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Fantasia International Film Festival 2026 — Lineup Preview


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 Continue reading Fantasia International Film Festival 2026 — Lineup Preview →

Lists, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Fantasia Festival 2021 Lineup Preview

Last year, CineFiles covered the Fantasia International Film Festival for the first time. Due to everything occurring in the world in 2020, the festival went virtual, allowing someone without the means or adequate free time to attend an in-person festival in Montreal (i.e., myself) a chance to experience a cavalcade of fresh, original genre film content.

That festival screened some great films. Arthur Jones’ documentary Feels Good Man, which shined a light into the cavernous darkness of the internet. Special Actors, Shinichiro Ueda’s follow up to the inventive horror comedy One Cut of the Dead, itself an inventive and fun film with a knotty plot. And Nobuhiko Ôbayashi’s swan song, Labyrinth of Cinema, a life-affirming and melancholic exploration of life, history, and the cinema (I believe its U.S. release date technically makes it a 2021 film for the purposes of my best of the year list, so stay tuned…).

2021’s Fantasia Festival begins on August 5, and we will be covering it again from the comfort of our own homes. This year’s festival will be a hybrid, so there are selections which can be watched on demand through the festival’s website. You can see Continue reading Fantasia Festival 2021 Lineup Preview →