By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Anyone who regularly attends Montreal’s Fantasia festival knows how important cats are to its audiences, and the poster for the 2018 edition has been designed accordingly. Check it out, along with news on the initial films slated to show there, after the jump!
The 22nd Fantasia fest takes place July 12-August 1 at the Canadian city’s Concordia University, Cinémathèque Québécoise and McCord Museum. Its poster, seen below, was created by the event’s regular artist Donald Caron. The films slated to screen there include SUMMER OF ’84 (pictured above), from the RKSS team of François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissel, whose TURBO KID was the first feature to result from Fantasia’s Frontières International Co-Production Market, and had a raucous world premiere at the 2015 edition. SUMMER OF ’84 is about a group of young friends who suspect a neighbor of being a serial killer, and get into hot water when they take it upon themselves to investigate him.
“François, Anouk and Yoann are absolute family to us here,” says 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 [by Matt Leslie and Stephen J. Smith]. They’ve knocked it hard out of the park. There’s nothing they can’t do.”
More Quebecois talent will be showcased in MONTREAL DEAD END, an anthology feature making its North American premiere at Fantasia after a successful world premiere at this past weekend’s Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival. It features segments by 18 up-and-coming local filmmakers, including Rémi Fréchette, Eve Dufaud, Jimmy Pettigrew and Priscillia Piccoli. Look for lots more Fantasia news in the coming weeks, and see the fest’s website here!
I’ve heard rumors that the film Pledge will be debuting at the Festival—I know one of the actors and have seen the trailer—it looks amazing—hope it’s gonna be there—I CAN NOT WAIT!