July 12, 2025 • 12 mins
The Fantasia International Film Festival returns for its 29th edition, running from July 17 to August 8, 2025, and promises another electrifying celebration of genre cinema from around the world. With its full slate now unveiled across three waves of programming, Fantasia 2025 continues its tradition of championing daring filmmakers and boundary-pushing storytelling.
Among the major highlights this year is Yuji Shimomura’s highly anticipated Crazy Musashi, penned by cult favorite Sion Sono. Also debuting is the world premiere of The Beast Within by genre auteur Gabriel Carrer, while Bertrand Mandico’s surreal She Is Conan the Barbarian will receive its North American premiere following acclaim in Cannes. Other festival standouts include Kiah Roache-Turner’s creature feature Beast of War, and Macoto Tezuka’s live-action adaptation Barbara II, based on the manga by Osamu Tezuka.
Fantasia 2025 will also spotlight a robust Quebecois lineup, particularly through the Fantastiques Week-ends du cinéma québécois, which includes 77 short and feature films from emerging and established local talent. This year’s program emphasizes bold, original visions, including the premiere of David B. Ricard’s mockumentary Alien Tribute, and Alexandre Prieur-Grenier’s nightmarish Enfer en eau trouble.
The festival continues its legacy of nurturing new voices with its Camera Lucida and Axis sections, while also welcoming back returning favorites such as Larry Fessenden (Blackout), Takashi Shimizu (Immersion), and Calvin Lee Reeder (Yummy Fur).
With over 130 feature films, dozens of special events, and a strong presence of Asian, North American, and international genre cinema, Fantasia 2025 affirms itself as one of the world’s premier showcases for fantastical film.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.
Among the major highlights this year is Yuji Shimomura’s highly anticipated Crazy Musashi, penned by cult favorite Sion Sono. Also debuting is the world premiere of The Beast Within by genre auteur Gabriel Carrer, while Bertrand Mandico’s surreal She Is Conan the Barbarian will receive its North American premiere following acclaim in Cannes. Other festival standouts include Kiah Roache-Turner’s creature feature Beast of War, and Macoto Tezuka’s live-action adaptation Barbara II, based on the manga by Osamu Tezuka.
Fantasia 2025 will also spotlight a robust Quebecois lineup, particularly through the Fantastiques Week-ends du cinéma québécois, which includes 77 short and feature films from emerging and established local talent. This year’s program emphasizes bold, original visions, including the premiere of David B. Ricard’s mockumentary Alien Tribute, and Alexandre Prieur-Grenier’s nightmarish Enfer en eau trouble.
The festival continues its legacy of nurturing new voices with its Camera Lucida and Axis sections, while also welcoming back returning favorites such as Larry Fessenden (Blackout), Takashi Shimizu (Immersion), and Calvin Lee Reeder (Yummy Fur).
With over 130 feature films, dozens of special events, and a strong presence of Asian, North American, and international genre cinema, Fantasia 2025 affirms itself as one of the world’s premier showcases for fantastical film.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, folks, welcome to a special episode of the Projection
Boothheim heros Mike White, I want to talk about Fantasia.
You are going to be hearing a lot about the
Fantasia Fest, hopefully over the next few weeks. Yeah, that's Fantasia,
the film festival, not the Disney film talking about Fantasia
twenty twenty five, the festival of fantastic films that takes
(00:20):
place in Montreal every year. It is coming to starting
on July sixteenth this year. I will not be in attendance,
but I will be covering some of the movies, hopefully
talking with some of the filmmakers around here. So really
a lot of what I cover is going to be
based upon the availability of filmmakers. So doing these kind
(00:42):
of quote unquote curtain raisers, it's a little difficult for
me because I'm not exactly sure who all I'll be
talking to, and I don't tend to request the screeners
for films when I don't have the I don't want
to say guarantee, but the opportunity to talk to the filmmakers.
(01:02):
Of course, being Fantasia, there is a ton of great
Asian films available. It's right in the name Folks Fantasia.
That's because it really relies on great Asian cinema, and
this year's no exception. There is a animated version now
of All You Need Is Kill, which most people will
(01:23):
know as Edge of Tomorrow, which was actually based upon
a relatively short book, if not a short story, and
there is now an anime of that that is going
to be playing at the festival. They're also bringing back,
speaking of anime, a restored version of Angel's Egg, which
I haven't seen yet, but that's one movie I've been
(01:46):
wanting to see. We talked about Belladona of Sadness a
few years ago on the show. Angel's Egg is one
of those films like Belladina of Sadness that's just kind
of lifted up as being a really beautiful anime film,
and from everything of the film I've seen, it seems
like a very correct approach to that. That's also the
(02:08):
thing is, I don't tend to get excited about films
that I haven't seen yet because I don't have that
much information, and also I don't want that much information.
I don't want to go out and watch a bunch
of these trailers because I really enjoy being surprised. So
I feel kind of terrible for the folks that fantation
(02:32):
when they tell me, oh, you got to do this,
You have to do this curtain raiser before you actually
can get approved to be a critic for the film Festival.
So I will probably talk a lot about some of
the older screenings of things that I am familiar with,
such as Bullet in the Head, the John Wufilm. There's
(02:53):
going to be a restoration of that. Of course, you
are probably aware that there are a lot of WU
films and heroic bloodshed films from that golden era of
Hong Kong cinema, the late eighties early nineties, when stuff
was just blowing up over there, and I'm so excited
(03:14):
for more people to see these films. I'm really excited
for more people to see bullet in the Head. I've
almost kind of held a torch for that movie. A
few years ago, I did a really stupid thing, but
I went through and I tried to track down as
many versions of Bullet in the Head as I possibly
(03:35):
could and try to make a I don't want to
say it was the complete version, but at least start
to show how many different versions that there were, and
really went through painstakingly. I would find, like a shitty bootleg.
There was a shitty bootleg of that movie that was
(03:56):
probably the Taiwanese version. It was different than the Hong
Kong version, different than the mainland version. And went out
and got that digitized that and then started to lay
over pieces from other versions to try to make the
most complete one I could. The Taiwanese one. There were
(04:19):
times where there were a frame or two that were
in that that weren't in any other versions. I mean
really just literally a frame or two. But then you
would also get major sections that were completely missing from
other versions. You would get some versions that had a
different ending. I remember I saw that originally in the
(04:40):
theater and saw it with what I called the man
who would be King ending, and then I rented it
from a Chinese grocery store. The whole movie had a
completely different ending. That is what people generally call the
Carfu ending. I'm curious what this greening is going to
(05:01):
be like, it's a supposed to be one hundred and
thirty six minutes. I don't remember off the top of
my head which version that is from that, but more
people definitely need to see that movie, no matter what
version it is. There's also a restoration screening of a
Chinese ghost story. Three. This is top stuff, guys. I
(05:22):
cannot say enough nice things about some of these Hong
Kong films that just really for me changed how I
looked at stuff. Had no idea that this type of
cinemi existed. Of course, they're going to be playing Eddington,
the new ari Ast film. I haven't seen the last
(05:43):
last arist film, maybe the last two Ariaster films. Not
a big arister, guy, I guess. I mean they're fun,
They're funny. I mean I found Hereditary to be absolutely hilarious,
and Midsommar as well. I don't know if I'm supposed to,
but I definitely did. I mean, especially when that little
girl takes that face plant right to the poll. That
(06:05):
was pretty damn funny. Forbidden City is going to be playing.
That is actually not a Hong Kong film. It is
a Italian Mandarin joint. It's got a name like it
is a older Hong Kong movie, but it is a
brand new thing and it looks fantastic. The film Fuck
(06:28):
Toys is going to be playing. I did get to
see that earlier from another festival, really really fun The
Girl Who's Still Time is going to be playing, which
looks like it's a new version that is more of
like a three D animation that is different than I
(06:48):
believe The Girl Who Walked Through Time. But yeah, we'll
see how that compares. Also, there's going to be a
retro screening of Funky Forest The First Contact, which is
one of the most fucked up Japanese films that I've seen,
outside of, of course, Takashimike. There's even a documentary about
Japanese amant garde pioneers, which looks absolutely incredible. I'm hoping
(07:13):
that some of my favorite avant garde filmmakers are actually
discussed in that, but that is when I am super
excited to be able to see hopefully they discussed some
Shuji Tara Yama. As far as other retro screenings, are
going to be doing a Nightmare before Christmas, as well
(07:34):
as Night of the Juggler, which spoiler alert is not
a lot of juggling and not nearly enough, especially not
nearly enough to put that right in the name of
the film. You would think maybe like a Tommy Smothers
documentary would be called that but yeah, not nearly nearly,
(07:54):
nearly enough juggling. Also a retro screening of pen All Summer,
which I know that that was kind of hot a
few years ago. I'm very excited that that is. I'm
really glad that that is getting a little bit more attention.
I don't know why, but they're going to be showing
the Smurfs, but I yeah, I guess this is the
(08:16):
new one, the one with Rihanna, So I'm I don't know,
I guess because it's the Smurfs, maybe that's why they're
showing it. And of course there's going to be special
events that are happening at the festival as well. There
will be guests who are speaking. Even Danny Elfman will
be up there talking about his work as well. I
(08:40):
believe that's where we're getting the Nightmare before Christmas screening from.
And even our old friend Lloyd Kaufman is going to
be up there, hopefully maybe showing the new Taxic Avenger.
But I actually think that that showed last year and
we've just been waiting for that one to come out otherwise,
So I'm not sure exactly what's happening with that film,
(09:01):
why it took so long. I mean, if that's Peter
Dinklingen there, for God's sakes, release it. But that one
will be coming to us a lot sooner than Tom
Six's The Yaina Club, which I'm still curious to see.
Would still like to see that one, but I'm pretty
sure that that's never going to be released. Well, folks,
(09:21):
hopefully that checks that box of doing a curtain raiser
for Fantasia. I'm super excited to actually see some of
these movies, talk with some of the filmmakers and share
those interviews with y'all. So definitely keep an eye out
for a Fantasia series of podcasts coming to your feed.
And in the meantime, we're gonna keep talking about older films,
(09:43):
genre films, especially this month with sci Fi July. We
will be discussing a whole lot of great things. Hopefully,
by the time this has come out, we have kicked
things off with Metropolis, got a lot of other good
stuff happening in July. Thanks so much for listening. Keeps
a dirty sad down on the shiny side up and
you'll hear me on the next episode.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Under the Sun we got rhythm juggling balls. It's pure
wisdom feel the beat. It's time to move. Dancing you around,
we find our rooms, slatter echoes, spear is high. Join
the fun as the day goes by. Comment shugle, Come
(10:34):
and play with me. Feel the joy that your heart
feels free, Spin and swell under the palm tree. Come
and shugle, Come and play with me. Call us to
lie happiness, folks, catch the vibes. Let the good times grow.
(10:54):
Hands in motion, smiles everywhere. Dance to this rhythm. Tabocare,
watch the sunset, keep it right, juggling trees, shaping the lines.
Come and juggle, Come and play with me. Feel the
joy that your heart feel free, Spin and twelve under
(11:18):
the palm tree, Come and juggle, Come and play with me.
(11:38):
So come on now, don't you wait. Catch the rhythm,
feel the face, juggling life. It's a chance.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Join the dance.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Come take a sen come and juggle, Come and play
with me. Feel the joy that your heart peed. Agreed,
Spain and twelve underta country, Come and juggle, comm and
play with me.
Hey, folks, welcome to a special episode of the Projection
Boothheim heros Mike White, I want to talk about Fantasia.
You are going to be hearing a lot about the
Fantasia Fest, hopefully over the next few weeks. Yeah, that's Fantasia,
the film festival, not the Disney film talking about Fantasia
twenty twenty five, the festival of fantastic films that takes
(00:20):
place in Montreal every year. It is coming to starting
on July sixteenth this year. I will not be in attendance,
but I will be covering some of the movies, hopefully
talking with some of the filmmakers around here. So really
a lot of what I cover is going to be
based upon the availability of filmmakers. So doing these kind
(00:42):
of quote unquote curtain raisers, it's a little difficult for
me because I'm not exactly sure who all I'll be
talking to, and I don't tend to request the screeners
for films when I don't have the I don't want
to say guarantee, but the opportunity to talk to the filmmakers.
(01:02):
Of course, being Fantasia, there is a ton of great
Asian films available. It's right in the name Folks Fantasia.
That's because it really relies on great Asian cinema, and
this year's no exception. There is a animated version now
of All You Need Is Kill, which most people will
(01:23):
know as Edge of Tomorrow, which was actually based upon
a relatively short book, if not a short story, and
there is now an anime of that that is going
to be playing at the festival. They're also bringing back,
speaking of anime, a restored version of Angel's Egg, which
I haven't seen yet, but that's one movie I've been
(01:46):
wanting to see. We talked about Belladona of Sadness a
few years ago on the show. Angel's Egg is one
of those films like Belladina of Sadness that's just kind
of lifted up as being a really beautiful anime film,
and from everything of the film I've seen, it seems
like a very correct approach to that. That's also the
(02:08):
thing is, I don't tend to get excited about films
that I haven't seen yet because I don't have that
much information, and also I don't want that much information.
I don't want to go out and watch a bunch
of these trailers because I really enjoy being surprised. So
I feel kind of terrible for the folks that fantation
(02:32):
when they tell me, oh, you got to do this,
You have to do this curtain raiser before you actually
can get approved to be a critic for the film Festival.
So I will probably talk a lot about some of
the older screenings of things that I am familiar with,
such as Bullet in the Head, the John Wufilm. There's
(02:53):
going to be a restoration of that. Of course, you
are probably aware that there are a lot of WU
films and heroic bloodshed films from that golden era of
Hong Kong cinema, the late eighties early nineties, when stuff
was just blowing up over there, and I'm so excited
(03:14):
for more people to see these films. I'm really excited
for more people to see bullet in the Head. I've
almost kind of held a torch for that movie. A
few years ago, I did a really stupid thing, but
I went through and I tried to track down as
many versions of Bullet in the Head as I possibly
(03:35):
could and try to make a I don't want to
say it was the complete version, but at least start
to show how many different versions that there were, and
really went through painstakingly. I would find, like a shitty bootleg.
There was a shitty bootleg of that movie that was
(03:56):
probably the Taiwanese version. It was different than the Hong
Kong version, different than the mainland version. And went out
and got that digitized that and then started to lay
over pieces from other versions to try to make the
most complete one I could. The Taiwanese one. There were
(04:19):
times where there were a frame or two that were
in that that weren't in any other versions. I mean
really just literally a frame or two. But then you
would also get major sections that were completely missing from
other versions. You would get some versions that had a
different ending. I remember I saw that originally in the
(04:40):
theater and saw it with what I called the man
who would be King ending, and then I rented it
from a Chinese grocery store. The whole movie had a
completely different ending. That is what people generally call the
Carfu ending. I'm curious what this greening is going to
(05:01):
be like, it's a supposed to be one hundred and
thirty six minutes. I don't remember off the top of
my head which version that is from that, but more
people definitely need to see that movie, no matter what
version it is. There's also a restoration screening of a
Chinese ghost story. Three. This is top stuff, guys. I
(05:22):
cannot say enough nice things about some of these Hong
Kong films that just really for me changed how I
looked at stuff. Had no idea that this type of
cinemi existed. Of course, they're going to be playing Eddington,
the new ari Ast film. I haven't seen the last
(05:43):
last arist film, maybe the last two Ariaster films. Not
a big arister, guy, I guess. I mean they're fun,
They're funny. I mean I found Hereditary to be absolutely hilarious,
and Midsommar as well. I don't know if I'm supposed to,
but I definitely did. I mean, especially when that little
girl takes that face plant right to the poll. That
(06:05):
was pretty damn funny. Forbidden City is going to be playing.
That is actually not a Hong Kong film. It is
a Italian Mandarin joint. It's got a name like it
is a older Hong Kong movie, but it is a
brand new thing and it looks fantastic. The film Fuck
(06:28):
Toys is going to be playing. I did get to
see that earlier from another festival, really really fun The
Girl Who's Still Time is going to be playing, which
looks like it's a new version that is more of
like a three D animation that is different than I
(06:48):
believe The Girl Who Walked Through Time. But yeah, we'll
see how that compares. Also, there's going to be a
retro screening of Funky Forest The First Contact, which is
one of the most fucked up Japanese films that I've seen,
outside of, of course, Takashimike. There's even a documentary about
Japanese amant garde pioneers, which looks absolutely incredible. I'm hoping
(07:13):
that some of my favorite avant garde filmmakers are actually
discussed in that, but that is when I am super
excited to be able to see hopefully they discussed some
Shuji Tara Yama. As far as other retro screenings, are
going to be doing a Nightmare before Christmas, as well
(07:34):
as Night of the Juggler, which spoiler alert is not
a lot of juggling and not nearly enough, especially not
nearly enough to put that right in the name of
the film. You would think maybe like a Tommy Smothers
documentary would be called that but yeah, not nearly nearly,
(07:54):
nearly enough juggling. Also a retro screening of pen All Summer,
which I know that that was kind of hot a
few years ago. I'm very excited that that is. I'm
really glad that that is getting a little bit more attention.
I don't know why, but they're going to be showing
the Smurfs, but I yeah, I guess this is the
(08:16):
new one, the one with Rihanna, So I'm I don't know,
I guess because it's the Smurfs, maybe that's why they're
showing it. And of course there's going to be special
events that are happening at the festival as well. There
will be guests who are speaking. Even Danny Elfman will
be up there talking about his work as well. I
(08:40):
believe that's where we're getting the Nightmare before Christmas screening from.
And even our old friend Lloyd Kaufman is going to
be up there, hopefully maybe showing the new Taxic Avenger.
But I actually think that that showed last year and
we've just been waiting for that one to come out otherwise,
So I'm not sure exactly what's happening with that film,
(09:01):
why it took so long. I mean, if that's Peter
Dinklingen there, for God's sakes, release it. But that one
will be coming to us a lot sooner than Tom
Six's The Yaina Club, which I'm still curious to see.
Would still like to see that one, but I'm pretty
sure that that's never going to be released. Well, folks,
(09:21):
hopefully that checks that box of doing a curtain raiser
for Fantasia. I'm super excited to actually see some of
these movies, talk with some of the filmmakers and share
those interviews with y'all. So definitely keep an eye out
for a Fantasia series of podcasts coming to your feed.
And in the meantime, we're gonna keep talking about older films,
(09:43):
genre films, especially this month with sci Fi July. We
will be discussing a whole lot of great things. Hopefully,
by the time this has come out, we have kicked
things off with Metropolis, got a lot of other good
stuff happening in July. Thanks so much for listening. Keeps
a dirty sad down on the shiny side up and
you'll hear me on the next episode.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Under the Sun we got rhythm juggling balls. It's pure
wisdom feel the beat. It's time to move. Dancing you around,
we find our rooms, slatter echoes, spear is high. Join
the fun as the day goes by. Comment shugle, Come
(10:34):
and play with me. Feel the joy that your heart
feels free, Spin and swell under the palm tree. Come
and shugle, Come and play with me. Call us to
lie happiness, folks, catch the vibes. Let the good times grow.
(10:54):
Hands in motion, smiles everywhere. Dance to this rhythm. Tabocare,
watch the sunset, keep it right, juggling trees, shaping the lines.
Come and juggle, Come and play with me. Feel the
joy that your heart feel free, Spin and twelve under
(11:18):
the palm tree, Come and juggle, Come and play with me.
(11:38):
So come on now, don't you wait. Catch the rhythm,
feel the face, juggling life. It's a chance.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Join the dance.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Come take a sen come and juggle, Come and play
with me. Feel the joy that your heart peed. Agreed,
Spain and twelve underta country, Come and juggle, comm and
play with me.
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