We’re already a week into fall film festival season: Venice is nearing its end, Telluride has wrapped up entirely, and yet it feels like we’re just getting started. the Toronto International Film Festival kicks off tomorrow, the New York Film Festival will take place in the fall, and in between comes Fantastic Fest. Now in its eleventh year, the Austin-based festival has, as the title might suggest, puts an emphasis on genre territory, but has always had a wonderfully adventurous programming strategy to go with plentiful tacos and karaoke.
Put firmly on the map when Paul Thomas Anderson world-premiered "There Will Be Blood" there in its third year, the Fest has already unveiled an impressive array of movies for its 2015 edition, and just bolstered it even further with a host of new additions. Perhaps the big headliner so far is Charlie Kaufman‘s animated tale "Anomalisa," which has won rave reviews out of Venice and Telluride, followed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien‘s arthouse martial arts epic "The Assassin" (winner of Best Director at Cannes), TIFF Midnight Madness entry "The Devil’s Candy," "Borgman" director Alex Van Warmerdam‘s "Schneider Vs. Bax," Cannes and Telluride hit "Son Of Saul," and Matteo Garrone‘s fairytale triptych "Tale Of Tales."
There’s lots more to check out, including previous announcements, but if you’re heading to Austin, you can find the new additions below. Fantastic Fest runs from September 24th to October 1st.
ANOMALISA
United States, 2015
Regional Premiere, 90 min
Directors – Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson
Charlie Kaufman’s newest story, a revolutionary and emotional stop-motion animation, follows an unhappy customer service guru looking for an escape from the monotony of his life.
THE ASSASSIN
Taiwan, 2015US Premiere, 104 min
Director – Hou Hsiao-hsien
After failing to dispatch a corrupt government official, an assassin is disciplined by her master with a mission to murder her cousin (and former betrothed) in order to steal her heart against sentimentality. An immaculate and arresting romantic wu-xia from Taiwan’s chief art-house auteur Hou Hsiao-Hsien.
THE BOY AND THE BEAST
Japan, 2015
US Premiere, 119 min
Director – Mamoru Hosoda
In the latest breathtaking animation by Fantastic Fest veteran Mamoru Hosoda (SUMMER WARS, THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME), nine-year-old Ren becomes the apprentice to beast warrior Kumatetsu and finds himself on the adventure of a lifetime in the beast world Jutengal.
CAMINO
United States, 2015
World Premiere, 104 min
Director – Josh C. Waller
A photojournalist gets more than she bargained for when she snaps a photo of a shadowy religious figure in the jungles of Colombia, triggering a flight – and fight – for her life.
COME DRINK WITH ME
Hong Kong, 1966
Repertory Screening, 95 min
Director – King Hu
One of the foundational classics on which all martial arts cinema is built, COME DRINK WITH ME stars the incomparably talented Chang Pei-Pei as an avenging warrior, Golden Swallow, on a mission to save the local governor’s son from the Jade-Faced Tiger’s gang.
DAG
Norway, 2015
World Premiere, 92 min
Director – Oystein Karlsen
A misanthropic relationship counselor, his (mostly) reformed hippy girlfriend, and his sex addict best friend drive this hugely popular Norwegian TV comedy from the creators of previous fest hit FUCK UP.
DANIEL’S WORLD
Czech Republic, 2015
North American Premiere, 75 min
Director – Veronika Lisková
Veronika’s Lisková’s brave documentary from the Czech Republic takes a very open, unflinching and non-emotional view of the most despised, misunderstood and taboo trait: pedophilia.
READ MORE: Fantastic Fest Adds Ridley Scott’s ‘The Martian,’ Ben Wheatley’s ‘High-Rise,’ ‘The Lobster,’ ‘The Witch’ & More
THE DEVIL’S CANDY
United States, 2015
U.S. Premiere, 90 min
Director – Sean Byrne
A struggling painter, his wife and his young daughter move into their dream house in rural Austin, Texas, but soon find themselves targeted by both satanic forces and the house’s previous occupants.
DOGLEGS
Japan/ USA, 2015
US Premiere, 89 min
Director – Heath Cozens
A look inside one of the world’s oddest wrestling leagues, where disabled fighters take on able-bodied opponents in brutal and bloody fights for their own dignity and self-respect. From where else but Japan?
THE EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER
Hong Kong, 1984
Repertory Screening, 98 min
Director – Chia-Liang Liu The great martial arts choreographer Lau Kar-Leung directs this dark tale of betrayal, vengeance and honor, starring Gordon Liu and Alexander Fu Sheng (in his final screen role) as the sole surviving sons of a powerful family massacred in an act of brutal treachery.
FOLLOW
United States, 2015
World Premiere, 74 min
Director – Owen Egerton
When he blacks out after receiving a strange Christmas gift from his girlfriend, Quinn (Noah Segan) wakes the next morning to find his whole world crumbling around him.
THE GLORIOUS WORKS OF G.F. ZWAEN
The Netherlands, 2015
World Premiere, 110 min
Director – Max Porcelijn
A struggling writer turns to his accountant for help and instead discovers a trio of corpses and a bag of money. Could this be help of a different sort, or just a whole new world of trouble?
SATANIC PANIC Book Launch + Screening of EVILSPEAK (in 35mm!)
United States, 1981
Special Screening, 97 min
Director – Eric WestonThe hysteria known as the "Satanic Panic" made its way through every pop-culture pathway in the ’80s. Relive the era with the launch of SATANIC PANIC: POP CULTURAL PARANOIA IN THE 1980s and a rare 35mm screening of occult fave EVILSPEAK.
SCHNEIDER VS BAX
The Netherlands/Belgium, 2015
US Premiere, 96 min
Director – Alex van Warmerdam
A contract killer’s birthday plans are disrupted when he’s sent to dispatch a drunken writer in this delightfully dark comedy from Dutch auteur Alex van Warmerdam (BORGMAN).
SON OF SAUL
Hungary, 2015
Texas Premiere, 107 min
Director – László Nemes
Saul Ausländer is a Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners isolated from the camp and forced to assist the Nazis in the machinery of large-scale extermination. While working in one of the crematoriums, Saul discovers the dead body of a boy he takes for his son. As the Sonderkommando plans a rebellion, Saul decides to carry out an impossible task: save the child’s body from the flames, find a rabbi to recite the mourner’s Kaddish and offer the boy a proper burial.
SOUTHBOUND
United States, 2015
U.S. Premiere, 87 min
Directors – Radio Silence, Roxanne Benjamin, Patrick Horvath and David Bruckner
Somewhere on a stretch of desert highway, five groups of travelers will find themselves confronting an ever-changing feeling of dread through five interlocking, horrific stories.
TALE OF TALES
France, 2015
U.S. Premiere, 125 min
Director – Matteo Garrone
Monsters, magic and mayhem abound in the incredible stories of three royal families from nearby kingdoms in this ambitious fairy tale epic from acclaimed Italian auteur Matteo Garrone (GOMORRAH, REALITY).
TIKKUN
Israel, 2015
Texas Premiere, 120 min
Director – Avishai Sivan
God’s plan for a Yeshiva student is disrupted when CPR saves his life. He is reborn into a surreal, sexual and disturbing new existence that tests his faith and his father’s mercy.
THE TREACHEROUS
South Korea, 2015
North American Premiere, 131 min
Director – Kyu-dong MIN
Considered the worst tyrant in the long and rather oppressive history of Korea, King Yeonsan enslaved a thousand women to serve his carnal desires. This bawdy, unexpurgated and almost surely exaggerated tale of his sexual exploits is the heir apparent to the notorious 1980s era Hong Kong CAT III classics.
THE WAVE
Norway, 2015
U.S. Premiere, 105 min
Director – Roar Uthaug
A Norwegian geologist and his family fight for their lives after the Akneset mountain pass crumbles into the fjord below, creating a huge tsunami that threatens to wipe out their town.
ZOOM
Canada/ Brazil, 2015
US Premiere, 96 min
Director – Pedro Morelli
Three very different people – an aspiring comic book artist with body image issues, an action director trying to make a more meaningful film, and a model struggling with her first novel – find their stories intersect in earth-shaking ways.
