10 highlights from the 2025 Fantasia Film Festival program

The Fantasia International Film Festival is back for its 29th edition with a stacked program of screenings, workshops and launch events from July 16 through Aug. 3, 2025. The Fantasia website is now live with the complete lineup of over 125 features and 200+ shorts available to be explored. Screenings will take place primarily at Concordia Hall and J.A. de Sève cinemas, with some events at Cinéma du Musée and BBAM! Gallery.

The festival opens on July 16 with the Montreal premiere of Ari Aster’s latest, Eddington, and closes with Genndy Tartakovsky’s Fixed, an adult animated comedy that’s lewd, rude, raunchy and riotously funny. Fantasia will also present special career achievement awards to Tartakovsky for his work on animated classics like Powerpuff Girls, Primal and Samurai Jack.

Danny Elfman will also receive a Cheval Noir Career Achievement Award for his decades-long contribution to film music on projects as diverse as Beetlejuice, Fifty Shades of Grey, The Frighteners and The Nightmare Before Christmas (which will be screening at the festival).

Canadian icon Sheila McCarthy will also be awarded a Canadian Trailblazer award for his contribution to films like I’ve Heard the Mermaids Sing, Umbrella Academy and Transplant. On the Quebec side, Anne-Marie Gélinas will receive the Denis-Héroux award for her contribution to Quebec cinema as a producer of films like Beans, Turbo Kid and Chienne de vie. And finally, for Troma fans, the great Lloyd Kaufman will receive the Indie Maverick Award. Check the schedule for special events and master classes associated with all these awards.

With something for every flavour of genre fan, one of the longest and largest film festivals in the world, it can be overwhelming to pick out highlights from the schedule. We’ve done some of the work for you. Here are 10 films worth adding to your schedule at Fantasia 2025.

The Forbidden City

Two unlikely people, a chef and an immigrant martial artist, search (and fight!) for the truth in the underbelly of Rome in this massively entertaining mix of martial arts, crime and romance. Unquestionably one of the best films of 2025, The Forbidden City establishes Fantasia alum Gabriele Mainetti (2016’s They Call Me Jeeg and 2023’s Freaks Out) as one of the best commercial filmmakers in movies today, with a cinematic knockout that’s guaranteed to slap a huge smile on your face.

The Undertone

Nina Kiri (The Handmaid’s Tale) stars as podcaster Evy. Tending to her dying mother, her job as a co-host of The Undertone is the one thing that keeps her tethered to normalcy. When her co-host Justin (Kris Holden-Ried, The Umbrella Academy) presents 10 disturbing audio files of a man and his wife, the story they tell becomes weirdly connected to Evy and her mother. 

Anna Kiri

A young delinquent narrowly escapes a violent altercation with a local gangster after a robbery gone wrong. Anna (Catherine Brunet, Farador) seizes the chance to turn her life around, but soon realizes the price of freedom is high and the past is not so easily left behind. Francis Bordeleau’s second feature is a unique exploration of a young woman’s emancipation and a quest to find her voice through relationships and writing.

Cielo

Eight-year-old Santa (Fer Monserrat), a plucky Indigenous girl, seeks to rescue her mother from violence and poverty. With unlikely allies, she performs miracles across Bolivia’s sublime landscapes, where survival becomes a sacred, elemental act of love and divine ritual. Cielo, directed by Alberto Sciamma (Jericho Mansions) and featuring an extraordinary lead performance from its gifted young star, presents itself as an achingly beautiful elemental tale, packed with the sacred energy of magical realism

Contact Lens

Paying homage to Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, Contact Lens, the feature debut by Lu Ruiqi, portrays a woman aching to break free — searching for a transformative experience as she escapes the rituals and expectations of her existence. With fresh and playful eyes, the young filmmaker from China reinvents and reimagines a film that has been called greatest of all time.

Fucktoys

Written, directed by, and starring Annapurna Sriram (Billions), Fucktoys reimagines the classic Fool’s Journey through a radically queer, maximalist lens, following a sex worker living in “Trashtown” who discovers she’s been cursed. Hilarious, raw and full of soul, it’s a glitter-coated, piss-soaked fairytale for the forgotten. 

Angel’s Egg

Angel’s Egg remains one of the most beloved but still rarely seen classics of 1980s anime. Now, a new restoration the film is finally available to see on the big screen. Can two broken souls in a broken world keep a mysterious, perhaps divine egg intact? A rare, early work from two of the biggest names in anime, Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell) and Yoshitaka Amano (Final Fantasy) emerges from the shadows at last in a special 40th anniversary 4K restoration.

Lurker

Théodore Pellerin stars in Lurker as a retail clerk who meets a rising pop star, and takes the opportunity to edge his way into the in-crowd. But as the line between friend and fan blurs beyond recognition, access and proximity become a matter of life and death. Rising star Pellerin continues his ascent with an incredible performance in Alex Russell’s feature debut.

Burning

In this film from Kyrgyzstan set in a suburban village, a house belonging to a young family who lost their firstborn catches fire. Neighbours say the house is cursed, as no one understands how the fire started, and witnesses give completely different versions of what happened. However, they all share something in common: the mystery that surrounds the house and its inhabitants.

Noise

From South Korea, director Kim Soo-jin brings a terrifying horror thriller to Fantasia with the story of Ju-young, a young woman with a hearing impairment who decides to investigate the inexplicable disappearance of her sister, who was last seen in her apartment. Feeling more and more cornered, Ju-young begins to hear strange sounds and sense an evil presence in the apartment.

For the complete program and to buy tickets, please visit the Fantasia website.

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