Festivals - Fantasia 2020 : Juries and Competitions

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. Fantasia’s section dedicated to unconventional non-fiction storytelling just keeps expanding, with seven amazing new documentaries that are sure to impress.

Unavailable in North America, or previously hard to find, Fantasia’s digital 2020 edition brings back a selection of beloved favorites from its past editions, under its new label, Fantasia Classics. This year’s titles featured under this moniker include Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Air Doll (2009), Yosuke Fujita’s Fukuchan of Fukufuku Flats (2014), Johnnie To’s A Hero Never Dies (1998), Hideki Takeuchi’s Fly Me to the Saitama (2019), Yuichi Fukuda’s HK: Forbidden Superhero (2014) and HK2: The Abnormal Crisis (2016), Yoshimasa Ishibashi’s Milocrorze: A Love Story (2011), and Koichiro Miki’s The Travelling Cat Chronicles (2018). Also included will be a special 15-year-anniversary screening of Wilson Yip’s SPL: Kill Zone (2005).

Fantasia is pleased to announce the 2020 Cheval Noir competition titles:
12 hour Shift – USA, Dir: Brea Grant
Chasin dream – Hong Kong, Dir: Johnnie To
Come True – Canada, Dir: Anthony Scott Burns
The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw– Canada, Dir: Thomas Lee
The Dark and the Wicked– USA, Dir: Bryan Bertino
I Weirdo – Taiwan, Dir: Liao Ming-Yi
Kriya – India-UK, Dir: Sidharth Srinivasan
Legally declared dead– Hong Kong, Dir: Yuen Kim-Wai
Marygoround M– Poland, Dir: Daria Woszek
Me and me – South Korea, Dir: Jung Jin-young
Prpject dreams how to build Mazinger Z’s Hangar– Japan, Dir: Tsutomu Hanabusa
Special Actors – Japan, Dir: Shinichiro Ueda
Underdogs – UK-Belgium-Estonia-Serbia-Sweden, Dir: Chino Moya
Wotakoi : ove is hard for Otaku– Japan, Dir: Yuichi Fukuda

The following talented industry professionals make up the Fantasia 2020 juries:

Chevalier Noir competition
Jennifer Lynch (Jury President) – USA – Director, Writer
Joko Anwar – Indonesia – Director, Writer, Producer
Mattie Do – Laos – Director, Producer
Steve Moore – USA – Composer and Musician
Jongsuk Thomas Nam – South Korea – Festival Programmer (Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival), Managing Director of the Network of Asian Fantastic Films
Karen Walton – Canada – Writer, Producer

New flesh competition for best first feature

Darin Scott (Jury President) – USA – Director, Writer, Producer
Mette-Marie Kongsved – Denmark – Producer, Co-Founder of Nowhere
Miguel Llansó – Spain – Director, Writer, Producer
Shinji Sakoda – Japan – International Sales and Film Festival Representative
April Wolfe – USA – Director, Writer, Critic, Podcaster

International short film competition
Nosipho Dumisa (Jury President) – South Africa – Director, Writer, Co-Founder of Gambit Films
Simon Barrett – USA – Director, Writer, Actor
Pierce Conran – Ireland – Critic, Producer, Acquisitions Executive at XYZ Films
Natalie Erika James – Australia – Director, Writer
Jennifer Reeder – USA – Director, Writer

AQCC Caviera Lucid Competition
Martin Gignac – Canada – Critic and Author
Marc-Antoine Lévesque – Canada – Critic
Benjamin Pelletier – Canada – Critic

Axis : Satoshi Award for excellence in animation
Marina Antunes (Jury President) – Canada – Festival Director, Film Critic, Podcaster
Han Han Li – Canada – Animator, Animation Teacher
Emily Paige – Canada – Co-founder, Creative Producer, ED Films
Chad VanGaalen – Canada – Animator, Artist, Musician

(Source : press release)