Fantasia offers viewers
quite a lineup in 2024
World Premiere of André Forcier’s Ababouiné to close 28th Fantasia Festival
July 15, 2024
The Montreal Fantasia International Film Festival, running from July 18 to August 4, 2024, offers a rich and varied program for its 28th edition. The festival will present over 125 feature films and more than 200 short films for audiences to discover in premiere screenings. The festival has announced that ABABOUINÉ, the latest film from iconoclastic Quebec director André Forcier, will close its 28th edition on August 4 with a world premiere.
With a rich and varied program, the 28th edition of the Fantasia Festival promises to be an unmissable event for genre cinema enthusiasts.
This year, the festival opens spectacularly with the world premiere of Ant Timpson’s BOOKWORM, a film that promises to captivate audiences from the start of the event. A selection of must-see films, including “Bookworm” and “Jour de chasse” (Hunting Day), showcases the quality and diversity of the works presented.

A Samurai in Time – Junishi Yasuda
The Montreal genre film festival will present over 125 feature films and 200 short films.
A highlight of the festival will undoubtedly be the presence of legendary American producer Charles Band, founder of Empire Pictures and Full Moon Productions. Festival-goers will have the unique opportunity to attend a talk with this pioneer of genre cinema and discover the world premiere of his film “The Primevals”.
With this rich and varied program, the 28th edition of the Fantasia Festival promises to be an unmissable event for genre cinema enthusiasts, once again set to make Montreal pulse to the rhythm of fantasy, horror, and the imaginative during three intense weeks.
André Forcier’s Ababouiné to close the festival
André Forcier’s film ABABOUINÉ will close the 28th edition of the Fantasia Festival with its world premiere. This work by the iconoclastic Quebec director will mark the end of the event on August 4th. The screening of this feature film will be a highlight concluding the international film festival in Montreal, offering audiences the first look at Forcier’s new creation.

Ababouine – André Forcier
With ABABOUINÉ, the filmmaker revisits a dark period in Quebec’s history. The film takes us back to the 1950s, when the Catholic Church ruled Quebec with an iron fist, and a group of turbulent youths goes to war against the Church. With a skilled hand, the veteran director navigates between the historical abuses of the Church and the hope of a society on the brink of change – with sensitivity, humour, and a lot of heart.
The film brings together a large cast and stars, among others, Éric Bruneau, Rémi Brideau, Rémy Girard, Gaston Lepage, Maïla Valentir, Lilou Roy-Lanouette, Martin Dubreuil, Pascale Montpetit, and Mylène Mackay. The entire team will be reunited for the world premiere on August 4 at Concordia University, an event during which Forcier will also receive the Denis Héroux Award for his lifetime achievement.
Honorary Career Award to Mike Flanagan
Fantasia will present its 2024 Cheval Noir career award to American filmmaker Mike Flanagan this year. In addition to being one of the most inspired storytellers of his generation, Mike Flanagan is a true master of horror who has changed the landscape of the genre since 2011.

Witchboard – Chuck Russell
Flanagan has notably offered audiences modern classics such as OCULUS, HUSH, BEFORE I WAKE, OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL, GERALD’S GAME, and DOCTOR SLEEP, as well as Netflix miniseries The Haunting of Hill House (2018), The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020), Midnight Mass (2021), The Midnight Club (2022), and The Fall of the House of Usher (2023). His upcoming film, THE LIFE OF CHUCK, an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, will hit theatres later this year and will star Tom Hiddleston, Mark Hamill, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
An otherworldly meditation on grief
A 23-year-old woman (Megan Northam) is contacted by an unknown life form claiming to be able to bring her missing astronaut brother back to Earth. With MEANWHILE ON EARTH (PENDANT CE TEMPS SUR LA TERRE), presented in its North American premiere after its world premiere in Berlin earlier this year, Jérémy Clapin makes his live-action debut following his Oscar-nominated animated film I LOST MY BODY, with an inversion of classic science fiction: a slice of life on Earth while an extraordinary man is out there, far beyond the solar system. The live-action is interspersed with animation sequences that plunge the viewer into the mental space linking the siblings.
A slow-burn nightmare
A perfectly calculated, slow-burn nightmare that starts as an independent documentary and gradually evolves into something exceptionally sinister, IN OUR BLOOD is the first narrative feature from Oscar-nominated documentarian Pedro Kos (REBEL HEARTS, LEAD ME HOME).

Electrophilia – Lucia Puenzo
Nothing is as it seems when filmmaker Emily Wyland (Brittany O’Grady from The White Lotus) teams up with cinematographer Danny (E. J. Bonilla, The Old Man) to shoot an intimate documentary about her reunion with her mother (Alanna Ubach, Euphoria) after a decade of absence. When her mother suddenly disappears, Emily and Danny must piece together increasingly disturbing clues, hoping to find her before it’s too late. Sad, harrowing, and incredibly convincing.
A Colorful Array of Films
Among the many titles announced, we also find: FRANKIE FREAKO, the new film from director Steven Kostanski; the fourth installment in the South Korean action series THE ROUNDUP: PUNISHMENT, starring Fantasia regular Ma Dong-seok; the perplexing horror thriller CUCKOO, featuring Hunter Schaefer (Euphoria); 4PM, a South Korean thriller inspired by Amélie Nothomb’s novel The Stranger Next Door; A LEGEND, a kung-fu film starring Jackie Chan and directed by Stanley Tong; and THE G, a revenge thriller starring actress Dale Dickey (WINTER’S BONE), Romane Denis (SLAXX), and Roc Lafortune (LES BOYS), directed by Montreal’s own Karl R. Hearne.

Voïvod: We Are Connected – Felipe Belalcazar
Let’s recall that Fantasia has already announced numerous titles in recent months, including the Canadian premiere of JOUR DE CHASSE (Hunting Day) by Annick Blanc, THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO by Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte, the opening film BOOKWORM starring Elijah Wood, the new film from the Quebec trio RKSS WAKE UP, WITCHBOARD by Chuck Russell, and the documentary VOIVOD: WE ARE CONNECTED by Felipe Belalcazar.
28th Montreal Fantasia International Film Festival
True to its reputation, Fantasia 2024 will offer a cinematic journey beyond Hollywood’s borders, highlighting imaginative works from Asia, Europe, and the Americas. This diversity is one of the festival’s trademarks, offering viewers a window into genre cinema from around the world.
Screenings and events will take place primarily at Concordia University, at the Concordia Hall Cinema, as well as at the J.A. DeSève Cinema, the Cinémathèque québécoise, and the Cinéma du Musée. The festival has taken care to offer a mix of paid and free activities, making the event accessible to a wide audience and allowing everyone to experience Fantasia in their own way.
The 28th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival is presented by Vidéotron in collaboration with Desjardins and is made possible thanks to the financial support of the Conseil des arts de Montréal, the Government of Quebec, SODEC, Telefilm Canada, Tourisme Montréal, and the City of Montreal.
28th Montreal Fantasia International Film Festival
July 18 to August 4, 2024
For more information and the complete list of titles, visit www.fantasiafestival.com
Images: Courtesy of Festival International du Film Fantasia de Montréal
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Fantasia International Film Festival is the largest genre film festival in North America. Founded in 1996, Fantasia presents around a hundred feature films from about twenty countries. Fantasia primarily focuses on fantasy cinema, action, horror, science fiction, and animation, but also showcases works considered unclassifiable due to their great eccentricity. www.fantasiafestival.com
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