Eye For Film >> Festivals >> A-Z >> Fantastic Fest >> 2026
This year's Fantastic Fest returns to the Alamo Drafthouse in South Lamar, Austin, Texas, with a special focus on new discoveries which means that even if you've been following this year's genre festivals closely, you can look forward to something different. It opens with twisty Amazonian forest thriller Beware Boiuna and closes with survival horror The Swallow.
With contributions from around the world, this year's festival is particularly strong on Eastern European films, with a strong artistic focus. It still finds room for crowd-pleasing horror comedies, however, and even for puppets. There's also a fabulous gues line-up, giving fans the chance to mingle with some of the sharpest creative talents in the industry.
The festival runs from 17 to 24 September.
View previous years coverage of the Fantastic Fest festival:
Fantastic Latest Reviews
Delve deep into the world of conspiracy theories in North America in this documentary.
A disaffected teenage girl must team up with a renegade witch to protect her little sister from a murderous coven determined to use her as a human sacrifice in an apocalyptic ritual on Halloween night.
When three fathers volunteer to chaperone their teenage daughters’ school trip, the initially idyllic getaway quickly reveals brutal social dynamics that have them in over their heads.
A lonesome guy desperate for human connection decides to steal the bicycle of the town’s self-appointed vigilante; as the 'sole witness' of the crime, he is inducted into joining her nightly escapades.
Alex has proof, and he wants you to see it.
Amidst the chaos of a mysterious war, two victims of an attack take refuge at a cottage in the English countryside, where an enigmatic caretaker insists they must stick together.
In 1974 LA suburbs, a single mother faces violent attacks by an invisible entity. When no one believes her, she seeks help from paranormal investigators, sparking a notorious documented supernatural case.
Grimdark fantasy, an epic quest, buckets of blood… all puppets.
A dying man returns to his childhood home to film messages for his son when he discovers a supernatural presence haunting the isolated cabin in this emotional ghost movie.
In Venezuela, the heiress of a colonial cacao plantation and its entrenched guardians enter a duel for the land, where the only harvest left is violence.
Fantastic Fest Features
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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