Once a year, my body starts buzzing with anticipation, my mind theorizing as to what films will be playing, what guests will attend and what discoveries I will be making, until the Fantasia film festival program is inevitably revealed and expectedly blows my brain to bits. What follows is excitement akin to the one that comes with packing your bag and knowing that in the morning, you will be taking a plane to a wonderful and exotic place, where nothing will matter but the journey at hand.

And while there is no luggage to pack and very little geographical space to cover, the places I’m about to visit and the sights I’m about to see will rival the world’s most impressive wonders. I’m about to embark on a cinematic odyssey unlike any other, and yours truly will do his best to bring you every thrilling detail of this 23-day descent into madness. This blog will be driven by pure rabid enthusiasm, and what I lack in old-timey wisdom, I will make up tenfold with youthful enthusiasm. For having experienced Fantasia before—at a much more limited and barely legal age, it has to be said!—I know that a lot of sleep deprivation and unhealthy life choices await! This blog will shed light on the legendary festival’s lifestyle, as well as integrate reviews and insight on the best and the worst of this year’s gigantic anniversary edition. A hint:

RED STATE, Kevin Smith’s first, hotly anticipated foray into the horror genre, is just around the corner, followed by British sensation ATTACK THE BLOCK, Yudai Yamaguchi’s sports-splatterfest follow-up to BATTLEFIELD BASEBALL appropriately entitled DEADBALL and the world premiere of THE THEATER BIZARRE, which—as you know already—features more talent than you can wrap your head around. Add to that a handful of (most probably) equally crazy films such as the survival thriller A LONELY PLACE TO DIE, the science-fiction indie ANOTHER EARTH, a repertory screening of THE WICKER MAN with Robin Hardy in attendance…and that’s just a glimpse of the first weekend!

Stay tuned for Fango’s own ALMOST FAMOUS experiment, every day of the Fantasia film festival, which takes Montreal by storm from July 14 to August 7!

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