Fantasia Festival Reveals Final Wave of Animation Line-Up

The Fantasia International Film Festival is one of many festivals to be finally returning to an in-person event in 2022. After two years of virtual events, the genre-focussed festival fully returns to Montreal, Canada this year. The festival has just announced its final wave of programming.

Fantasia has a long relationship with animation, hosting a dedicated strand- Axis- every year. The animation screened at the festival are eligible for the prestigious Satoshi Kon Award for Achievement in Animation.

Fantasia is putting a spotlight this year on South Korean animation, organised with the cooperation of the KIAFA (Korean Independent Animation Filmmakers Association). The spotlight will feature three programs of shorts, that will comprise of two retrospectives and a program of 10 brand new shorts from KIAFA's distribution arm Aniseed.

The festival is also this year introducing Anime no Bento, that will feature the latest shorts from Japan. The debut line-up includes the Canadian premiere of Loudraw's Summer Ghost and A Girl Meets a Boy And A Robot, the newest work from Cowboy Bebop creator Shinichiro Watanabe. The latter is part of a new international anthology project called TAISU, a Chinese production telling four interlinked tales of animated sci-fi. The line-up is rounded up by Deji Meets Girl, a 'micro-series' made up on 90-second episodes directed by Ushio Tazawa, a veteran of Makoto Shinkai films.

Also receiving its North American premiere is My Grandfather's Demons. Directed by Portuguese filmmaker Nuno Beato, the film is the country's first-ever stop-motion animated feature. The film is described as "an engrossing drama about the push and pull of family ties, how roots can both nourish and entangle, told with inspired technical flourishes and a luminous sense of the magical." The film completes the feature selection alongside the previously unveiled titles Opal, The Girl From The Other Side, Inu-Oh, Goodbye Don Glees!, Chun Tae-Il: A Flame That Lives On, Princesse Dragon and Walking Liberty.

Additionally, the festival will also feature a packed line-up of shorts from around the world as part of the Circo Animato line up including several world or North American Premieres. Animated shorts also feature in several of the other, non-dedicated selections including the family-focussed My First Fantasia.

This year's Fantasia will take place from Thursday, July 14 to Wednesday, August 3. More information is available at the festival's website.