Fantasia International Film Festival 2026 – My Anticipated Film Highlights
It’s the 30th anniversary of the Fantasia International Film Festival, which is a celebration in its own right!
This North American genre festival takes place each year in Montreal. It was the festival that helped to place J-Horror on the map for Western cinema audiences with screenings of Ringu and Fudoh to start!
Fortunately, the Fantasia International Film Festival is one of a few to continue to operate a hybrid format permitting both in person and online access to its film programme. Therefore, whilst I might be missing receiving my packet of Nongshim before screenings and hearing those miaows (if you know, you know) this year, I will still be able to participate in the festival remotely.
Across 18 days, from 16 July – 2 August 2026, audiences can enjoy watching over 125 feature films with a short film programme in addition offering over 200 films. If that wasn’t enough, peppered in between the films are masterclasses and filmmaker presentations – there will truly be something for everyone!
Opening the festival will be the provocative Her Private Hell by Nicolas Winding Refn and the closing night film is Freaks Part II by Zach Liparsky and Adam Stein with its gory, anti-hero revenge tale.
Within the film’s programme is also a dedicated animation section plus 2K and 4K restorations of films such as the 1970s The Delinquent, Forty Deuce, Gozu and more! Horror fans can also enjoy two film premieres of Takashi Shimizu films – Village of Eight Gravestones and The Mouths.
What am I looking forward to within the festival’s programme? Let’s explore my highlighted picks of feature films below in no particular order:
Unidentified Murder
Featuring within the Cheval Noir category, this film sounds as though it might provide that comic relief embedded within a murder mystery! A young child has been missing for 25 years within the film, believed to have been abducted by aliens! However, when an influencer couple visit the scene of the crime, several years later, an unforeseen series of events are triggered with surprising circumstances!
Jim Queen
This animated film has been doing the festival rounds after premiering at Cannes and recently appearing at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Jim Queen sounds outlandish but hilarious whilst touching on adult topics. The film centres on queer icon Jim Parfait who ends up intertwined within life changing circumstances after an unknown disease starts to transform gay men into heterosexuals! Jim commences a quest seeking a cure before all goes wrong in his life!
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
This is another winning film from Jane Schoenbrun, which was the recipient of the Queer Palm at 2026 Cannes Film Festival. Starring Gillian Anderson, Hannah Einbinder, Eva Victor and others, the film pays homage to 80s slasher films emphasising that connection between fright and desire. I was pleased to watch this film at SXSW London and will look forward to a re-watch during Fantasia of this hilarious spoof of those video nasties!
Sicko
Kazakhstan cinema has been featuring heavily within the 2026 festival stage with Sicko previously appearing at SXSW London and IFFR. Having missed its previous screenings, I am particularly intrigued by its premise of a couple utilising social media and crowdfunding to fuel a get rich quick scene! However, the donations are being received on the basis is of providing funding for treatment of a fictitious ailments! Sicko therefore shines a spotlight on greed, distorted ambition and capitalism!
Godhead
Not to be confused by another film by the same name, which had premiered at the LA film festival, this is a black and white horror film by Mark H Rapaport. A pair of twins suffering from delusions of divinity ensnared a priest within their supposed mission by claiming to be prophets! This film sounds absurdist and quirky and is therefore bound to be a firm favourite amongst the genre crowd at Fantasia!
Les Regards Parallèles (Parallel Gazes)
Filmed in black and white, this Canadian film seems to be a moody gangster film noir with a crime family at its helm!
Félicien is set a task by his family to prove that he would be worthy of taking over the family business . Whilst the task seems initially simple, unexpected circumstances arise! The dynamics of the makeshift trio of Félicien and his brother and his brother’s girlfriend is therefore threatened in this role, dark comedy!
