FANTASIA UNDERGROUND UNLEASHES AN AWARD-WINNING, iPHONE-SHOT SCI-FI COMEDY

First title revealed for the 2021 Fantasia Underground section

Born out of an acting workshop and shot on an iPhone, the charmingly inventive BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES focuses on a small group of friends trying to make sense of a time loop that gives them a two-minute insight into the immediate future. A directorial debut from newcomer Junta Yamaguchi, the film plays like ONE CUT FROM THE DEAD meets TENET and uses meager resources to create a hilarious and crowd-pleasing film that’s already wowed audiences and won awards at BIFFF and Fantaspoa. NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE.

FIRST TITLE REVEALED FOR THE FANTASIA’S DOCS FROM THE EDGE SECTION 

INLAND EMPIRE meets EVIL DEAD in bizarre VHS documentary

The 80s were the most fruitful years for direct-to-video oddities and in Uruguay, ACT OF VIOLENCE IN A YOUNG JOURNALIST, by Manuel Lamas, is the strangest of them all. Never seen outside of its country of origin, the film has been celebrated as a cult film (à la THE ROOM) by homegrown cinephiles and camp aficionados, while its origins have remained shrouded in mystery for decades… Until now! The behind-the-scenes mystery thickens in Emilio Silva Torres’ feature debut STRAIGHT TO VHS as we tag along on a quest with eccentric characters and through creepy locations to find the man behind one the oddest VHSes ever made. INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE.

FANTASIA’S CAMERA LUCIDA SECTION UNVEILS FIRST TITLES

Isolation, global crises, and shifting belief systems are at the heart of the Camera Lucida section this year, Fantasia’s sidebar dedicated to showcasing boundary-pushing, auteur-driven works at the intersection of genre and arthouse cinema  

Like so many actors, Takumi Saitoh (playing a version of himself) is out of work due to COVID-19. He sits at home, and wonders what to do. Until kaiju expert Shinji Higuchi (ATTACK ON TITAN, SHIN GODZILLA) smartly suggests he buy capsule monsters online to defeat the virus. As film productions shut down across Japan, maestro Shunji Iwai turned to Zoom, the online lingua franca of these pandemic times, for THE 12 DAY TALE OF THE MONSTER THAT DIED IN 8. An ambitious slice of lockdown-life where fact, fiction, and inner worlds blend together. NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE.

Since birth, Uno (Luciano Pedro Jr.) – son of a taxi man – has had the peculiar ability of talking to cars. Together with his unhinged uncle he sets out to modernize his father’s fleet for a new conscientious age. Enter Carro Rei, the sentient car of the future…. and an apt emblem for its undoing. Casting a critical light on Brazil’s ongoing populist nightmare and the limits of progressivism in a machine-driven, late-capitalist framework, Renata Pinheiro’s KING CAR takes place in an ominous junkyard universe. A film of the moment, wherein our machine fetish becomes a self-fulfilling tragedy. NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE.

Canadian genre experimentalist Seth A. Smith (LOWLIFE, THE CRESCENT) returns to the section with TIN CAN, a timely, yet thoroughly unpredictable science-fiction-cum-survival-thriller and a marvel of Sci-Fi design. In a world being ravaged by a mysterious fungal infection, Fret is the leading parasitologist studying to control it – until she’s kidnapped and wakes up in a human-sized tin can. NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE.

In AGNES, the latest from prolific filmmaker Mickey Reece (CLIMATE OF THE HUNTER), a dissident priest and a bright-eyed neophyte are sent to investigate rumours of demonic possession at a convent. Both will be met with temptation as the strange goings-on test their faith, as well as that of one specific nun in residence. This structurally daring film tests the narrow-minded restrictions of (self) narrative and memory, as well as those of institutional religion. Starring Hayley McFarland (THE CONJURING), Jake Horowitz (THE VAST OF NIGHT), and Ben Hall (MINARI), and featuring Sean Gunn, Rachel True, Chris Browning, and Molly C. Quinn. INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE.

All titles will compete for the AQCC-Camera Lucida prize, awarded by a jury of critics from the Québec’s Critics Association (AQCC), member of the FIPRESCI.