2. Fantasia International Film Festival // Montréal, Quebec, Canada // July 2018
“Whenever the lights go down at Fantasia and the ‘meows’ begin, you know you’re in for something terrific,” says a panelist, stressing the Montreal-based genre circuit centerpiece’s infectious communal vibe. “Filmmakers will never feel more at home anywhere else,” adds a panelist, with another praising its “contagious energy.” A marathon of macabre moviemaking, Fantasia runs over three weeks, the longest of its kind in duration, and showcases at least 120 features and hundreds of shorts. South Korean gems like Train to Busan are a small taste of what attendees can expect from what one panelist proclaims to be “the absolute best in Asian discoveries.” Fantasia is also home of Frontières, an international co-production market and networking platform devoted to genre film financing and co-production between Europe and North America that has become an industry juggernaut.
Actor Michael Moriarty and moviemaker Larry Cohen at Fantasia’s world premiere of Steve Mitchell’s King Cohen, where Cohen received a Lifetime Achievement Award. Photograph by King-Wei Chu
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