by Elysia Brenner
For fans of independent genre cinema – sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and beyond – the Fantasia International Film Festival is arguably the most important film festival in the world. As the 30th edition begins, running this year July 16 through August 2, more than 100,000 film fans gather in Quebec to take in this year's new batch of quirky festival darlings, a mix of features and shorts, both old and new.
Whether you are able to attend the festivities in Montreal, or plan to use the festival lineup as a watchlist to get you through the rest of the year, the catalog of options is long and varied – but these 10 highlights from different corners of the planet, all brand new feature films tailored to the tastes of the Lorehounds community, are a good place to begin.
Fictional Franchise Horrors
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (USA)
Director Jane Schoenbrun's follow-up to their gender-fuck indie darling I Saw the TV Glow is this lurid, candy-colored take on crafting a reboot of a (fictional) classic horror series. As a director, Kris (Hannah Einbinder, Hacks) wants to breathe new life (and updated gender dynamics) into the Camp Miasma slasher franchise, bringing back the original's aging final girl, played by Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson, The X-Files) – with whom she develops a psychosexual fascination that shapes the blood-soaked surrealism to come.
The Canadian premiere of this Cannes festival favorite is part of the core Horizon 2026 showcase of films. Language spoken: English. (Trailer)
Buddy (USA)
It's 1999, and a group of amnesiac children live inside the TV world of Barney-like orange unicorn Buddy (Keegan-Michael Key, Key & Peele). But when one of them (Delaney Quinn, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You [Leiden International Film Festival subscriber podcast]) rejects this false reality, murderous seams begin to show in the unicorn's friendly facade. Director Casper Kelly is perhaps best known for the viral Adult Swim video "Too Many Cooks" – which we hope is an indication of the unhinged high-camp humor to come. And we can't wait to find out what roles adult cast members Cristin Milioti (The Penguin [Lorehounds podcast coverage]) and Topher Grace (That '70s Show) play in the twisted tale.
Following its Sundance premiere, Fantasia marks the film's international premiere with a place in the Horizon 2026 line-up. Language spoken: English. (Trailer)
World Sci-Fi Cinema
The Fox (Australia)
In a parallel reality where animals can talk, Aussie hunter Nick (Jai Courtney, The Suicide Squad [DCEU funeral podcast]) has just learned that his fiancée Kori (Emily Browning, American Gods) is cheating on him. What follows is an off-the-wall dark comedy team-up between Nick and a shapeshifting fox (Olivia Colman, The Favourite) who offers him the opportunity to mold his wayward partner into his idea of the "perfect woman" – for both better and definitely worse. (Bonus: A chance to enjoy one of Sam Neill's final roles as the voice of a sarcastic magpie.)
The directorial debut of Dario Russo makes its Quebec premiere in the Horizon 2026 program. Language spoken: English. (Trailer)
Mum, I'm Alien Pregnant (New Zealand)
Her accidental alien-originated pregnancy is the most important thing that has happened in the life of messy millennial Mary (Hannah Lynch, The Rule Jenny Pen [Elysia's review]). It's just too bad she has to juggle skeptical doctors, an overbearing mother, and a deadbeat baby daddy with an extraterrestrial male member over the course of her zany horror-scifi comedy journey to motherhood. Based on the 2024 short "Help, I'm Alien Pregnant" by this film's Kiwi directing duo THUNDERLIPS (Jordan Windsor and Sean Wallace).
The film's Canadian premiere is featured in both the Horizon 2026 line-up and the New Flesh Competition. Language spoken: English. (Trailer)
You Are the Film (Japan)
Makoto Ueda, best known for scribing low-budget sci-fi explorations of humorous humanity like Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, slides into the director's chair for this equally charming, equally trippy take on how media reflects reality in real time. The story centers on a scriptwriter (Marika Ito, who also voices the new Fantasia festival film Cocoon – One Summer of Girlhood) and a musician (Kai Inowaki, Tokyo Sonata), who realize that the film they're watching has become an interactive experience tailored for two, allowing them to view and guide each other's inner lives.
This Japanese film's North American premiere takes part in both the Horizon 2026 line-up and the New Flesh Competition. Language spoken: Japanese. (Trailer)
Tales of the Undead
Colony (South Korea)
Director Yeon Sang-ho's name has been synonymous with Korean zombies since his first foray into the genre with the 2016 instant classic Train to Busan. So, expectations are high for his latest return to the world of the shambling undead. Also written by Yoen, Colony is an ooey, gooey extension of zombie lore that explores the devastating dangers of experiments in "collective intelligence." When a rapidly mutating virus is released during a biotech conference, Professor Se-jeong (Gianna Jun, My Sassy Girl) becomes trapped with a small group of survivors who must fight a bloodthirsty horde evolving before their eyes.
Hot off its Cannes debut, Colony''s Canadian premiere is part of the Horizon 2026 core line-up. Language spoken: Korean. (Trailer)
(Deepen your living-dead experience with the documentary Black Zombie, a dive into the real Haitian roots of this undying font of lore, and the cinematic journey from the entranced, barely living through George A. Romero's flesh-eating dead, touching on the often racist foundations of global zombie cinema. [Elysia's review])
No Rest for the Wicked (Denmark, Faroe Islands, Iceland)
If you are craving a different variety of deadly undead, this queer vampire romance directed by Kasper Kalle, set in the rugged Faroe Islands of 1862, will slake your bloodthirst for Gothic Northern European folk horror. In a remote religious community, the sudden arrival of whaler Helge (Pilou Asbæk, Game of Thrones) shakes the very foundations of local fisherman Baldur's (newcomer Egor Venned) until-then sheltered life. Their forbidden love awakens an evil amongst the traditional locals, and the pair must prove that their commitment to each other transcends death.
This is the world premiere of this contender in Fantasia's flagship Cheval Noir competition. Languages spoken: Danish, Faroese. (Trailer)
Los Vampires (USA)
To lovers of Universal's classic monster movies, the premise of Craig Mitchell's Los Vampires will sound very familiar: Set in 1930, it portrays the rivalry of Hungarian screen idol Kürt Orlov (Thomas Kretschmann, The Pianist) and Spanish star Ossario (Henry Ian Cusick, Lost). The two play the title characters of, respectively, a soon-to-be-iconic English-language vampire film and its Spanish-language doppelganger, each version uneasily owning the sets for half of the day. As similar as the premise may sound, this is a purely fictionalized version of the making of Dracula and Drácula (both 1931).
Another global premiere, Los Vampires is part of the Horizon 2026 film selection. Languages spoken: English, Spanish. (Trailer)
Animation Celebration
Blaise (France)
The Sauvage family takes center stage in this coming-of-age cringe comedy about painfully introverted 16-year-old Blaise (newcomer Timéo) and his parents, Carole (Léa Drucker, Mars Express), a strong personality who suspects she is detested by her employees, and Jacques (Jacques Gamblin, Connemara), who believes his persistent pattern of underachievement has led to the lack of respect he receives in his life. However, everything changes for Blaise when he makes a new friend (Nina Blanc-Francard, Nine Women) who sparks his sense of adventure and mayhem. Directed by Jean-Paul Guigue and Dimitri Planchon, the story is an adaptation of Planchon's cult comic-book classic.
After its Cannes premiere and Contrechamps Grand Prix win at Annecy, Blaise makes its North American debut in the Animation Plus program. Language spoken: French. (Trailer)
Jim Queen (France)
The Parisian gay scene is under threat in this feature from directors Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athané. Heterosis, a devastating virus that makes gay men straight, is sweeping the French capital – and it's up to queen of the gym scene Jim (Alex Ramirès, The Visitor from the Future) to race to find a cure before all of his adoring subjects are lost to this wave of conversion. Luckily (or perhaps unluckily), he has the help of fresh-to-the-scene twiggy twink Lucien (Jéremy Gillet, Lie with Me). As they flex to save their social lives, they may even learn some important lessons about themselves along the way.
This is the North American premiere of another Cannes debut that has already become a animation cult classic. Language spoken: French. (Trailer)
Stay tuned to the Lorehounds podcast's Cinema Hounds and main feeds for post-viewing festival highlights.