Our Five Most Anticipated Films Premiering At The 2025 Fantasia Film Festival
The Fantasia International Film Festival typically features incredible foreign, horror, animated, and some of the best and weirdest films every year. During the pandemic, they became more lenient with remote coverage. Since the actual film festival takes place in Montreal, Quebec, over two weeks, covering it from home is the best option.
Typically, a screener or digital library from a film festival is a selection of titles made available for remote coverage. Bigger and more recognizable films, like Eddington, Together, and Smurfs at this year’s Fantasia, likely won’t have screening links because we’re either too close to the film’s actual release date, or the studio doesn’t want the film covered from home for whatever reason (piracy concerns or the push to see the film in theaters, usually).
Press doesn’t know what titles are available until we’re granted access to the screening library, and we aren’t allowed to share what titles are in the library. It’s best to make a big list of what titles you’d like to see based on Fantasia’s program, so you have an idea of what you’d like to watch when the digital library is accessible. The lists I make are generally 30-40 titles long, and generally only half of that is available. Even if nothing you initially picked out is available, there are always gems in what Fantasia offers. Fantasia would be my favorite film festival if I were ever able to attend in person.
This year’s Fantasia Film Festival runs from July 16 to August 3.
RELATED: Fantasia Film Festival 2024: ‘A Samurai in Time’ Review – A Perfect Time-Traveling Comedy
I generally don’t try to cover episodic TV shows or anime titles at festivals, but Nyaight of the Living Cat sounds incredible. Based on the 2020 manga of the same name, the premise is that people who snuggle with cats turn into them, and it becomes a worldwide epidemic. The anime series has Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer) as the chief director. Two other Miike films will be playing this year’s Fantasia as well – Sham and Blazing Fists. Nyaight of the Living Cat started airing on Crunchyroll on July 7.
Mexico’s first stop-motion animated film was written, directed, and produced by Roy and Arturo Ambriz, who are protégés of Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pacific Rim). The film sounds like it bridges two worlds: one of a writer in 19th-century Mexico and another overflowing with nightmarish imagination.
RELATED: Fantasia Film Festival 2024 ‘Sunburnt Unicorn’ Review – Alluring Low-Budget Animation
Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy
A series of death games begins playing out exactly as it does in the web novel Dok-ja has just finished reading. The trailer of this was recently sent to me, and it looks great with some impressive special effects. Plus, you can never go wrong with kaiju, tentacles, and giant fish.
Studio 4°C (Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko, Poupelle of Chimney Town) comes to Fantasia with two titles. The other being All You Need Is Kill, which is based on the book that inspired Edge of Tomorrow (and also sounds cool). ChaO sounds like it’s in the same vein as Ponyo, Deep Sea, and Lu Over the Wall. Set in Shanghai in the future, the film dives into how humans and merfolk came to coexist.
Despite being one of the bigger films at Fantasia this year, I’m hoping it’s available to review since it drops on Netflix August 13. An R-rated hand-drawn Genndy Tartakovsky (Primal, Samurai Jack) film about a dog living one last night of debauchery before he’s neutered the following day.
Honorable Mentions:
