Festivals - Fantasia 2020 : Third wave of titles

By Mulder, 06 august 2020

The Fantasia International Film Festival will launch its 24th edition next month as an exciting virtual event composed of scheduled live screenings, program library, panels, and workshops, taking place from August 20th to September 2nd, 2020. The festival will be accessible across Canada, geo-locked to the country, and will maintain unique film admittance quantities in line with the cinema experience. The Fantasia Film Festival announces today a massive new assortment of feature films for its 24th edition, along with details on scheduled panels, talks, tributes, and special events.

Hunted (World Premiere)
Once upon a frenzied time, man meets woman. Man kisses woman. Woman escapes man. Man chases woman. This oft-recycled revenge plot takes an unexpected turn in Hunted - a bold story where codes are bent and reborn. The psychotic Big Bad Wolf, embodiment of patriarchy, and his dummy sidekick engage in a wild hunt within mother nature’s protective maze of trees; meanwhile, our tale’s Red Riding Hood’s awaits with killer moves - and won’t surrender so easily. Vincent Paronnaud (acclaimed comic book creator and co-director of the Academy Award-nominated Persepolis) brings us a thrilling, humanist tale that’s as animalistic as it is mystifying.

Chasing Dream (Canadian Premiere)
When Tiger (Jacky Heung, of Push and Fearless) and Cuckoo (Keru Wang, Youth) meet, it’s a match made in heaven. Both involved with moneylenders, one is an over-enthusiastic rising star in the MMA world; the other a resourceful, aspiring singer on-the-run who will stop at nothing for a spot on ‘Perfect Diva’! Following Three (Fantasia 2016), master filmmaker Johnnie To is back with Chasing Dream : an unexpected blend of mixed-martial-arts drama and high-stakes musical comedy, taking the viewers back to the madcap energy of his mid-2000s collaborations with Wai Ka-Fai and the themes of his sports-and-destiny masterpiece Throw down

Perida (International Premiere)
A decade after his cannibalistic modern classic We Are what we Are, Mexican filmmaker Jorge Michel Grau returns to Fantasia with Perida. Starring José María de Tavira, Paulina Dávila, and Cristina Rodlo, Grau enters into the realm of Hitchcock and De Palma to deliver one of the best, most sustained thrillers of recent times. A remake of Andrés Baiz's acclaimed 2011 feature The Hidden Face, Grau superbly creates suspense through contemporary architecture and a love triangle that consistently surprises.

Rom (North American Premiere)
Fourteen-year-old Rom (Tran Anh Khoa) is a runner. That is, he runs lottery numbers for the indebted inhabitants of a dilapidated tenement – a network of interconnected homes soon to be demolished by greedy developers. The bookie climbs and zips through its many alleys; down streets, up balconies, staircases, and across other unstable contraptions – in order to be the first to give his clients’ numbers to the teller. Tran Thanh Huy’s ROM, winner of the New Currents Award at the 2020 Busan Film Festival, is an electrifying debut: a jolt of a film, shot with great, street-savvy energy and constant forward momentum.

Marygoround (International Premiere)
Nearly fifty and hitting menopause, Mary (Grazyna Misiorowska) makes the decision to begin hormone therapy to ease the transition. Meanwhile, the sudden arrival of her niece coincides with an awakening – one of burgeoning sexuality, bravery, and curiosity. Maybe it’s the hormones... or maybe it’s something far more mystical and powerful. Prepare for MARYGOROUND, a beautiful, unsettling, and touching dark comedy about the importance of finding yourself at any age, brought to life through Polish director Daria Woszek’s sensitive and original worldview, and originally slated to world premiere at SXSW.

Wotakoi : Love is Hard for Otaku (North American Premiere)
Narumi is starting a new job and doing everything she can to hide the fact she is an otaku, but one of her new colleagues is a childhood friend who knows all about her passion for manga and anime. Thanks to the superb chemistry between Mitsuki Takahata (Amost a miracle) and Kento Yamazaki (Kingdom), the unique creativity of writer/director Yuichi Fukuda (HK: Forbidden Superhero), and musical numbers going from J-pop to jazz, Wotakoi : Love is Hard for Otaku is the perfect immersion into the fascinating world of otaku culture.

The Paper tigers (World Premiere)
Three childhood Kung Fu prodigies have grown into washed-up, middle-aged men one kick away from pulling their hamstrings. But when their master is murdered, they must juggle their dead-end jobs and dad duties to overcome old grudges and avenge his death. Writer/director Bao Tran has made not just another martial arts movie, but a film that's about martial arts: its philosophies and the lessons it continues to teach you into old age. Anchored by immensely likeable performances from its cast, The Paper tigersdelivers all the quality ass-kicking you want out of a good martial arts film, while also impacting much more: a story about the importance of friendship and staying true to your heart, which is what makes The Paper tigers so special.

Widland (North American Premiere.)
After her mother’s abrupt death, Ida is taken in by an estranged aunt and her three sons. She soon discovers that her new family are local mafioso and things suddenly go south when a violent murder challenges the family’s loyalty to each other. Wildland, Danish director Jeanette Nordahl’s stunning debut feature – which was an official selection at this year’s Berlinale – is a rite of passage tale, delicate and highly adroit, from the perspective of a lost girl facing arduous and fundamental questions.

Legally declared dead (North American Premiere)
An insurance agent suspects his client (Anthony Wong, of Untold Story and Infernal affairs) may have murdered his own son to collect the insurance money. As he investigates the suspicious death, he begins to be met with threats on all sides. Director Yuen Kim-Wai elevates a thrilling story by expertly balancing a touchy subject with suspense and nuanced characters. Based on the famous Japanese novel Black house, the striking, exciting Legally declared dead recently launched in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Anything for Jackson (World Premiere)
Canadian genre royalty Sheila McCarthy and Julian Richings star in Ontario filmmaker Justin G. Dyck’s Anything for Jackson, a clever, funny, and delightfully mean-spirited horror tale of elderly Satanists carried way over their heads in the name of love. Keith Cooper's screenplay constantly surprises, by turning funny, nasty, and progressively more intense as it moves along, but it's the pairing of McCarthy and Richings that makes Anything for Jackson so special.

Baby : the secret Diary of A mom to be (Canadian Premiere)
Award-winning Hong Kong screenwriter and director Luk Yee-Sum returns to Fantasia with the expectant comedy, Baby : the secret Diary of A mom to be, the perfect follow-up to her coming of age debut Lazy Hazy Crazy (Fantasia 2016). As far as Carmen (Dada Chan, Vulgaria) is concerned, she has it all: a handsome basketball-star husband, a great job with an exciting promotion in reach, and a group of lifelong friends that are closer than family. But she’s about to get one thing she didn’t plan for - a baby on the way. Having previously screened at Tokyo International Film Festival and Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, this charming dramedy draws back the curtain on the ups and downs of when you’re unexpectedly expecting.

Free Country (Canadian Premiere)Two years after the German reunification, a pair of out-of-town detectives begin to uncover the dark secrets of a lawless backwoods area. Antibodies director Christian Alvart’s tense remake of Alberto Rodriguez’s Goya-sweeping Spanish thriller Marshland (winner of a 2015 Fantasia Audience Award), Free country is as exciting and socially conscious as its predecessor, both films showcasing this crime story as a fascinating backdrop of post-fascist societies.

Woman of the photographs (Quebec Premiere)
Solitary photographer Kai (Hideki Nagai) is afraid of women, but it doesn’t keep him from shamelessly retouching their photographs when asked. On a trek through the forest, he encounters a model, Kyoko (Itsuki Otaki), who soon asks him to retouch hers. As their relationship grows, Kai feels a rare pang of responsibility, motivated for the first time to challenge his vindictive perception of women. Takeshi Kushida’s Woman of the photographs is a mysterious and captivating debut, throwing the viewer into an uncertain world of obsession and forgery; a potent examination of image-making and alienation in our contemporary age.

Survival skills (International Premiere)
Writer/director Quinn Armstrong’s feature debut Survival skills, expanded from his 2017 short, is simultaneously a throwback to a bygone age and very much a film for the current moment. Designed like an 80s police-training video, Armstrong builds up a wholesome and comedic world replete with bubbling Americana and educational-film naivete before shattering it with the grim reality of domestic violence. Starring Vayu O’Donnell and Stacy Keach, the film casts a bleakly satirical light on the disasters that can occur when simplistic training, complex ethics, and the dark side of human nature collide.

Sheep Without a Shepherd (Quebec Premiere)
When Lee’s teenage daughter accidentally kills a classmate who is blackmailing her, she, unfortunately, discovers that the deceased’s mother happens to be a merciless cop (legendary actress Joan Chen of Twin Peaks and The last emperor). Lee, armed with an arsenal of film knowledge and wits, devises the ultimate alibi, ready for every counter-move that awaits his family. Sheep Without a Shepherd is a relentless cat-and-mouse thriller with just the right dose of dark humor, emotional nuance, and tension from first-time director Sam Quah. Released to such an avalanche of positive press, the film overtook Star Wars: The rise of Skywallker in China’s box office!

A witness Out of the Blue (Canadian Premiere)
Three months after a botched robbery, Wong, the mastermind behind it, is now a prime suspect for the murder of one of his teammates. Trying to clear his name, Wong instead falls into a complex web of betrayal and collateral damage, while a detective scrambles to piece together the puzzle with the help of a talking parrot. A A witness Out of the Blueis a riveting thriller from director Fung Chih-Chiang, who previously collaborated with Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer) and Johnny To (Sparrow), and has screened at Bucheon Film Festival and Rotterdam Film Festival.

Bring me home (South Korea) (Quebec Premiere)
Six years after her son’s disappearance, Jung-yeon goes to a small fishing village to track him down. But nothing could have prepared for what she discovers upon arrival. Actress Lee Young-ae (lady Vengeance) shines in writer-director Kim Seung-woo’s feature debut.

Cosmic Candy (Greece ) (Canadian Premiere)
Anna is an eccentric supermarket cashier living alone in her parent’s roomy apartment in Athens. When the father of the 10-year-old girl next door suddenly goes missing she finds herself forced to take responsibility for the child, and take her in herself. Exploring the frivolities of youth and the difficulties of mental illness, Cosmic Candy is a sparkling burst of optimism in the face of profound gloom.

Dinner in America (USA) (Quebec Premiere)
This riotously hilarious, punk-as-f*ck anti-romantic comedy – that just so happens to be genuinely romantic – exists in the same universe as classics like Welcome to the Dollhouse and Repo man Starring Emily Skeggs, Kyle Gallner, Lea Thompson, and Pat Healy and winner of the Audience Award at the 2020 Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival.

Jumbo (France) (Quebec Premiere)
Socially awkward Jeanne (Portrait of a Lady on Fire’s Noémie Merlant) is in love... with an amusement park ride. This beautifully strange romance is a coming-of-age “coming out” story unlike any you’ve ever seen. Jumbo questions gender and sexual identity in a truly novel way, and does it with humor, heart, and breathtaking visual flair. A compelling and wondrous instant classic of eccentric cinema.

Kakeguri (Japan) (Canadian Premiere)
Welcome to Hyakkaoh Private Academy, where gambling determines the school’s hierarchy. But the status quo is about to be shaken up by the arrival of a new student who is ready to take on the head of the powerful student council. Based on the popular manga by Homura Kawamoto and Toru Naomura, Tsutomu Hanabusa’s Kakeguri (Project dreams) is a hilarious and riveting school drama with biting social critique.

The Mortuary Collection (USA) (Quebec Premiere)
A stylish, colourful and ghoulishly fun horror anthology in the vein of ‘70s Amicus Productions, The Mortuary Collection stars the great Clancy Brown as a sinister mortician, chronicling the strange history of his town through a series of morbid tales. Born at the 2013 Frontières market and completed last year, The Mortuary Collection has been tearing up the festival circuit, playing everywhere from FrightFest and Fantastic Fest to Maskoon, Haapsalu, and Lund.

No longer Human (Japan) (Quebec Premiere)
Genius writer Osamu Dazai has become a star, despite rumors of affairs, multiple suicide attempts, and an eccentric, anti-Establishment way of life. Mika Ninagawa (Helter Shelter, Sakuran) tackles the life of one of Japan’s foremost literary figures in this bold, colourful and stylish film.

Patrick (Belgium) (Canadian Premiere)
Making his feature film debut after a television career spanning the likes of Peaky Blnders, the terror and Legion, director Tim Mielants paints a down-to-earth portrait of a man struggling to deal with his feelings – and of a micro-society struggling to deal with him. Co-starring Kevin Janssens (RevengeE) and Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchord) and winner of six awards on the international festival circuit, including Best Director at Karlovy Vary and Best Film at Fantastic Fest.

(Source : press release)