Festivals - Fantasia 2021 : Axis brings savage sorcery, cryptid creatures, and japanese gems

By Mulder, 23 june 2021

Fantasia’s animation section unveils two American fantasies, a cinephile anime, a Satoshi Kon doc, and a classic’s new cut

Pompo: the cinephile (North American Premiere)

A love letter to the art and industry of filmmaking, Takayuki Hirao’s funny, fast-paced, and entirely sympathetic anime adaptation of the much-loved manga Pompo: the cinéphile is a convincing crash course on how movies get made, and what makes them work. It’s also an outstanding work of animation, using clever transitions and other tricks and techniques to make the most of the storytelling process. 

Satoshi kon, the illusionist (North American Premiere)

Beginning with Perfect blue and Millennium actress, which Fantasia world premiered in 1997 and 2001, respectively, the late director Satoshi Kon’s brief but monumental filmography proved a dramatic paradigm shift for Japanese anime, and indeed for world cinema. French documentarian Pascal-Alex Vincent unveils Satoshi kon, the illusionist, a poignant, detailed portrait of this unique and transformative talent, after whom Fantasia named its prestigious animation award. 

The spine of night (Canadian Premiere)

A painstaking labour of love from animator Morgan Galen King and filmmaker/comic scribe Philip Gelatt (featuring the voices of Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless, and Patton Oswalt), the rotoscoped epic The spine of night is no less than a new, essential, fully realized work in the canon of animated sword-and-sorcery adventure for adults, full of warriors, wizardry, elder gods and esoteric wisdom. 

Cryptozoo (Quebec Premiere)

Graphic novelist Dash Shaw’s debut animated feature, My entire high school  Sinking into the sea (2016), bore the hallmarks of a flourishing auteur. With Cryptozoo, Shaw paints a world in which cryptozookeepers strive to rescue creatures of legend and build a sanctuary for them. A melting pot of myths accompanied by strong social commentary. 

Junk Head 

In 2017, Fantasia revealed to the world Takahide Hori’s one-man stop-motion project, the ambitious, existential, cyber-horror concoction Junk head. A surprise hit at the festival, it then vanished for five years. At last, this year, a tighter, meaner theatrical edit of Junk Head has been produced, and Fantasia is proud to once again open this
portal into Hori’s mind.

The 25th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival will be presented by Videotron in collaboration with Desjardins, and will be made possible thanks to the financial assistance of the Government of Quebec, SODEC, Telefilm Canada, the City of Montreal, the Conseil des arts of Montreal and Tourisme Montréal. A final wave of Fantasia 2021 titles will be announced in late July, with ticket sales commencing shortly afterwards.

For more information, visit us on the web at www.fantasiafestival.com

(Source : press release)