The Fantasia International Film Festival has granted us its first poster AND released its first two Quebec titles! This will be the 22nd edition of Fantasia, running from July 12th to August 1st, 2018. It is located at Concordia University, The Cinémathèque Québécoise, and The McCord Museum during this time.
Montreal Illustrator and Fantasia artist since 2011 Donald Caron has created this year’s whimsical poster:
Fantasia provides a prominent showcase and a celebration for Quebec cinema by presenting dozens of shorts by local creators, as well as a selection of feature films from Quebec. In addition, the festival pays tribute to a key figure in the Quebec film industry with its Denis Héroux Award, which has been granted since 2016 to a local creator to mark exceptional contributions to the development of genre and independent cinema in Quebec.
This year, the first confirmed feature comes from seasoned Quebec filmmaking trio François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissel. They follow up their 2015 feature debut Turbo Kid with a premiere of their acclaimed thriller Summer of ’84- a Sundance smash hit starring Mad Men’s Rich Sommer. This feature is a gala Opening Weekend event. The film, set in mid-80s suburbia, is sure to grip audiences with what is the most stylistically innovative approach from these filmmakers to date.
“François, Anouk, and Yoann are absolute family to us here,” said Fantasia Co-Director Mitch Davis. “In many ways, they’re a spearhead of a generation for Quebec fantastic filmmakers who grew up at Fantasia and are now stunning the world. We’ve been showing their work since 2008 and we’re thrilled to be presenting SUMMER OF ’84’s Canadian Premiere. We adore everything that it represents, while showing RKSS’ striking versatility as storytellers and marking their first time directing a third party screenplay. They’ve knocked it hard out of the park. There’s nothing they can’t do.”
The second feature will be a premiere of the feature Montreal Dead End, after a World Premiere in Belgium this past weekend at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival. Montreal Dead End is horror film directed by 18 emerging filmmakers, Hugo Belhassen, Audric Cussigh, Julie De Lafrenière, Tiphaine DeReyer, Eve Dufaud, Rémi Fréchette, Emilie Gauthier, Mara Joly, Quentin Lecocq, Charles Massicotte, Mickael N’Dour, Jimmy G. Pettigrew, Priscillia Piccoli, Gaëlle Quemener, Loïc Surprenant, Frederick Neegan Trudel, Catherine Villeminot, and David Émond-Ferrat, Fantasia excitedly proclaims that “Montreal Dead End is more than a film – it is the manifesto of a rising generation of filmmakers who loudly and proudly shout their love and their desire to make cutting-edge genre cinema in Quebec.”
Stay tuned for more news from Fantasia regarding line-up, events, and more here at Sinful Celluloid!
—Muertana
sinfulcelluloid 