The 29th Fantasia International Film Festival taking place from July 17 through August 3, 2025, in Montreal unveiled the first wave of films.

Films include Steve Pink’s Terrestrial, Kenichi Ugana’s I Fell in Love With a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn, Julie Pacino’s I Live Here Now, Hwang Wook’s The Woman, Hubert Davis’ The Well, Yasuhiro Aoki’s Chao, Kurtis David Harder’s Influencers, The Adams Family’s Mother of Flies, Alex Philips’ Anything That Moves, Shuhei Shibue’s Ya Boy Kongmin! The Movie, Brock Bodell’s Hellcat, and Yeum Moon-kyoung and Lee Jong-min’s Last Woman on Earth.

Steve Pink’s “Terrestrial”

A reunion weekend spirals out of control for four college friends when the host (Jermaine Fowler, Sorry to Bother You) a science fiction writer on the verge of newfound success, fights to maintain his sense of reality in the face of sudden, uncanny dangers. Cast includes James Morosini (I Love My Dad), Pauline Chalamet (Sex Life of College Girls), Edy Modica (Jury Duty), With Rob Yang (Succession) and Brendan Hunt (Ted Lasso). World Premiere.

Kenichi Ugana’s “I Fell in Love With a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn”

Screen star Shina Mizuhara has lost her passion for filmmaking and is now a rude and cynical mean machine. She decides to travel to New York with her perfect boyfriend who dumps her on arrival, leaving Shina without her wallet and cellphone. Speaking only Japanese, she meets Jack, a passionate z-grade director. He and his crew will convince her to star in their next film. Actress Ui Mihara (Lesson in Murder) delivers a glorious performance as Shina, conveying her journey to regain lost passion with moving honesty and precision. Estevan Muñoz perfectly embodies the spontaneity and charm of Jack. World Premiere.

Julie Pacino’s “I Live Here Now”

Lucy Fry (Bright) stars as Rose, a woman haunted by trauma and trapped in a motel where reality unravels, the film blurs the lines between past and present, dream and waking life, captured in vivid 16mm. Featuring an all-star supporting cast including Madeline Brewer (CAM), Sheryl Lee (Twin Peaks), Cara Seymour (Adaptation.), and an exceptionally slimy Matt Rife. World Premiere.

Shuhei Shibue’s “Ya Boy Kongmin! The Movie”

Zhuge Kongmin, the legendary military strategist of China’s War of the Three Kingdoms, has been inexplicably reincarnated in modern-day Tokyo. He’s now managing the career of a young amateur singer, Eiko. Convinced that her music could bring about universal peace, Kongmin engages in a series of schemes to get Eiko a place in a high-stakes pop-music competition. However, he who seeks peace must prepare for war… Featuring J-pop icons such as Avantgardey, Avu-chan from Queen Bees with renowned pianist Kamei Masaya, and Korean band &TEAM, and with a theme song by Lilas Ikuta from the group Yoasobi, Ya Boy Kongmin! North American Premiere.

Kurtis David Harder’s “Influencers”

Starring Cassandra Naud as the mysterious chameleon CW, along with her co-stars, Veronica Long (BILLY THE KID) and Jonathan Whitesell (HAPPY FACE), CW opens her heart to a beautiful new girlfriend, played by Lisa Delamar (SURVIVE). This time, jealousy rears its ugly head as CW locks in on a popular British Influencer named Charlotte (Georgina Campbell, BARBARIAN, LOVELY, DARK AND DEEP), who throws a wrench in her anniversary plans with Diane. Septentrion Shadows section. World Premiere.

Hwang Wook’s “The Woman”

An innocent exchange of strawberries and a secondhand appliance takes a very dark turn for Sun-kyung when it precedes her classmate’s suspicious suicide, and puts her on the trail of a mysterious, sinister stranger. World Premiere.

William Bagley’s “Hold the Fort”

A HOA turns out to be more troublesome than usual in this wildly amusing, FX-heavy freak-out about newly minted suburbanites unexpectedly forced to take part in a struggle against monstrous forces in HOLD THE FORT, from writer/director William Bagley. Starring Chris Mayers (OZARK), Haley Leary, sketch comic YouTube creator Julian Smith, and Tordy Clark (GLORIOUS), and featuring veteran stunt performer Hamid-Reza Benjamin Thompson (BLACK PANTHER, AVENGERS: ENDGAME). World Premiere.

Hubert Davis’s “The Well”

For his narrative feature debut, the Oscar-nominated documentarian Hubert Davis (HARDWOOD, BLACK ICE) looks to the future with a bleak prediction of environmental collapse. As the world’s resources dwindle and a deadly virus keeps people apart, a family protects their fresh water source from outsiders. When a young, injured man disrupts their solitude, and their daughter’s defiance threatens to reveal their precious well to another camp led by a charismatic but steely matriarch, danger brings the two factions together in a thrilling ride. THE WELL sets up a chilling scenario of what could happen in our very near future and is executive-produced by Clement Virgo (BROTHER) and Damon D’Oliveira (WILDHOOD); and stars Arnold Pinnock (THE PORTER), Shailyn Pierre-Dixon (THE BOOK OF NEGROS), Idrissa Sanogo (ROBIN HOOD), and Canadian screen and stage royalty Sheila McCarthy (WOMEN TALKING) as the matriarch Gabriel. Septentrion Shadows section. World Premiere.

Jun Ishikawa’s “Honeko Akabane’s Bodyguards”

Despite her popularity, charm, kindness, and sense of justice, schoolgirl Honeko Akabane has hordes of assassins after her, although she doesn’t know it. Her biological father, whom she never met, hires a loud-mouthed young brawler to protect her without her knowledge, because Honeko’s purity and innocence must be maintained. Fortunately, he’s not alone. Director Jun Ishikawa pulls out all the stops with this exhilarating and hilarious adaptation of Masamitsu Nigatsu’s manga, adapted by scriptwriter Hiroyuki Yatsu (Takashi Miike’s AS THE GODS WILL). North American Premiere.

Yasuhiro Aoki’s “Chao”

A junior designer at the leading shipbuilding company might have the key to peaceful relations between humans and merfolk. His role in achieving detente, however, suddenly becomes a lot stranger when the mermaid princess announces that she has selected Stephen as her fiancé! A 21st-century reworking of Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid tale set in a psychedelic, cyberpunk Shanghai, the frenzied and fantastical romantic comedy CHAO comes care of that most distinctive and inventive of anime factories, Studio 4ºC. The first full feature film from director Yasuhiro Aoki (BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT, TWEENY WITCHES) took seven years and over 100,000 drawings to bring to life, and the hard work has paid off. Animation Plus section. North American Premiere.

Alex Phillips’s “Anything That Moves”

Shot in stunning Super 16mm, ANYTHING THAT MOVES is the steamy follow-up feature from director Alex Phillips who made audiences laugh and wretch with 2022’s ALL JACKED UP AND FULL OF WORMS, a World Premiere at Fantasia). The film follows sex worker and bike courier Liam on his adventures making clients happy with orgasms and sandwiches. Liam’s joyful existence is soon interrupted by the arrival of a serial killer, which throws his life into the realm of paranoia and conspiracy, casting a dark shadow over the city of Chicago. The film features real adult stars Nina Hartley and Ginger Lynn Allen, as well as a brilliant music score by Cue Shop. Underground section. World Premiere.

Brock Bodell’s “Hellcat”

A woman (Dakota Gorman) wakes in the back of a moving camper trailer with a badly infected wound. A voice (Todd Terry) from the truck towing it tells her they must reach a mysterious doctor within the hour or she’ll suffer a horrific fate. Thus begins HELLCAT, the feature debut of writer/editor/director Brock Bodell, featuring SNL’s James Austin Johnson as the voice of a late-night DJ on a supernatural call-in show, and gripping performances from supporting cast Jordan Mullins and Liz Atwater. World Premiere.

John and Zelda Adams and Toby Poser’s “Mother of Flies”

When a young woman faces a deadly diagnosis, she seeks dark magic from a witch in the woods… but every cure has costs. Written and directed by John and Zelda Adams and Toby Poser (The Adams Family), who also star, shot, edited, and scored, MOTHER OF FLIES is the latest creation from the filmmaking family behind such singular landmarks as THE DEEPER YOU DIG, HELLBENDER, and WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS, each of which has World Premiered at Fantasia. World Premiere.

Radik Eshimov’s “Burning”

One stormy night, a fire engulfs a family home. In a nearby convenience store, neighbors gossip and speculate: was it black magic, a woman’s madness, or a man crushed by life? Director Radik Eshimov’s BURNING stars Aysanat Edigeeva (TAXI), Ömürbek Izrailov (DEAL AT THE BORDER), and Kyrgyz Republic People’s Artist Kalicha Seydalieva. North American Premiere.

Jody Wilson’s “The Bearded Girl”

Jody Wilson captures the charm of a fairy tale with a Western sensibility in THE BEARDED GIRL. Cleo is ready to spread her wings and, tired of tradition and feeling like an oddball, she leaves her sheltered carnival life to find love and adventure. Starring Anwen O’Driscoll of BET and YOU CAN LIVE FOREVER as the next generation of sword-swallowing bearded women and MAD MEN’s Jessica Paré as her overbearing mother. Septentrion Shadows section. World Premiere.

Rodolfo and Arturo Ambriz’s “I Am Frankelda”

The task of crafting Mexico’s very first stop-motion animated feature film could not have fallen to four more worthy hands than those of Rodolfo and Arturo Ambriz, proteges of Guillermo del Toro. I AM FRANKELDA explores the challenging childhood of Francisca Imelda, and how she came to befriend Herneval, prince of the realm that lies on the other side of our dreams. Animation Plus section. North American Premiere.

Yeum Moon-kyoung and Lee Jong-min’s “The Last Woman on Earth”

Hanah’s pitch for her film school project, a satirical revenge story against men, isn’t going over well with her classmates. Especially Cheol, who accuses her of misandry (which she doesn’t deny). Cheol, meanwhile, can’t get funding for his own film because of the lack of female perspective in his script. A very fraught creative partnership begins. Yeum Moon-kyoung and Lee Jong-min star together in what’s also their feature directorial debut, THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH a quirky and immensely entertaining comedy about the unique world of filmmaking and the challenges of gender equality in cinematic storytelling. International Premiere.

Adam C. Briggs and Sam Dixon’s “A Grand Mockery”

A Grand Mockery the feature debut from co-directors Adam C. Briggs and Sam Dixon, is a grimy, experimental descent into Australia’s dark underbelly, rendered in the raw textures of 8mm film. Starring Dixon as Josie, a man plagued by mental illness, addiction, and compulsion, the film follows his increasingly horrific, near-ritualistic wandering from Brisbane’s mundane outskirts to the sublime horrors of the Sunshine Coast. Underground section. International Premiere.