Fantasia 2009

The Fantasia International Film Festival is ripe off the vine and ready for picking. The festival is in Montreal, last three weeks starting this Thursday July 9, 2009 and boast a line up of genre delights from horror, sci-fi, martial arts, documentaries and more. Let's have a look, shall we?

Vampires
Highly anticipated and straight from Cannes comes Thirst, directed by Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) taking a new spin on the vampire genre throwing in medical experimentation and religion to the mix, as well as playing it from a sensual angle (see the trailer here). Sounds like a perfect combination to me! We also have Lesbian Vampire Killers which debuted at #4 on the UK box office in March 2009, and I keep hoping this is lesbians who kill vampires, but alas is is vampire hunters killing lesbian vampires. Well, there will always be more vampires films in the future! Crossing the vampire and monster world we have the Japanese film Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl, based on a manga by Shungiku Uchida.

Zombies
Kicking up red snow everywhere, Dead Snow the Norwegian film with Nazi zombies as been buzzing all over the online world. A twist and taste of real, Reel Zombies has a quote in the trailer that sums up the idea quite well: "You are making a zombie movie, during the zombie apocalypse?". Why not make zombies work for you for a change? That sounds pretty awesome to me.

Hong Kong Cinema: 100 Years
As a celebration of 100 years since the release of the first narrative film in the former British colony of Hong Kong, the festival has included a Spotlight on Hong Kong and amongst the titles at this years festival are The Warlords directed by Peter Chan, starring Jet Li and Andy Lau and Ip Man directed by Wilson Yip (Flash Point / Dao huo xian), starring Donnie Yen and Simon Yam. What a treat festival goers are in for with this program!

Monsters, Aliens, Oh My!
Nothing says funny like a spoofing sci fi which is the funnest of Alien Trespass, not only spoofing but taking it classic with 1950's style. Keeping it period we also have the horror comedy I Sell the Dead from director Glenn McQuaid and starring Dominic Monaghan, Ron Perlman, Larry Fressenden and Brenda Cooney. If you are looking for pure classic they are showing a 35m print of the 1961 Japanese monster classic Mothra.

Horror
This is the perfect festival to celebrate Halloween films on any day and you can with Trick 'r Treat starring Anna Paquin and Dylan Baker. Want to be too creeped out sleep? Then you might want to try Nightmare Detective 2, sequel to Shinya Tsukamoto's Nightmare Detective / Akumu Tantei. In the kids-can-be-so-creepy department, get a sneak peek at the upcoming Orphan.

Double the Fun
A double bill of fantastic proportions will head to the festival on Saturday July 25, 2009 with Best Worst Movie, a hilarious documentary on the phenomenah of the cult-classic/worst movie ever: Troll 2. The second part of the double bill? Troll 2, of course! Also doubling up, but not on the same night are two Clive Barker books to film adapatations. Book of Blood, directed by John Harrison is an adaptation of two Clive Barker short stories "On Jerusalem Street" and "The Book of Blood". The second is Dread, directed by Anthony DiBlasi and stars Shaun Evans, Hanne Steen and Jackson Rathbone (Twilight)

On a final note, I'd love to hear how the sweet looking romantic comedy Fine, Totally Fine got into the mix? It looks completely charming from the trailer.

This is just a mere sampling of the over 100 feature films at the festival during its three week run. Tickets go on sale today, July 7th 2009. For more information check the website for Films and Schedule, Guests, Jury, Venue and Ticket Information. Above links are to English version of the site, and are all also available under the French Site.

The Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 9 - 29, 2009 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Telluride 2008

Now in its 35th year, the Telluride Film Festival continues to appear as one exciting place to be. This four day festival surrounds itself in mystery, even getting to there is an event itself and it is suggested to travelling from neighbouring towns in Colorado. So what are the films, you ask? That is what I wanted to know as well but they aren't revealed until day before it begins. Talk about an adventure! To top it all off, press have to pay to get in - there is no press pass there. Passes tend to sell out usually in early summer and the price range is $340-$3900 USD.

All of these factors contribute to the exclusive, but intimate setting that surrounds the festival. What I found really interesting is once the festival begins the secret mentality is completely gone and you then become privy to information that a lot of festivals will not tell you in advance such as is the screening has a Q&A (indicated in the program guide), and monitors around town that indicates the total capacity of the theatres and how many seats have been handed out (source: /Film). So, if you have a pass you pick up a voucher at the theatre instead of waiting in line and then possibly not getting in. I'd love to see both of these ideas incorporated to more festival as they would greatly help in the planning your festival adventure.

All of that, and finally the films! There is a fantastic selection of films many of which are critically acclaimed. A number of the films in the feature film line up (see full list below) will also be shown at the Toronto International Film Festival including Adam Resurrected, Firaaq, Flame & Citron, Gomorrah, Happy-Go-Lucky, Hunger, Kisses, O’Horten, Tulpan, Waltz with Bashir, Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love and The Good, the Bad and the Weird. Only one of them is on my TIFF roster which is Kisses and I'll be sure to let you know all about it.

This is a festival I'd surely like to go to in the future, but as I'm not there this year check out coverage at these fellow film sites: /Film (includes video posts), SpoutBlog and FirstShowing.net.

2008 Telluride Feature Film Line up:

Adam Resurrected
American Violet
Bread Day
Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood
Dvortsevoy’s Nomadic Journeys
Elmer Gantry
The Emigrants
Everlasting Moments
The Fall of Berlin
Firaaq
Flame & Citron
Frozen Dream, A
Gomorrah
The Good, the Bad and the Weird
The Great Sacrifice
Happy-Go-Lucky
Helen
Here is Your Life
Highway
Hunger
In the Dark
Innocence Unprotected
The Italian Straw Hat
I’ve Loved You So Long
Kisses
The Last Command
Laughing ‘Til It Hurts
Learning Gravity
Lola Montes
Mary Pickford
Nightmare Alley
The New Land
O’Horten
On Dangerous Ground
Paradise
Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, A
Philanthropy
Pirate for the Sea
Private Century
Prodigal Sons
The Rest Is Silence
Revanche
Seconds
So Long at the Fair
Spotlight on Nae Caranfil
Tribute to David Fincher, A
Tribute to Jan Troell, A
Tribute to Jean Simmons, A
Tulpan
12 Canoes
Waltz with Bashir
With a Little Help From Myself
You Must Remember This
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
Zodiac





The Telluride Film Festival 2008 ran from August 29 - September 1/08 in Telluride, Colorado, USA.

Fan Expo 2008 - August 22 - 24, 2008

I tell ya, the Fan Expo is where I'd like to be this weekend.

Fan Expo
August 22 - 24, 2008 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Why go?

Guests Galore
Buzz Aldrin, Brent Spiner, Kate Mulgrew, Jamie Bamber, Edward James Olmos, Henry Wrinkler, Wes Craven, Sid Haig, Bruce McDonald, Hugh Dillon, Brad Dourif, Ruggero Deadato, Kristy Swanson, Linnea Quigly, Shawnee Smith, Lloyd Kaufman, Sean Astin and many more.

5 expos in One for all your needs:
Comic Book Expo 2008
SFX 2008 Science Fiction Expo
Rue Morgue Festival of Fear Horror Expo
2008 CNAnime Expo
GX 2008 Gaming Expo

Midnight Madness 2008
Midnight Madness is one of the most exciting film line ups of the year, and you will be able to purchase single tickets for all the Midnight Madness films for TIFF'08 before they go on sale Sept 3rd, as well as pick up Midnight Madness Packages (1 ticket per midnight screening).

Toronto After Dark Sneak Preview!



The official first announcement for Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2008 will be Tuesday August 26, 2008 but if you drop by Booth #1143 in the Festival of Fear section you can get a sneak preview to the feature film line up. Also, don't miss the chance to participate in the draw for the giveaway contest to win a Festival VIP Pass worth over $100. Don't miss your chance, this is one of the scariest, funnest festivals in Toronto. Want to know what the experience is like? Check out Movie Moxie coverage of the 2007 festival.

The Pit and the Pendulum released on DVD
This fantastic short film has played at over 100 film festivals and I had the opportunity to see it at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival in 2007 (see review here). Buy your copy before the August 25, 2008 release day by visiting Booth #1216 . More info on The Pit and the Pendulum here.

Rue Morgue Festival of Fear National Horror Expo
This is one of the five expos included in the event and not only do they have guest and evens galore, there are also off site screenings include the following intimate evenings:

Sins of a Supervixen: An Intimate Evening with Tura Santana, including a screening Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! - Friday Aug 22/08 9:00PM at The Bloor.

American Monsters: An Intimate Evening with Tobe Hooper, including a screening of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Sunday Aug 24/08 9:00PM at The Bloor.