It is July, and that means it is time for the Fantasia International Film Festival. It’s one of my favorite film events to cover, as it always introduces me to new faces in the world of speculative genres. This year’s Fantasia has films from some big names—Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow), Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive), Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Pulse), and Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge) among them. Today, I want to dig a bit deeper into the program, including some names that I am pleasantly surprised to see. Here are five films that might be worth putting on your radar.
The 2026 Fantasia International Film Festival runs from Thursday, July 16 to Sunday, August 2 in Montreal.
Blaise (Dimitri Planchon, Jean-Paul Guigue)
There is something about the flat, slightly off-putting art style of Blaise, which premiered in the ACID sidebar at Cannes, that has drawn my attention. Adapted from a comic strip made by its co-director Dimitri Planchon, Blaise situates family dysfunction with an aesthetic that reminds me, oddly, of Angela Anaconda (a visual design that bothered me as a child). The teaser trailer for Blaise promises droll, deadpan humor—a thing working in its favor as far as I’m concerned. This type of film festival is made for surprising discoveries, and Blaise could be one.
Blaise will have its North American Premiere in the Animation Plus section.
Buddy (Casper Kelly)
Casper Kelly may be best known for his sketch comedy short Too Many Cooks, but he has had a long career making inventive media that blends comedy and horror. In 1999, he made bumpers for Cartoon Network that put the popular characters of the Scooby-Doo gang into grainy Blair Witch Project style scenarios (just imagine being a 10-year-old watching a Polly Pocket commercial, then all of a sudden Shaggy is getting terrorized in the woods in fuzzy black-and-white).
More recently, Kelly made a pair of films that took the concept of a holiday yule log and twisted it into a dark, gory horror-comedy film. And his short in the most recent V/H/S installment was the best of the bunch (faint praise, but praise nevertheless). Judging solely on the poster art for Buddy, I fully expect the film to continue Kelly’s trend toward macabre humor and surrealist horror. (It also stars Cristin Milioti, Topher Grace, Keegan-Michael Key, Patton Oswalt, and Michael Shannon…a good ensemble).
Buddy will have its International Premiere in the Horizon 2026 section.
Dance Freak (Alan Resnick, Robby Rackleff)
Sometimes people say the phrase, “in the bag,” referencing some thing or other that they feel is a sure thing. I sometimes use the phrase “in the bag for…” when I feel it is a sure thing that I will like some thing. I do this without really understanding the metaphorical image the idiom is meant to evoke. Merriam-Webster describes the phrase as indicating something is “sure, certain.” I’m not too sure or certain what being inside a bag has to do with assurance or certainty. The dictionary also defines it as “drunk,” as in, “having the faculties impaired by alcohol.” Maybe this implies that having alcohol in your bag at the grocery store means you are certain to have a good time that night, but that is not always the case. When Alan Resnick talks, it makes me feel like I’m drunk. So I must be “in the bag for” his new feature film (written and co-directed by his long-time collaborator, Robby Rackleff), Dance Freak.
Dance Freak will have its Canadian Premiere in the Underground section.
The Seoul Guardians (Kim Jong-woo, Kim Shin-wan, Cho Chul-young)
A festival whose name evokes the fantastic does not necessarily cause one to think of documentary (although Fantasia does boast a series dedicated to documentaries), and The Seoul Guardians may be outside of what Fantasia normally programs. But it sounds fascinating. Situated like a thriller film, the doc covers the events of December 3, 2024, when martial law was declared in South Korea by President Yoon Suk-yeol. Capturing the events as they unfolded, the film illustrates the lengths to which people will go to protect Democracy.
The Seoul Guardians will have its Quebec Premiere in the Documentaries from the Edge section.
You Are the Film (Makoto Ueda)
I am only familiar with Makoto Ueda from his collaborations with Junta Yamaguchi on films Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes and River. Those are both inventive, creative scripts that flow with a unique energy. This leaves me curious about You Are the Film, a film Ueda is directing on top of scripting. There appears to be a similar reflexivity to the film as the previous two I mentioned, albeit without a time loop as part of its premise. Film is a medium in which people connect; with this film, that may be a sentiment taken literally.
You Are the Film will have its North American Premiere in the Horizon 2026 section.
As always, thanks for reading!
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