- ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS?

Please check our FAQ: https://fantasiafestival.com/en/submissions/submissions-faq
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- WHO ARE WE?

Fantasia is a legendary 3-week blow-out of worldwide fantastic cinema taking place each July in the heart of Montreal. An event hell-bent on showcasing the most exciting, innovative and individualistic examples of contemporary international genre cinema from every corner of the globe.
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- WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR?

While predominantly a fantasy/action/horror festival, Fantasia has always embraced works whose sheer individuality puts them in a genre of their own. We’ve showcased everything from captivating dramas, eccentric comedies, provocative documentaries, mind-blowing experimental works, even atypical children’s films.

We encourage filmmakers of all backgrounds and obsessions to submit their work. Films coming from underrepresented horizons are always of interest.

Explore our previous lineups to get a sense of our programming. We’re pretty broad-minded!
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- TESTIMONIALS :

“Fantasia is the most important and prestigious genre film festival on this continent.” — Quentin Tarantino

“Fantasia is a shrine” — Guillermo del Toro

“Fantasia remains to this day one of my very favorite film festivals in the world.” — James Gunn

“I promise to make more genre films just so I can get invited back.” — Edgar Wright

"Fantasia has some of the best audiences and programming out there. As a distributor, it's an essential stop for the latest in genre cinema." — MAGNOLIA PICTURES

"One of the most exciting genre film festivals in the world. It is in Montreal that we might discover the next Eraserhead" — PREMIERE MAGAZINE

"One of Canada's hotter film events" — VARIETY

"Mammoth...The world's largest genre film festival" — INDIEWIRE

"The largest festival of its kind on this continent. The sheer number of discoveries is astonishing." — FANGORIA MAGAZINE

"Top notch... people line up around the block for hours in wait to see a film" — FILM THREAT

"If I missed Fantasia I'd drive an icepick into my brain" — RUE MORGUE MAGAZINE
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- HISTORY & SELECT SUCCESS STORIES :

Since its inception in 1996, Fantasia has become a hugely popular Montreal summer tradition for over 110 000 festival-goers to spend 3 weeks being amazed by sensational celluloid from all over the world.

Over the years, Fantasia has proven itself to be one of the largest and the most cutting edge festivals of its kind. Among our accomplishments, Fantasia is regularly cited as the place where the J-horror craze began in this part of the world - our North American Premiere of RINGU led directly to Dreamworks acquiring the film and producing its blockbuster remake, and Fantasia was also the first festival in North America to screen a film by Takashi Miike.

Some other programming coups? We were the first festival in the world to show work from a then-19-year-old Adam Wingard when we world premiered his feature debut HOME SICK, our World Premiere of PERFECT BLUE launched the career of Satoshi Kon, our World Premiere of THE MIDNIGHT SWIM launched Sarah Adina Smith and our Canadian premiere of PI marked the first time a film by Darren Aronofsky was shown in Canada.

In 2017, our International premiere of Nico van den Brink’s short SWEET TOOTH led directly to the gifted Dutch filmmaker being signed to Paradigm, with James Wan teaming up with him to make a feature adaptation of the film at New Line. In 2018, our International Premiere of David-Jan Bronsgees' short MEET JIMMY led to the filmmaker signing up with Paramount and Platinum Dunes for a feature-length adaptation. Our World Premiere of Daniel Goldhaber’s brilliant feature debut CAM saw the film brought by Netflix. More recently, Fantasia launched the Adams Family into genre stardom with our World Premiere of THE DEEPER YOU DIG (and subsequent World Premieres of HELLBENDER and WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS). Our 2022 World Premiere of Kyle Edward Ball's singular instant-classic SKINAMARINK lead to the film's acquisition and enormously successful release by IFC and Shudder.

World Premieres from our 2023 edition included Jared Moshe’s APORIA, Yuval Adler’s SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL, Jenn Wexler’s THE SACRIFICE GAME, Lim Sun-ae’s MS. APOCALYPSE, Larry Fessenden’s BLACKOUT, Teresa Sutherland’s LOVELY, DARK, AND DEEP, Nicholas Tomnay’s WHAT YOU WISH FOR, Yeva Strelnikova’s STAY ONLINE, Shigeyoshi Tsukahara’s KURAYUKABA, Zach Clark’s THE BECOMERS, Victor Ginzburg’s EMPIRE V, Olivier Godin’s IRLANDE CAHIER BLEU, John Rosman’s NEW LIFE, Mary Dauterman’s BOOGER, Mark H. Rapaport’s HIPPO, Hei-Yau Lin’s THE MOON, SKY AND YOU and RKSS’ WE ARE ZOMBIES.
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- OUR INTERNATIONAL CO-PRODUCTION MARKET :

In 2012, Fantasia launched the Frontières International Co-Production Market as well as a film market component. Our market lineup has since featured dazzling new projects from Joe Dante, Buddy Giovinazzo, Jacob Tierney, Bobcat Goldthwait, Dario Argento and Andrzej Zulawski, to name a few. Subsequent market projects that went into production include RKSS' TURBO KID (2015), Julia Ducournau's RAW (2016), Alexandre O. Philippe's 78/52 (2017), Robin Aubert’s LES AFFAMÉS (2017), Dominique Rocher's THE NIGHT EATS THE WORLD (2018), Lorcan Finnegan’s VIVARIUM (2019), Mike Ahern & Enda Loughman's EXTRA ORDINARY (2019), Zoe Wittock’s JUMBO (2020), Prano Bailey-Bond’s CENSOR (2021), Valdimar Jóhannson’s LAMB (2021), Hanna Bergholm’s HATCHING (2022), Kirsten Carthew’s POLARIS (2022), Nyla Innuksuk’s SLASH/BACK (2022) and Jacqueline Castel’s MY ANIMAL (2023).

To learn more about our co-production market, visit Frontières’ website here : https://frontieresmarket.com/en/
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Fantasia offers a multitude of curated award opportunities for the films it showcases.

- CHEVAL NOIR COMPETITION
Best Feature, Director, Screenwriter, Performer, Cinematography, Score

- INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM COMPETITION
Best Short, Director, Screenwriter, Performer, Cinematography, Score

- NEW FLESH COMPETITION
Best Feature (Debut Films)

- SATOSHI KON COMPETITION
Best Feature, Short (Animated Films)

- MY FIRST FANTASIA COMPETITION
Best Short (Children's Films)

- CAMERA LUCIDA COMPETITION
Best Feature ("AQCC - Quebec Critic’s Association" Award)

- ECRAN FANTASTIQUE COMPETITION
Best Feature ("Ecran Fantastique Magazine" Award)

- FANTASTIQUES WEEK-ENDS COMPETITION
Best Short, Cinematography ("Mels" Award)
Best Short ("La Location" Award)
Best Short ("Warnermedia" Award)
Best Female Director ("Spira" Award)
Best Emerging Director ("EVS" Award)
Best Visual Effects ("NAD" Award)
Best Editor ("Monteurs et Monteuses de Cinéma Canadien" Award)
Most Creative Short ("MATV" Award)
Best Emerging Producer ("AQPM" Award)
Best Director ("ARRQ" Award)

- AUDIENCE AWARDS
Best Asian Feature, Short
Best International Feature, Short
Best Canadian Feature, Short
Best Quebec Feature, Short
Best Documentary Feature, Short
Best Animated Feature, Short
Most Groundbreaking Feature, Short

- ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS?

Please check our FAQ: https://fantasiafestival.com/en/submissions/submissions-faq
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Any work produced and completed in the past 18 months prior to our upcoming edition is eligible for consideration in our general lineup, as well as for our Audience Awards, and may also potentially be placed in one of our juried competitions.

Any work made available worldwide for an online public viewing before or during our dates will be ineligible.

Any work made available for a geo-blocked virtual festival screening - outside of Canada - is still eligible.

If you are unsure if your film qualifies for our Festival, please contact Becca, our Head of Submissions, at submissions@fantasiafestival.com before submitting.

Submission fees will not be refunded under any circumstances.

If selected, all commercial/private property including all trademark/copyrighted materials shown or recorded on the project is the responsibility of the filmmaker.

By submitting an entry, filmmaker states that they are responsible as an agent to promote the film and that the film is an original work.

Participants agree that clips and images from their film may be used and/or published in the Fantasia program guide, on the Fantasia web site and for any promotional purposes which Fantasia deems appropriate.

If selected, Fantasia will cover one-way of the shipping cost of the exhibition print/video copy of your film, either incoming or outgoing.
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- ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS?

Please reach out to Becca via submissions@fantasiafestival.com

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Everything about this festival is amazing!!! I premiered my short film Saint-Sacrifice in a full house 700 people venue. Fantasia is the best!

    February 2024
  • Clara Aranovich

    Fantasia is truly a mecca of genre filmmaking. Playing here this year was a career highlight and kicked our festival run into high gear. 10/10 would screen again.

    September 2023
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    Response from festival:

    We're so glad to hear this, Clara! I hope your festival run has been equally successful!

  • Jakob Skrzypa

    Fantasia was an incredible festival experience that I'm still riding high from. An amazing festival run by amazing people who LOVE genre film.

    September 2023
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    Response from festival:

    Jakob, thank you!!

  • Heston L'Abbé

    Everything you've heard about Fantasia is true. A haven for fans of genre and Asian cinema, Fantasia is big, long, and packed with variety. I was thrilled to see many (most?) of the filmmakers in attendance, even those from abroad. Fantasia is also a proud supporter of local filmmakers and they make the space to program a lot of local talent, and hosts industry networking events. Not to be missed!

    September 2023
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you, Heston! We really appreciate your support and hope that you make it out for Summer 2024.

  • Tout à été parfait! Longue vie à ce merveilleux festival.

    September 2023
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    Response from festival:

    Merci, Donavan ! Nous espérons vous revoir :)