittany O’Grady (“White Lotus“), E. J. Bonilla (“The Old Man”), and Alanna Ubach (“Euphoria”) in a twisted found footage tale about a mother reuniting with her daughter. Other features making their world premieres at Fantasia announced as part of this latest wave include Kostanski’s zany “Frankie Freako!”, the COVID-19 black comedy “The Code” from Kotlyarenko, McCrae’s psychosexual drama “Black Eyed Susan,” and more.
Also just announced, Fantasia will honor horror icon Mike Flanagan with the 2024 Cheval Noir career award, previously given to John Carpenter, Guillermo del Toro, and Nicolas Cage. The filmmaker will appear to accept his award, participate in an artist talk, and promote the world premiere of director Chris Stuckman’s “Shelby Oaks,” which Flanagan produced.
“While it may strike some as odd to bestow an achievement award to an artist who’s almost certainly not yet reached a mid-career place, Flanagan has been so extraordinarily prolific and consistently brilliant in his output that the filmmaker has already accomplished several lifetimes of creation,” the announcement said.
Read on for the final wave of titles announced ahead of Fantasia Fest 2024 (with all synopses provided by the festival). The complete lineup, including previously announced features and shorts with additional programming information for special events, exhibitions, and artist talks, can be found on the Fantasia Fest website. Ticket pre-sales open at 10:00 a.m. ET on July 5.
Closing Night Film
Ababouiné
Director: André Forcier
Cast: Rémy Girard, Gaston Lepage, Pascale Montpetit, Éric Bruneau, Mylène Mackay
World Premiere
“Ababouiné” takes us back to the 1950s, when the Catholic Church ruled over Quebec with an iron fist, and as a rowdy group of kids goes to war against the church. In his latest masterpiece, André Forcier (“Au claire de la lune,” “A Wind from Wyoming”) revisits a dark period of Quebec’s history through an often shocking – yet undeniably and absurdly funny – lens. Starring Rémy Girard (“The Barbarian Invasions,” “The Decline of the American Empire”), Gaston Lepage (“Jesus of Montréal”), Pascale Montpetit (“District 31”), Éric Bruneau (“An Eye for Beauty”), and Mylène Mackay (“Nelly”), the film brings together an incredible cast of some of the province’s most established actors alongside its most talented newcomers. With a deft hand, Forcier navigates the historical abuses of the church and the hope of a society on the brink of change — with sensitivity, humour, and quite literally, a lot of heart.
Feature Film Presentations
In Our Blood
Director: Pedro Kos
Cast: Brittany O’Grady, E. J. Bonilla, Alanna Ubach
World Premiere
Leave it to an award-winning documentary filmmaker to do found-footage chills right. A perfectly calculated, slow-burn nightmare that opens with the feel of an indie doc and gradually evolves into something uniquely sinister, “In Our Blood” is the narrative feature debut of Oscar-nominated documentarian Pedro Kos (“Rebel Hearts,” “Lead Me Home”). Nothing is as it seems when filmmaker Emily Wyland (a phenomenal Brittany O’Grady of HBO’s “White Lotus”) teams up with cinematographer Danny (E. J. Bonilla, FX’s “The Old Man”) to shoot an intimate documentary about reuniting with her mother (Alanna Ubach, HBO’s “Euphoria”) after a decade apart. When her mother suddenly goes missing, Emily and Danny must piece together increasingly disturbing clues, hoping to find her before it’s too late. Sad, scary, and unshakably convincing, this is a film that lingers like the ghosts of stolen futures.
4PM
Director: Jay Song
Cast: Oh Dal-su, Jang Yeong-nam
North American Premiere
Inspired by the book “The Stranger Next Door” from critically acclaimed Belgian writer Amélie Nothomb, “4PM” is a riveting psychological thriller from director Jay Song (“The Nightmare”) drenched in silent tension. Jeong-in (Oh Dal-su, “Oldboy”), is taking a break from his life as a teacher in his new countryside house when a written invitation to a neighbor (Jang Yeong-nam, “Project Wolf Hunting”) turns into a nightmare of excruciatingly awkward visits every day at 4 p.m. This character joust is one to remember – and its countless twists will force any audience member to ask themselves how they would handle the same wild situation.
Frankie Freako!
Director: Steven Kostanski
Cast: Conor Sweeney, Adam Brooks
World Premiere
After the success of “Psycho Foreman,” FX artist and director Steven Kostanski hits back with the zany, over-the-top “Frankie Freako!” Starring Conor Sweeney and Adam Brooks of Astron-6 fame, the film follows a nerdy man who just isn’t cool. In an attempt to impress his wife and boss, he’s lured by a 1-900 TV ad to party with a strange little creature called Frankie Freako. All hell breaks loose when Conor calls and Frankie and his two friends wreak interdimensional havoc in Conor’s life. Kostanski fans will flock to his latest imaginative adventure, saturated with throwback cartoonish fun à la “Ghoulies,” wildly creative puppets, big laughs, and a helluva good time!
The Umbrella Fairy
Director: Shen Jie
International Premiere
All things possess spirits capable of transforming into fairies, which carry the owners’ desires. One single piece of jade is used to create both an umbrella and a sword, but from the very beginning, the fairies Qingdai and Wanggui are destined for different missions. A brand-new, top-tier work of Chinese animation, “The Umbrella Fairy” marks the feature-length directorial debut of Shen Jie, art director on “Mr. Miao” (2020). Incorporating numerous elements of traditional Chinese arts and culture to achieve a distinctive charm and vitality, the film offers its audience a visual feast of rare richness to complement its engaging fantasy fable.
The Code
Director: Eugene Kotlyarenko
Cast: Peter Vack, Dasha Nekrasova
World Premiere
Peter Vack (“Assholes”) and Dasha Nekrasova (“The Scary of Sixty-First”) star as couple on the rocks during the early part of the Covid-19 pandemic in American filmmaker Eugene Kotlyarenko (“Spree”)’s latest, “The Code” — a generation-defining, wickedly dark comedy that blends post-New Wave French sensibilities of aesthetic disillusionment with a singularly alien view of contemporary American life. A transgressive and singular experience, nothing is off limits in this surveillance-heavy narrative, which uses multiple formats, points of view, and cameras to create a visionary collage-like experience of modern life. An epic poem for our post-pandemic world.
Ghost Cat Anzu
Director: Yoko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita
North American Premiere
Dumped by her shifty widower father in a small coastal town, eleven-year-old Karin is left in the care of Anzu, who’s affable, if rather uncouth and feckless — oh, and he’s also an immortal ghost cat. Based on the manga by Takashi Imashiro, the French-Japanese co-production “Ghost Cat Anzu” is co-directed by animator Yoko Kuno (“Crayon Shin-Chan,” “The Case of Hanna & Alice”) and Nobuhiro Yamashita, whose live-action films “Confession” and “Swimming in a Sand Pool” also screen at Fantasia this summer. It tackles a now-familiar trope in anime — a troubled child’s summertime coming-of-age in a countryside inhabited by supernatural creatures — and offsets its bucolic charm with deadpan wit and an emotional tone that’s as tender as a bruise. Official selection: Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2024.
The Silent Planet
Director: Jeffrey St. Jules
Cast: Elias Koreas, Briana Middleton
World Premiere
After his debut feature, BANG BANG BABY, premiered at TIFF in 2014 and took home Best Canadian First Feature Film, the vision of the award-winning director and writer Jeffrey St. Jules comes to Fantasia. His latest is a sci-fi meditation on humanity and the what-ifs about the worlds beyond our stars. In the future, two prisoners on a penal colony planet find they have an unexpected connection, and they mine more than minerals as a horrible truth is revealed. With moving performances by Elias Koteas (“Crash,” “The Thin Red Line”) and Briana Middleton (“Sharper”), this futuristic view of accountability, regrets, and truths is packed with St. Jules’ signature touch of surrealism and imagination.
Teasing Master Takagi-san
Director: Rikiya Imaizumi
Cast: Fumiya Takahashi, Mei Nakano
North American Premiere
In this age of extreme polarization and armed conflicts, director Rikiya Imaizumi’s “Teasing Master Takagi-san” should be prescribed by public health authorities, as this infinitely charming feel-good movie will make audiences happy-cry from cuteness. An extremely shy teacher (Fumiya Takahashi, “Blue Period”) and her college crush Takagi (Mei Nakano, “Office Royale”), who she constantly teased in an attempt him to pull him out of is shell, reunite in the same school they once attended. Mentors and pupils learn from each other in this lovely romantic comedy often reminiscent of “Amelie,” filled with witty dialogue and gorgeous photography.
Black Eyed Susan
Director: Scooter McCrae
Cast: Damian Maffei, Yvonne Emilie Thälker
World Premiere
It’s been 21 long years since Scooter McCrae (“Shattered Dead”) released a new feature, and he’s lost none of his smart, transgressive bite. Desperate for work, Derek (Damian Maffei, “The Strangers: Prey at Night”) accepts a job at a shady tech start-up, working intimately with Susan (Yvonne Emilie Thälker in a powerful debut role), a bleeding-edge BDSM sex doll meant to receive and appreciate sexual punishment as an integral part of her evolving AI. Shot on Super 16, “Black Eyed Susan” counterbalances its dark, vulgar core with a surprisingly tender vulnerability, creating a lo-fi science-fiction landscape infused with surprising fragility, as legendary Italian composer Fabio Frizzi (“The Beyond,” “Zombie”) lends the picture a lush, atmospheric backdrop. Not for the faint of heart, “Black Eyed Susan” delves into themes and questions that will only become more pertinent with the continued evolution of artificial intelligence.
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Read much, much, much more on the Fantasia Fest website.
