A competition so good they introduced it twice (with much more to come back), the Fantasia Worldwide Movie Competition returns to Montréal for its twenty ninth version, July 16 — August 3. Sure, the sixteenth, not the seventeenth. Since saying the competition’s first wave of titles in early Might, organizers have added a day to accommodate for the tons of of options and shorts they’ll be displaying this summer time.
Main the pack is Ari Aster‘s fourth function, “Eddington,” which can open the competition with a particular screening. From A24, the fashionable Western — starring Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal as candidates in a heated mayoral race — was met with usually heat critiques after its world premiere at Cannes. IndieWire’s David Ehrlich described the movie as a “‘No Nation for Outdated Males’ riff that hinges on masks mandates and the homicide of George Floyd.” He praised Aster’s ambition, the timeliness of the fabric, and extra in his evaluation.
One other Cannes favourite introduced this wave, Félix Dufour-Laperrière’s “Dying Does Not Exist” can also be coming to Fantasia. The animated function will open the competition’s Fantastiques Weekends du Cinéma Québécois: a piece specifically curated to honor productions out of Quebec.
In the meantime, Oklahoma native Mickey Reece will debut his newest function “Each Heavy Factor,” making its world premiere alongside three new titles from Japanese horror legend Takashi Miike. The trio contains “Blazing Fists,” “Sham,” and an episodes of the anime sequence “Nyaight of the Residing CAt” directed by the “Audition” genius. Plus, filmmaker Izabel Pakzad makes her function debut stewing on social gathering tradition with “Discover Your Pals,” govt produced by Chris Hanley (“The Virgin Suicides,” “Spring Breakers”) and former IndieWire editor Eric Kohn (“Child Invasion”).
Learn on and meow it up (wait, have you ever not heard concerning the meowing?) for extra titles from Fantasia 2025’s second wave lineup. All synopses are offered by the competition. The entire three-week program, together with beforehand introduced options and shorts with further data for particular occasions, exhibitions, and artist talks, will probably be obtainable on the Fantasia web site to start with of July.
Opening Night time Movie
“Eddington”
Director: Ari Aster
Particular Screening
Fantasia’s twenty ninth version will open with a particular screening of Ari Aster’s “Eddington.” In Might of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted in opposition to neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico. Additionally that includes Austin Butler, Emma Stone, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Michael Ward, and Clifton Collins Jr. “Eddington” is Aster’s fourth function in a rare filmography of landmarks, following “Hereditary,” “Midsommar,” and “Beau Is Afraid.”
Canada Trailblazer Award
Fantasia will bestow a 2025 Canadian Trailblazer award to filmmaker George Mihalka, whose 40-year profession in cinema and tv has crossed cultures and borders. Internationally, Mihalka is most celebrated for his 1981 slasher basic “My Bloody Valentine,” the Genie-nominated “Everlasting Evil”(1985), “Hostile Takeover” (1988), “Bullet to Beijing” (1996), and “Watchtower” (2001). In Quebec, Mihalka has made a few of French Canada’s most beloved cult movies, together with “Scandale” (1982), “La Florida” (1993), “L’homme idéal” (1996), and “Les Boys IV” (2005), along with directing on a number of the province’s biggest tv sequence (“Scoop,” “Omerta,” “La Loi Du Silence.”)
Mihalka’s historical past in filmmaking is as unconventional as it’s thrilling. He additionally occurs to be a beautiful raconteur. To that finish, Fantasia is joyful to announce that the filmmaker will even be giving a grasp class on the competition, introduced by the Administrators Guild of Canada (DGC).
A Takashi Miike Triple Menace!
“Nyaight of the Residing Cat,” “Blazing Fists,” and “Sham”
A perennial of the competition’s programming since its earliest days, and recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, maverick, genre-jumping Japanese director Takashi Miike makes his mark at Fantasia once more this 12 months with not one however three titles—together with an cute J-horror anime sequence, with World Premiere episodes! Adapting the manga written by Hawkman and drawn by Mecha-Roots, and debuting on Crunchyroll this summer time, “Nyaight of the Residing Cat” presents a premise extra terrifying than a half-empty meals bowl—a virus sweeping the globe, inflicting anybody who touches a kitty to grow to be one themselves! Government director Miike and director Tomohiro Kamitani ship a furry, purring parody of the natural-horror subgenre, an animated cataclysm of cuteness!
The pair of Miike movies celebrating their Canadian Premieres pack a one-two punch, beginning with “Blazing Fists,” during which two teenage hoodlums goal for higher lives for themselves, and preventing within the ring is how they’ll get there. A convincing coming-of-age drama with an enormous coronary heart to stability out the bruises and black eyes, its forged options J-pop famous person Gackt and MMA fighter Mikuru Asakura, who seems as himself. “Sham,” impressed by a real story, follows the surreal authorized and media battle of a trainer falsely accused of violence in opposition to a pupil. Miike delivers a panoramic authorized thriller that generates as a lot anxiousness as his greatest horrific works, thanks partly to the crackling efficiency by Go Ayano (GANTZ).
Extra Displays
“Discover Your Pals”
Director: Izabel Pakzad
World Premiere
For her first function, director Izabel Pakzad places a sinister spin on social gathering tradition and the fixed risk of violence dealing with younger ladies, that includes a stellar forged together with Helena Howard (“Madeline’s Madeline,” “I Noticed the TV Glow”), Bella Thorne (“Divinity”), Zión Moreno (“Gossip Woman”), Chloe Cherry (“Euphoria”), and Sophia Ali (“Uncharted”). Set in opposition to cinematic desert surroundings, what begins as a wild women journey rapidly turns harmful when the locals don’t need them there. Because the hostile atmosphere escalates, Amber’s associates uncover her previous trauma and grow to be fed up with poisonous dynamics. Little do they know, their enjoyable journey will remodel into considered one of revenge — constructing to a jaw-dropping finale that audiences will always remember. Produced by Allison Friedman (“The Mortuary Assortment,” “The Repair”), Gary Michael Walters (“Whiplash,” “Drive”), Andrea Iervolino (“Skincare,” “Ferrari”), Luca Matrundola (“To the Bone,” “Skincare”) and govt produced by Chris Hanley (“The Virgin Suicides,” “Spring Breakers”) and Eric Kohn (“Child Invasion”), “Discover Your Pals” presents shocking eventualities exploring how fragile the divide between the sexes actually is.
“Kazakh Scary Tales”
Director: Adilkhan Yerzhanov
World Premiere
Persevering with a panoramic marathon of creation, multi-time award-winner Adilkhan Yerzhanov (“Steppenwolf,” “The Homeowners,” “The Mild Indifference of the World”) has turned his visionary lens in the direction of skin-crawling occult horror storytelling. A cop (Kuantai Abdimadi, “Mountain Onion”) ventures right into a distant village to research a ugly sequence of inexplicable occasions and shortly finds himself within the middle of an otherworldly storm of native witchcraft and demise. It turns into clear that the curse of Albasty, a spirit stated to devour infants, is horrifyingly actual. Bringing nightmarish regional people horror to the display by way of a tense, neo-Noir Malicious program, “Kazakh Scary Tales” was produced as an anthology sequence for a home streamer however deemed too horrifying by focus teams. Fantasia will probably be presenting the primary three episodes as a whole function narrative, the primary time that something from the sequence will probably be proven anyplace on the earth. A shocking, disturbing work that includes a forged from throughout Yerzhanov’s filmography, together with Anna Starchenko, jury award winner finally summer time’s Fantasia for her astonishing efficiency in “Steppenwolf,” Dinara Baktybayeva (“A Darkish, Darkish Man”), Daniyar Alshinov (“Goliath”), Yerken Gubashev (“The Assault”), and Sanjar Madi (“Yellow Cat”).
“Dying Does Not Exist”
Director: Félix Dufour-Laperrière
Contemporary off its world premiere in Cannes, Félix Dufour-Laperrière’s magnificent animated function “Dying Does Not Exist” (“La mort n’existe pas”) will open Fantasia’s Fantastiques Weekends du Cinéma Québécois.
A gaggle of younger activists take up arms in opposition to an prosperous household, hoping to plant the seed that sows a rebel. However when issues don’t go in response to plan, a girl finds herself haunted by the reminiscence of her pal, intertwined with the shadows of her doubt and guilt. In a world threatened by rising inequalities, Félix’s masterpiece embraces the naiveté of youth to inform its story, weighing the burden of 1’s obligations and the implications of repercussions of the trail they’ve taken. Over ten years within the making, “Dying Does Not Exist” is as well timed a movie as may very well be, and some of the magnificent footage made lately, the place each hand drawn body is a panoramic murals. The movie performs off coloration and sound to form its story, permitting the artwork to take a lifetime of its personal. The revolution could also be bloody and violent, stuffed with loss and sorrow, but it surely’s by no means been this stunning.
“New Group”
Director: Yuta Shimotsu
North American Premiere
Highschool pupil Ai (Anna Yamada) sees her world collapse when a wierd cult-like mentality step by step turns individuals round her into senseless followers who can remodel easy gymnastics routines right into a nightmarish dance of demise. With solely his second function, co-writer and director Yuta Shimotsu (“Greatest Needs to All,” produced by Takashi Shimizu) delivers some of the well-scripted, masterfully directed, and extremely creepy J-horror movies of the final twenty years. Think about a fusion between a harsh critique of Japanese society and the bizarre ideological actions which can be rising within the Western World, portrayed within the twisted universe of legendary mangaka Junji Ito, writer of the basic “Uzumaki,” and also you would possibly be capable of visualize all of the enjoyable this movie packs. With its mind-blowing, surreal imagery in a really practical context, a wonderfully balanced and executed soundtrack, and one thing to say concerning the world we reside in, “New Group” will solely develop its variety of devoted followers across the planet.
“Each Heavy Factor”
Director: Mickey Reece
World Premiere
Mickey Reece, the impressed maverick behind such singular cult favorites as “Nation Maintain,” “Local weather of the Hunter,” and “Agnes,” returns to Fantasia with “Each Heavy Factor,” a pitch-black comedy about an strange man thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Set in opposition to the unsettling backdrop of a string of disappearances, the movie follows Joe (Josh Fadem, “Higher Name Saul”), an unassuming workplace employee at an internet periodical who turns into entangled in a conspiracy after witnessing a homicide. As a colleague begins to research, Joe struggles to hide the reality as his fastidiously constructed life falls aside. Together with his signature mix of lo-fi aesthetics and sharp, high-concept wit, Reece delivers one other visionary exploration of Oklahoma and a darkly comedian meditation on the fractured American soul. That includes an eclectic forged together with Vera Drew (“The Folks’s Joker”), Tipper Newton (“The Mindy Mission”), John Ennis (“Rats!”), and style icon Barbara Crampton (“Re-Animator”).
“Tamala 2030: A Punk Cat in Darkish”
Director: t.o.L
Animation Plus Part, World Premiere
An astonishing, avant-garde anime anomaly, 2002’s eerie, erotic, and elaborately esoteric “Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in House,” a Fantasia award-winner, stays an all-time spotlight of the competition’s animation programming, and greater than 20 years needed to go earlier than rumours of a follow-up “Tamala” function might finally be confirmed true. With “Tamala 2030: A Punk Cat in Darkish,” the mysterious Japanese author/composer/director duo Okay. and kuno, identified collectively as t.o.L (“timber of Life”), have resumed, recalibrated, and resolved their story of the cutest girl-cat in dystopian Cat Tokyo, surpassing themselves of their management of the cryptic, complicated, and cuddly chaos they’ve unleashed. The kawaii paradigm of Hey Kitty and Hatsune Miku collides with cabalistic capitalism, cataclysmic prophecy, and the ruptured realities of Lynch, Pynchon, and Philip Okay. Dick in a deviously dreamlike, metaphysical mind-melt of high-fructose, retro-futuristic, paranoid pop-art brilliance.
“Buffet Infinity”
Director: Simon Glassman
Septentrion Shadows Part, World Premiere
First-time function director and award-winning comic Simon Glassman involves Fantasia with the cosmic horror, “Buffet Infinity!” Selecting from tons of of hours of unique, low-budget TV adverts, Glassman tells the sinister story of two eating places battling it out within the city of Westridge County. Insurance coverage adverts, used automotive rivals, and plugs for an area spiritual scholar and recording artist, Langdon P. Hershey, all converge to inform the story of an increasing sinkhole, a cult, and an ever-growing restaurant that turns into unsettlingly sentient. However don’t be fooled as a result of that sinister vibe is drowned in a particular sauce that brings laughs at lightning velocity, and people who love absurdist comedy like the Canadian basic SCTV or “Tim and Eric Superior Present, Nice Job!” will certainly ask for seconds of this sure-to-be fan favourite!
“Black Canvas: My So-Referred to as Artist Life”
Director: Kazuaki Seki
North American Premiere
A younger girl who desires of changing into a manga artist enters an artwork college the place her mentor makes use of harsh strategies to push his college students into classical portray. Fearful about her tenacious trainer’s response towards her secret ardour, she’s going to study to maintain her floor and discover her place. Based mostly on an autobiographical manga by famend writer Akiko Higashimura, “Clean Canvas” is an attractive hymn to believing in our passions regardless of bumpy roads. Mei Nagano (“My Damaged Mariko”) delivers a stellar efficiency as Akiko, whereas Yo Oizumi (“I Am a Hero”) manages to stability the abusive and endearing sides of his complicated and infrequently weirdly humorous character from one other period. Director Kazuaki Seki delivers a poignant movie that embraces the worth of popular culture whereas respecting the heritage of positive arts and custom.
“Foreigner”
Director: Ava Maria Safai
World Premiere
For her debut function movie, “Foreigner,” Ava Maria Safai expertly harnesses the facility of identification, social acceptance, horror, and comedy. It’s 2004, and Iranian immigrant Yasamin, or Yasi, is the brand new woman. Her highschool expertise is daunting, as she tries to enhance her English by watching her favourite sitcom and befriends a trio of pastel-clad women who feed Yasi’s want to slot in. Determined for acceptance, she dyes her hair blonde and, in doing so, additionally attracts a demonic drive. With a enjoyable retro setting, nice performances by Rose Dehgan as Yasi, Chloë MacLeod because the creepy highschool “Queen Bee” Rachel, and a mix of our favourite teen horrors, “Foreigner” takes up area as a brand new entry to “bubblegum horror,” bringing a recent narrative to the Canadian immigrant expertise.
“Cardboard Metropolis”
World Premiere
In Longueuil, a poet (Jean-Marc Desgent) stubbornly refuses to promote his home to a predatory, if not barely unhinged, actual property developer (Pierre Curzi, “The Decline of the American Empire”). However the combat isn’t new: In 1969, Longueuil absorbed the a lot bigger, and poorer, metropolis of Jacques-Cartier, the place many individuals had constructed their houses with the supplies obtainable to them. Standing sturdy in opposition to the risk to his neighborhood, Desgent tells the tales of those ladies and men who constructed his metropolis. In “Cardboard Metropolis” (“Ville jacque carton”), Jean-Marc E. Roy (“Bleu tonnerre,” “Crème de menthe”) and André Forcier (“Ababouiné,” “Au clair de la Lune”) be a part of forces to create an oddball movie the place actuality and fiction mix on a backdrop of poetry. Right here, household images and archival footage share the highlight with stellar performances from a few of Quebec’s most beloved actors, together with Gaston Lepage, France Castel, Sandrine Bisson, Charlotte Aubin, and Michèle Deslauriers. It’s humorous, stunning, and touching, however above all, it’s an ode to our individuals, our historical past, and our resilience.
“The Woman Who Stole Time”
Administrators: Yu Ao and Zhou Tienan
Animation Plus Part, North American Premiere
“This very second of being collectively is the gentlest magic now we have in opposition to time.” Impressed by their very own expertise with sudden loss, writer-directors Yu Ao and Zhou Tienan created “The Woman Who Stole Time” as a heartfelt response to impermanence. Qian Xiao, a cheerful woman from a fishing village, obtains a mysterious pendant, the Time Dial, which supplies her the facility to manage time. However her new capability attracts hazard, together with Seventeen, a cold-faced murderer. When their paths collide, a shocking journey begins. With an impressive voice forged together with Liu Xiaoyu (“Arcane”), Wang Junkai (“The Nice Wall”), and particular appearances by Zhou Shen (“Suzume” Chinese language theme track singer) and Huang Bo (“Loopy Stone”), this function debut {couples} top-tier animation and a strong emotional core with the co-creators’ signature comedic model, delivering a really transferring, laughing-through-tears expertise.
“Lucid”
Administrators: Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall
Septentrion Shadows Part, World Premiere
After coming to Fantasia as a brief movie chosen for the Frontierés Market Shorts to Options Lab in 2022, directing duo Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall develop the world of Mia Sunshine Jones of their darkly trippy function, “Lucid.” Mia is a rebellious artwork pupil who struggles to create the final word challenge for a demanding professor. Determined to seek out her creative voice, she takes Lucid, a sweet elixir, to entry her creativity, however faucets into one thing a lot darker. Starring Caitlin Acken Taylor, who reprises her position from the brief, and Georgia Acken (star of the 2023 Fantasia hit “The Sacrifice Recreation”), Milligan and Fendall create a surreal nightmare with a classic look that totally embraces the 90s grunge period with a punk artwork aesthetic. Utilizing reside on-set music, an eclectic forged, and a great deal of experimental and haunting visuals, the World Premiere of “Lucid” will probably be a nightmare-come-true.
“Juliet & The King”
Director: Ashkan Ragozar
My First Fantasia/Animation Plus Sections, Worldwide Premiere
Problems abound for a lovestruck monarch, a Parisian actress, and her playwright pal bringing Shakespeare to the Persian stage within the charming, animated musical comedy “Juliet & The King.” Following the bloody, mythic fantasy “The Final Fiction” (2018), the second function movie from Iranian animator Ashkan Ragozar and his workforce at Hoorakhsh Studio is one thing lighter and brighter. It’s a full of life historic flight of fancy about Nasser-al-Din Shah, Iran’s first ruler to go to Europe, in 1873, saluting his open thoughts and urge for food for the humanities, although Ragozar doesn’t spare him bouts of cartoon buffoonery. The frisky spirit of Shakespeare’s sophisticated ensemble comedies is ever-present, as are the beautiful delights of classical Persian aesthetics, as “Juliet & The King” counters the Orientalism in Western animated visions of West Asia and celebrates cross-cultural curiosity with love, laughter, and catchy tunes!
“Outdated Guys in Mattress”
Director: Jean-Pierre “JP” Bergeron
World Premiere
“Outdated Guys in Mattress” tells the story of Paul (Duff MacDonald), a 60-year-old movie historian, who meets a person (Paul James Saunders) on a relationship web site. Unfamiliar with these new methods of constructing connections, he discovers a world that’s each promising and complicated, one that may function his gateway by way of a contemporary and unpredictable journey of affection. Directing his first function on the age of 73, celebrated Quebec actor Jean-Pierre “JP” Bergeron (“Sticky Fingers”), lively for nearly 60 years on each the massive and small screens, has delivered an atypical romantic comedy that’s tender, daring, and profoundly human. Bergeron had been directed by a few of Quebec’s most necessary administrators, from André Forcier to Robert Morin, Ken Scott to Robin Spry, and with “Outdated Guys in Mattress,” he explores rarely-tread territory with nice humor and coronary heart.
Extra Second Wave Titles
“Canine of God” (Latvia)
Administrators: Raitis Ābele and Lauris Ābele
Dire omens and sexual perversions, clerical fanaticism and collective insanity — the diabolical darkish fantasy “Canine of God” is an eerie, animated people chiller from the Baltic area during which malevolent moments and sinister sights abound. The black humor that Baltic artists wield so boldly is as a lot a relentless presence because the creeping sense of dread. Official choice: Tribeca Movie Competition 2025. Animation Plus part. Canadian Premiere.
“Dui Shaw” (Bangladesh)
Director: Nuhash Humayun
Following 2023’s folk-horror anthology “Pett Kata Shaw” 4 new fearful fables from the main mild of style movie in Bangladesh, this time redirecting focus in the direction of social ills plaguing South Asia. Every of “Dui Shaw”‘s segments is strikingly distinct in theme and tone, starting from gritty and ugly to haunting, hilarious, mythic, and magically musical. Official choice: SXSW 2025 Canadian Premiere.
“Japanese Avant-Garde Pioneers” (France)
Director: Amélie Ravalec
The harrowing ghastliness of butoh dance, the freak-show surrealism of angura theatre, shockingly uncooked images, and confounding-yet-dazzling psychedelic poster design — a dive into the twisted shadows writhing beneath the rising solar within the Nineteen Sixties, charting an underground artwork motion that also echoes hauntingly in the present day. Documentaries From the Edge Part. Canadian Premiere.
“Lifehack” (UK)
Director: Ronan Corrigan
Ronan Corrigan’s thrilling debut function is a daring new entry into the Screenlife style. After scamming the daughter (Jessica Reynolds) of a ruthless crypto millionaire, a gaggle of digital troublemakers (Georgie Farmer, Yasmin Finney, Roman Hayeck-Inexperienced, and James Scholz) discover themselves entangled in a heist for his or her lives. Produced by Timur Bekmambetov (“Looking out”). Official choice: SXSW 2025, Overlook Movie Competition 2025. Canadian Premiere.
“Lurker” (USA)
Director: Alex Russell
When a twenty-something retail clerk (Théodore Pellerin, “Nino”) encounters a rising pop star (Archie Madekwe, “Saltburn”), he takes the chance to edge his manner into the in-crowd. However as the road between pal and fan blurs past recognition, entry and proximity grow to be a matter of life and demise. A shocking function debut, without delay unsettling and entertaining, tense and fascinating, “Lurker” is a superb deconstruction of fame and want in Instagram-driven instances. Official choice: Sundance 2025, Berlin Worldwide Movie Competition 2025, New Administrators / New Movies 2025. Canadian Premiere.
“Noise” (South Korea)
Director: Kim Soo-jin
After the disappearance of her youthful sister, a girl with a listening to obstacle experiences weird happenings and horrifying encounters when mysterious noises echo all through the constructing. With good sound design and perfectly-dosed leap scares, first time director Kim Soo-jin blends real-life anxieties with stark, supernatural parts to create real stress that by no means lets go. Official choice: Sitges Movie Competition 2024, Kosmorama Trondheim Worldwide Movie Competition 2025. Canadian Premiere.
“Reflection in a Lifeless Diamond” (Belgium-France)
Administrators: Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani
Award-winning mad geniuses of radical style storytelling, Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani (“Amer,” “Let the Corpses Tan”) have created an electrifying ode to ‘60s Euro-spy movies, telling the story of a retired agent (Italian display legend Fabio Testi) plagued with suspicions that previous enemies are lastly coming for him. An astonishing act of volcanically imaginative filmmaking that stands on the very high of an unwaveringly good filmography, the thriller options Yannick Renier (“Carnivore”), Koen De Bouw (“File Okay.”), Maria de Medeiros (“Pulp Fiction”), and the unbelievable dancer and choreographer Thi Mai Nguyen. Official choice: Berlin Worldwide Movie Competition 2025, Tribeca Movie Competition 2025. Canadian Premiere.
“The Faculty Duel” (USA)
Director: Todd Wiseman Jr.
In a near-future “Free State of Florida,” gun management is outlawed, and college shootings are at an all-time excessive. When a chance for notoriety arises, a tormented 13-year-old (Kue Lawrence, “Marshmallow”) enlists in a controversial and lethal state-sponsored competitors. A heartbreaking imaginative and prescient of the long run, it co-stars Christina Brucato (“The Menu”) and Oscar Nuñez (“The Workplace”). Winner of the fiftieth Anniversary Canal+ jury award on the 2024 Deauville Movie Competition. Canadian Premiere.
“The Serpent’s Pores and skin” (Australia)
Director: Alice Maio Mackay
Fantasia alumni Alice Maio Mackay (“T-Blockers,” “Carnage for Christmas”) returns to the competition together with her sixth function “The Serpent’s Pores and skin,” a supernatural romance that follows Anna, a younger girl who leaves her transphobic small-town, and develops a romance with a tattoo artist who she shares a supernatural connection. After by chance unleashing a demon, they have to work collectively to defeat the evil that’s killing their associates. A colourful however tender exploration of affection, gender identification, and private development. Official choice: Frameline Movie Competition 2025. Underground Part. Canadian Premiere.
“Collectively” (USA)
Director: Michael Shanks
Years into their relationship, Tim and Millie (Dave Franco and Alison Brie) discover themselves at a crossroads as they transfer to the nation, abandoning all that’s acquainted of their lives besides one another. With tensions already flaring, a nightmarish encounter with a mysterious, unnatural drive threatens to deprave their lives, their love, and their flesh. A wise, stunning marriage of physique horror and troubled-relationship examine. Official choice: Sundance 2025, SXSW 2025. Canadian Premiere.
“Transcending Dimensions” (Japan)
Director: Toshiaki Toyoda
A nihilistic hitman seeking a lacking monk confronts a sadistic sorcerer on this potent mix of movie noir, sci-fi, supernatural fight, deadpan comedy, and existential weirdness. A gleefully offbeat brain-twister peppered with mysticism and mayhem from the director of “Blue Spring” and “9 Souls.” Official choice: Rotterdam Worldwide Movie Competition 2025, Golden Horse Implausible Movie Competition 2025 Canadian Premiere.
“The Wailing” (Spain)
Director: Pedro Martín-Calero
A number of generations of girls, separated by time and area, are stalked by the identical terrifying curse. One of many scariest movies of the final 12 months, vibrantly informed in a multi-chapter construction, going down in Spain and Argentina throughout durations many years aside, showcasing a trio of putting lead performances from Ester Expósito (“Venus”), Mathilde Ollivier (“Overlord”), and Malena Villa (“El Angel”). Official Choice: San Sebastián Worldwide Movie Competition 2024, BFI London 2024, Hong Kong Worldwide Movie Competition 2025. Canadian Premiere.