Perhaps the preeminent film festival in the minds of genre aficionados, Fantasia Fest is back in 2022 at arguably the peak of its popularity, coming on the heels of last year’s 25th anniversary celebration replete with a Suicide Squad special screening. Outside of the lizard-brained pleasures and copious blood-letting its slate offers, Fantasia Fest stands out for its diverse programming, sourcing titles from all over the globe, spotlighting everything from throwback DTV actioners to Cannes selections, and engaging with both long-standing and developing film movements. In an increasingly homogenous film festival landscape built upon a foundation of Euro arthouse rehash, Fantasia Fest is a shot of adrenaline that, while quite incapable of pleasing everyone by the very nature of genre cinema, fiercely resists the soporific programming tendencies of less adventures festivals.
Which is all to say, we’re thrilled to once again be diving into Fantasia’s gonzo and gory offerings in 2022. We’ve already written about a baker’s dozen or so of these titles across various other festivals during the past calendar year, including standouts Happer’s Comet and Topology of Sirens, talked-about Cannes titles Final Cut and Next Sohee, and, fittingly, a David Lynch doc. All are linked below for your meantime reading pleasure before the fest kicks off on Thursday. Until then, you can check out the full program, find ticketing information, and more at www.fantasiafestival.com. We’ll be back soon with a whole mess of giddy dispatches over the rest of July (and likely bleeding into August), so check back early and often.
