Genndy Tartakovsky's R-Rated Canine Toon ‘Fixed' to Close Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival: Full Slate of Films, Special Events, Competition Details Unleashed (EXCLUSIVE)
The news comes as Fantasia unleashed Thursday its third and final wave of feature films – over 125 features unspool from July 16 to Aug. 3, 2025— as well as details of its competitions and career-celebrating awards, the Fantasia Retro lineup and a rowdy pack of free daytime panels, launches and masterclasses.
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The full programming schedule also goes live July 3; tickets go on sale July 4.
At separate events, Tartakovsky ('Samuri Jack,' 'Hotel Transylvania') and composer Danny Elfman will be feted with a Cheval Noir Career Achievement Award. Elfman's award event includes a special screening of 1993 classic 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' preceded by the world premiere of Eddie Alcazar's animated short 'Bullet Time,' both scored by Elfman.
Also screening opening night, Lee Chang-hee ('The Vanished') and Yusron Fuadi's class-divide crime thriller 'The Verdict' (Showbox), an Indonesia–South Korea co-production, is one of several world premiering features newly announced by Fantasia.
Of other bows, Ian Tuason's feature bow 'The Undertone' stars Nina Kiri ('The Handmaid's Tale') as a podcaster whose work and homes lives become terrifyingly connected; Chloé Cinq-Mars' debut feature 'Nesting' lays out the quiet horrors of a new mother's sleep deprivation; Ryo Fujii's 'Taroman: Expo Explosion' is a retro-futuristic tokusatsu-style actioner; in Grégory Morin's race-against-time thriller 'Flush,' a middle-aged coke fiend tries to win back his ex; Dickson Leung Kwok-Fai lends a first-person-shooter perspective to his underdog actioner 'Good Games.'
In Francis Bordeleau's second feature 'Amma Kiri,' a young delinquent tries to make a fresh start after a violent encounter with a gangster; 'Messy Legends' is Kelly-Kay Hurcomb and James Watts' feature adaptation of their millennial slacker comedy short; Keita Amemiya expands the world of his Golden Knight Garo franchise with 'Garo: Taiga'; and in Marc Joly-Corcoran's documentary 'Barbie Boomer' a Barbie collector contemplates donating some of her dolls to a museum when bad news strikes.
Filmmaker and Troma Entertainment co-founder Lloyd Kaufman ('The Toxic Avenger'), the inaugural recipient of Fantasia's new Indie Maverick Award, is in the documentary crosshairs in 'Occupy Cannes.' Captured by his daughters Lily-Hayes (director) and Charlotte (DOP) at Cannes, the film follows Kaufman and studio as it discovers its once-popular publicity stunts are being shut down by Cannes authorities.
As revealed last month in its second lineup announcement, Fantasia will open with Ari Aster's black-comedy neo-Western 'Eddington.'
The festival welcomes back Japanese maverick Takashi Miike, who will present world premiere episodes of manga adaptation 'Nyaight of the Living Cat,' on which Miike serves as executive director, and the Canadian premieres of Miike features 'Blazing Fists' and 'Sham.'
Other world premieres revealed last month include Adilkhan Yerzhanov's village-set folk horror 'Kazakh Scary Tales,' Mickey Reece's dark, Oklahoma-set conspiracy satire 'Every Heavy thing' and Izabel Pakzad's rising-star-studded first feature 'Find Your Friends,' in which a wild girl trip turns into a hostile environment.
Notable world premieres in Fantasia's first wave line-up, announced in early May, include Steve Pink's 'Terrestrial,' Julie Pacino's 'I Live Here Now,' MacGyver Kenichi Ugana's 'I Fell in Love With a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn,' Hubert Davis' 'The Well,' and Kurtis David Harder's 'Influencers.'
Veteran actor Sheila McCarthy ('Women Talking' and Fantasia-premiering 'The Well') will receive this year's Canadian Trailblazer Award; Quebec independent producer Anne-Marie Gélinas, founder of EMAfilms, will accept the Denis-Héroux Award.
The 2025 Cheval Noir Competition jury president is director and producer Pascal Plante. Jury members include filmmaker Ethan Eng, film critic Alison Foreman, film programmer and critic Payton McCarty-Simas and Kino Lorber vice-president of repertory and international distribution George Schmalz.
Jury president for the New Flesh Competition for Best First Feature is filmmaker and make-up effects artist Chris Nash; jurors take in Dark Star Pictures director of festivals Jim Brunzell, Arrow Films head of marketing Louise Buckler, film critic and programmer Deirdre Crimmins, The Coven sales agent Anelle Deghani, and filmmaker Jean-François Leblanc.
Here are the features in Fantasia's third lineup announcement:
'Fixed,' dir. Genndy Tartakovsky (Canadian premiere)
'The Verdict,' dirs. Lee Chang-hee, Yusron Fuadi (world premiere)
'Smurfs,' dir. Chris Miller (special screening)
'The Undertone,' dir. Ian Tuason (world premiere)
'The Forbidden City,' dir. Gabriele Mainetti (North American premiere)
'Nesting,' dir. Chloé Cinq-Mars (world premiere)
'Taroman: Expo Explosion,' dir. Ryo Fujii (world premiere)
'Flush,' dir. Grégory Morin (world premiere)
'Good Game,' dir. Dickson Leung Kwok-Fai (world premiere)
'Maya, Give Me a Title,' dir. Michel Gondry (North American premiere)
'The Book of Sijjin and Illiyyin,' dir. Hadrah Daeng Ratu (North American premiere)
'Amma Kiri,' dir. Francis Bordeleau (world premiere)
'Rewrite,' dir. Daigo Matsui (North American premiere)
'Straight Outta Space,' dir. Michael Middelkoop (North American premiere)
'Fragment,' dir. Kim Sung-yoon (North American premiere)
'Stinker,' dir. Yerden Telemissov (North American premiere)
'All You Need is Kill,' dir. Kenichiro Akimoto (North American premiere)
'Occupy Cannes,' dir. Lily-Hayes (world premiere)
'Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo,' dir. Tsai Chia Ying (international premiere)
'Cielo,' dir. Alberto Sciamma (North American Premiere)
'Messy Legends,' dirs. Kelly-Kay Hurcomb, James Watts (world premiere)
'Garo: Taiga,' dir. Keita Amemiya (world premiere)
'Barbie Boomer,' dir. Marc Joly-Corcoran (world premiere)
'Au Pied Du Mur,' dir. Alexandra Elkin (Montreal premiere)
'Contact Lens,' dir. Lu Ruiqi (Canadian premiere)
'Dollhouse,' dir. Shinobu Yaguchi (Canadian premiere)
'Fucktoys,' dir. Annapurna Sriram (Canadian premiere)
'Good Boy,' dir. Ben Leonberg (Quebec premiere)
'Hi-Five,' dir. Kang Hyung-chul (Quebec premiere)
'Holy Night: Demon Hunters,' dir. Lim Dae-hee (Quebec premiere)
'Obex,' dir. Albert Birney (Canadian premiere)
'Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy,' dir. Kim Byung-woo (Canadian premiere)
'$Positions,' dir. Brandon Daley (Quebec premiere)
'It Ends,' dir. Alex Ullom (international premiere)
'Stuntman,' dirs. Herbert Leung Koon-Shun, Albert Leung Koon-Yiu (Quebec premiere)
'Sweetness,' dir. Emma Higgins (Canadian premiere)
'Sugar Rot,' dir. Becca Kozak (Quebec premiere)
'Thelma's Perfect Birthday,' dir. Reinis Kalnaellis (Canadian premiere)
'Touch Me,' dir. Addison Heinmann (Canadian premiere)
'Queens of the Dead,' dir. Tina Romero (international premiere)
'The Virgin of the Quarry Lake,' dir. Laura Casabe (Quebec premiere)
The 2025 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival runs July 16 to Aug. 3 in Montreal.
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