Fantasia Fest 2025 Most-Anticipated Movies

There’s no such thing as “too much” in Montreal, but Fantasia Fest is long no matter how you slice it. Running from July 16 to August 3, the annual genre event in Québec celebrates its 29th edition this year — though it used to cover even more of the calendar.

The beloved summer film festival began in 1996 as a means of connecting Canadian cinephiles with cutting-edge films from the Asian market. Back then, audiences had several years of movies to catch up on, but now, Fantasia fuels almost three weeks of programming with stories curated from around the globe.

“Genre” filmmaking covers any highly stylized cinematic work that plays on specific tropes from sci-fi, horror, fantasy — you name it. Fantasia lures all kinds of artistic voices into its purple-hued embrace, presenting its own world premieres alongside top titles that previously played SXSW, Sundance, Tribeca, FrightFest, Sitges, and Overlook. What does well here may go on to TIFF or Fantastic in September.

Last year, I fell in love with Fantasia when a one-off history piece I wrote about the fest’s most treasured tradition turned into a practical guide for cultivating genre audiences. This year, I’m back and I’ve got jury duty for the competition’s flagship Cheval Noir category. (Yes, yes! This is the one with the horse!)

Pascal Plante won Best Film at Fantasia Fest in 2023 for “Red Rooms,” which was listed among IndieWire’s Best Horror Movies of last year. He will serve as jury president for Cheval Noir — leading deliberations between me, filmmaker Ethan Eng (“Therapy Dogs”), New York City-based writer Payton McCarty-Simas, and George Schmalz, vice president for distributor Kino Lorber.

The 14 films competing in the Cheval Noir category include “Black Canvas: My So-Called Artist Journey (Kakukaku Shikajika),” “The Book of Sijjin and Illiyyin,” “Cielo,” “Death Does Not Exist,” “Forbidden City,” “I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn,” “I Live Here Now,” “Mother of Flies,” “New Group,” “Stinker,” “Terrestrial,” “The Verdict,” “The Well,” and “The Woman.”

Unless we were supposed to be sequestered, and no one told me, I’m still hearing buzz about some of those titles and others in different categories. We’ve excluded anything I’m judging from our list, but with the first third of Fantasia already gone, these are some of the non-Cheval Noir movies with the most buzz. Major releases, including Ari Aster’s “Eddington” and Neon’s “Together,” have also been left off.

The following films are listed by screening relevance.

“The Serpent’s Skin”

Dir. Alice Maio Mackay
Next screens at Fantasia on Wednesday, July 23, and Friday, July 25

A Fantasia regular with an ungodly appetite for new projects, 20-year-old fantasist Alice Maio Mackay has already received heavy praise for her sixth film, “The Serpent’s Skin.” A demonic romance set against a small transphobic town, it’s supposedly more serious than the Australian director’s past projects, like “T Blockers” and “Carnage for Christmas.” But Canadian genre heads who have already seen the film say it’s still Mackay’s vivid style — campy, defiant, explosive — only more polished. “The People’s Joker” director Vera Drew edited the film, with “Castration Movie” genius Louise Weard producing.

“Redux Redux”

Dir. Matthew and Kevin McManus
Next screens at Fantasia on Tuesday, July 22 and Thursday, July 24

With jokes about “the worst timeline” still swirling around pop culture, “Redux Redux” builds its sci-fi world on real rage. From filmmakers Matthew and Kevin McManus, this slippery revenge story sees the brothers directing their sister, Michaela McManus, as Irene Kelly — a grieving woman who will stop at nothing to kill her daughter’s killer (Jeremy Holm). Repeatedly. She’ll jump through realities to take her revenge over and over, but what happens when the “Kill Bill”/”Groundhog Day” mashup stops? The answer wowed folks at SXSW and Overlook, and they’re still buzzing about it months later.

“LifeHack”

Dir. Ronan Corrigan
Next screens at Fantasia on Tuesday, July 29

Ronan Corrigan’s breakneck directorial debut aimed to revitalize the screenlife genre, and after playing SXSW and Overlook earlier this year, it’s done just that for festivals. Produced by Timur Bekmambetov, who also worked on “Searching” and “Unfriended,” “LifeHack” follows four teenage friends (Georgie Farmer, Yasmin Finney, Roman Hayeck-Green, James Scholz) as they get in over their heads with a cryptocurrency heist that unfolds on their desktops. That format works better for some concepts than others. Still, the digital thriller seems to have truly excited the kind of audiences who used to like supernatural Zoom hauntings — but post-pandemic want something more.

Read IndieWire’s “LifeHack” review by Christian Zilko

“Foreigner”

Dir. Ava Maria Safai
Next screens at Fantasia on Thursday, July 31, and Saturday, August 2

Shorts filmmaker Ava Maria Safai couldn’t be making her feature debut at a more powerful time politically. “Foreigner” stars Rose Deghan as Yasi, a teenage Iranian immigrant to Canada, who finds racist terror waiting for her in her new home. Mean girls Rachel (Chloë MacLeod), Emily (Victoria Wardell), and Kristen (Talisa Mae Stewart) enact a cruel assimilation/makeover on Yasi that Fantasia programmers have classified as “bubblegum horror.” Toss in the fact that this unexpected coming-of-age deconstruction is set in 2004, and you’ve got mandatory viewing for anyone who has ever yearned for an aughts-era “Jawbreaker.”

“Old Guys in Bed”

Dir. JP Bergeron
Next screens at Fantasia on Sunday, August 3

It’s not every day a filmmaker is born at age 73. With “Old Guys in Bed,” writer/director JP Bergeron brings his life experience and singular presence as a short film creator to the dating app love story of film historian Paul (Duff M) and his much older love interest, Bill (Paul James Saunders). The unique subject matter and authorship have made the movie a frequent subject of discussion among Fantasia regulars, who are looking forward to its world premiere as part of the fest’s grand finale weekend.

“Fixed”

Dir. Genndy Tartakovsky
Closing night at Fantasia on Sunday, August 3

The creator of beloved cartoons, from “Dexter’s Laboratory” to “Samurai Jack,” returns with a new animated adventure that will stream on Netflix faster than you can say, “Come here, boy!” But filmmaker Genndy Tartakovsky will premiere his dog comedy “Fixed” as the closing night event for Fantasia Fest 2025 first. The film is co-written with Jon Vitti, whose TV work includes “King of the Hill,” “The Simpsons,” and “The Office” among other favorites. From Sony Pictures, the voice cast includes Adam DeVine, Idris Elba, Kathryn Hahn, Fred Armisen, Beck Bennett, and Bobby Moynihan.

“Fucktoys”

Dir. Annapurna Sriram
Screened at Fantasia on Tuesday, July 22

Not to be confused with Megan Ellison’s indie studio or the Himalayan mountain range, Annapurna Sriram is a force of nature in her own right. The multi-hyphenate talent premiered her debut feature “Fucktoys” — about a sex worker contending with a curse in the magical Trashtown, USA — at SXSW. There, the film earned top marks from IndieWire with critic Esther Zuckerman giving it a “B” and calling it a “messy, but wholly original” genre mashup. Sriram also won the Special Jury Award for a Multi-Hyphenate at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival (where IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio was on said jury).

A juicy, disorienting, and hilarious shuffling of Tarot cards you won’t want to miss, “Fucktoys” has since picked up sensational word of mouth. The title is helping.

Read IndieWire’s “Fucktoys” review by Esther Zuckerman

“I Am Frankelda”

Dir. Arturo Ambriz and Roy Ambriz
Screened at Fantasia on Sunday, July 20

Fantasia knows exquisite animation, and picking up “I Am Frankelda” after it played at Annency in June was smart. From the proteges of Guillermo del Toro, this stop-motion fantasy — about a little girl in 19th-century Mexico, whose make-believe stories connect to another world — is a labor of love by nature. It’s also a point of pride for the country’s cinematic history, magically explored through an owl-boy prince who dreams of breaking the barrier between realms. I’d say the visuals speak for themselves (or I guess, “Las imágenes hablan por sí solas”), but they took too much work for that.

“Find Your Friends”

Dir. Izabel Pakzad
Screened at Fantasia on Friday, July 18

If you see former IndieWire editor Eric Kohn credited as a producer on a project we’re checking out, you can safely assume he told us about it. That said, I’d already heard about Izabel Pakzad’s directorial debut, “Find Your Friends,” before it played at Fantasia. The party caper mixes famous and fresh faces with Helena Howard, Bella Thorne, Zion Moreno, Chloe Cherry, and Sophia Ali starring as friends on a trip to Joshua Tree. Things go wrong because of — wait for it — a man! But the first-time filmmaker’s unique presentation of that recognizable story offers a strong introduction to her POV that’s promising.