The Fantasia International Film Festival is returning to Montreal for its 30th year, showcasing and celebrating international film. This festival has screenings, workshops, and more running between July 16 and August 2 for international movie fans to feast on, with 18 movies of this year’s lineup already announced!
In case you haven’t heard, the Fantasia International Film Festival has come to Montreal every year since it began in 1996 to explore and showcase the beauty of the world’s cinematic arts, premiering movies of all development stages from indie filmmakers to major studios.
Fantasia Festival 2026: First Lineup
Hot Spot
Directed by Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczyńska, Hot Spot presents us with a grim near-future world ruled by sentient A.I., where a story detective investigating a murder finds a rebel cell willing and able to bring down the digital overlord.
The Last Temptation of Becky
The third instalment of the Becky franchise is set to debut at the next Fantasia International Film Festival! The Last Temptation of Becky continues the story of Becky (Kate Siegel) as she evolves from killing Neo-Nazis to hunting down one bona fide modern Nazi, played by Neil Patrick Harris. The director of this carnage-filled chapter of the Becky series, Jenn Wexler, is no stranger to the Fantasia International Film Festival, debuting some of her other films there in the past, The Ranger and The Sacrifice Game.
You Are The Film
You Are The Film is a movie about a bizarre situation in which two ordinary people need to communicate with each other through a movie screen. This film is premiering in North America for the first time, and has previously won both the Audience Award and White Raven Award at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival!
No Rest For The Wicked
Director Kasper Kalle’s adaptation of Karl Heinrich Ulrich’s 1884 novella Manor, No Rest For The Wicked is a queer vampire and folk-horror movie about a young fisherman’s love for a stranded whaler and how the pair are pressured by family, faith, and community.
The Eyes
A blend of thriller and horror, The Eyes is about a traumatized girl suffering from rapidly worsening blindness needing to uncover the truth about the murder of her twin sister before she fully loses her sight, all while her physically violent ex-boyfriend is released from prison and re-enters her life. Director Yeom Ji-oh has reinterpreted the Spanish thriller, Julia’s Eyes, in this film, premiering for the first time in North America.
Home Bodies
Home Bodies is a surreal sci-fi thriller exploring themes of autonomy and control as we follow twins whose food, shelter, and law are provided by a voice behind a door they call Papa. The director, Casey Walker, has previously shown their horror/comedy movie, A Little Bit of Zombie, at the Fantasia International Film Festival.
Sour Minnows
Director Harrison Atkins’ Sour Minnows is an experimental/comedy film starring the main characters Ricky (David Brown) and Tepper (Chase Williamson) encountering a group of men sensually licking the pavement of an empty street, when their sense of reality begins to warp after encountering The Yellow Thing, a creature capable of wearing people like costumes.
Kung Fu
Kung Fu sees an aging martial arts master training a pair of young nobodies into powerful disciples. The film shifts more firmly into fantasy as events from previous lives five centuries ago begin to affect the present. Premiering in North America for the first time, Kung Fu was created by the award-winning Giddens Ko, and is the first Taiwanese Martial-Arts Fantasy movie in over 40 years.
Tight Lettuce
Director Harrison Houde brings us Tight Lettuce, a film about a father still recovering from a life of heroin and fentanyl addiction, and his son wanting to spend more time with him and document their time together, inspired by a true story.
AnyMart
AnyMart is a story about how a young boy working mindless shifts at a convenience store becomes intertwined with his customers’ personal dramas. Coming to North America for the first time, AnyMart is a horror film with themes based on the soullessness of a hyper-capitalist society.
Ancestral Beasts
Elyse (Morgan Holmstrom) leaves the city for her aunt’s rural home for a mental health break, only to find a physical, demonic manifestation of her family’s intergenerational trauma haunting the property. The director of Ancestral Beasts is Tim Riedel, a Red River Métis filmmaker who is drawing on his personal experience to deliver a tale about the mental suffering of Indigenous mothers and sisters.
Captured!
Premiering internationally for the first time, Captured! follows a middle school student trying to support her mother by producing a vlog series with her best friend. The pair decide to hit up an abandoned building to film some scary content for more views, but the adventure leads to them both getting haunted by both a malevolent spectre and a benevolent deity.
Unholy Night
Get ready for Christmas in July as Michael Gabriele captures the chaos of the holidays in Unholy Night! This horror/comedy follows an Italian family on Christmas Eve as they find their dead nonna and other deceased relatives begin coming back from beyond the grave to “help” with the festivities.
Break Free
Prepare to watch a tough-as-nails Yakuza member grow a softer side and end up taking dancing lessons to make viral TikTok videos for his gang in Akito Fuiji’s Break Free, premiering in North America for the first time.
Ferine
Ferine follows Irene (Carolyn Bracken), a wealthy art collector whose primal instinct awakens after a shocking tragedy, transforming her from within, and comes into conflict with a trafficker of exotic cats, Dama (Caroline Goodhall). Premiering internationally, Ferine is described from its original debut as a stylish take on classic Italian horror, directed by Andrea Corsini.
Sleep No More
After hearing their mother took her own life during a factory shift, two sisters travel to said factory to understand what happened. After finding workplace accidents are on the rise, the two come to the conclusion that the factory is haunted by a demon feeding on the employees. Premiering for the first time in North America, Sleep No More is a bloody horror film described to use quality practical effects for stomach curling visuals.
Rubberhead: The Life & Monsters of Steve Johnson
Follow the work of the iconic FX artist Steve Johnson, who had a hand in making practical effects and creature models for so many beloved films, and discover why his greatest monster may have been himself in the documentary Rubberhead: The Life and Monsters of Steve Johnson.
Suzuki=Bakudan
Adapted from the novel of the same name, Suzuki=Bakudan is a fast-paced crime thriller following Detective Ruike (Yuki Yamada) as he tries to figure out how a drunk, homeless man (Jiro Sato), under interrogation, who claims he has psychic powers, can predict the detonation of bombs that explode every hour. The film won the Director’s Week Best Actor Award for Jiro Sato at the 2026 Fantasporto Film Festival, and is premiering in North America for the first time.
If you’d like to learn more or keep up to date with new info on the 30th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival, taking place in Montreal from July 16 to August 2, you can check out the official Fantasia Festival website.
