Volume 29, Issue 6 / June 2025

Fantasia International Film Festival, 2024

With the 2025 edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival around the corner Offscreen presents it annual coverage of this marathon genre festival which has been blessing the Montreal festival landscape since 1996.  Frédéric St-Hilaire gets the issue started with his Asian centric report, with a focus on the Japanese entries and the usual sampling of action, martial arts, comedy and anime. Chinese ghost stories are also featured and the all-out action gland slammer, Twilight of The Warriors: Walled In, set within the infamous Kowloon walled city, with its physically limiting spaces resulting in some fantastic action sequences in confined and vertical spaces. The next report features a fun selection of Canadian features that played Fantasia, ranging from trashy retro titles to an arty cryptid film. The next report, also by myself, covers some of the retro titles and special events, which always feel, well, special. Randolph Jordan contributes our fourth and final Fantasia report. Randolph Jordan listens for alien perspectives in a string of otherworldly entries from the 2024 edition of the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal. Concluding the issue is Julian Malandruccolo's report on Cannes Festival, which looks at some of the behind the scene's politcal intrigue before discussing some of the choice selections of the 2025 edition. I would feel confident in saying that over the last ten or so years Fantasia has programmed more Canadian films than any other major festival in Montreal. A major part of this are the many short films that went through the doors of the program Les Fantastiques week-ends du cinéma québécios, thanks to its founder Isabelle Gauvreau, who curated the multi-film event since its inception in 2008. With great sadness, I learned the news of Isabelle Gauvreau's passing many months after the festival, on February 18, 2025. Isabelle was like a mother figure to the dozens and dozens of young filmmakers whose films she programmed. She was loved by all the staff and crew of Fantasia and her jovial presence will be terribly missed. This issue is dedicated to her. (Donato Totaro, ed.)