Fantasia 2023 first wave announced

Festival to include a focus on South Korea

by Jennie Kermode

An Tae-jin's The Night Owl
An Tae-jin's The Night Owl Photo: Fantasia International Film Festival

The first wave of films has been announced for this year's Fantasia International Film Festival, providing a taste of what attendees at the Montreal-based festival can look forward to. In celebration of 60 years of diplomatic relations between Canada and the Republic of Korea, this year's festival will have a special focus on South Korean cinema, including the North American première of Jung Bum-shik's horror anthology New Normal, An Tae-jin's period thriller The Night Owl, and hotly anticipated The Roundup sequel The Roundup: No Way Out. There will also be a selection of the country's most impressive genre hits from the past two decades.

Lovely, Dark And Deep
Lovely, Dark And Deep Photo: Fantasia International Film Festival

Alongside this, there will be a screening of the latest work by the Adams family, Where The Devil Roams, which follows a group of sideshow performers in pursuit of immortality, plus Larry Fessenden's vampire chiller Blackout and Jenn Wexler's occult thriller The Sacrifice Game. Highlights from new directors include Teresa Sutherland's Lovely, Dark, And Deep, about mysterious goings-on in a remote forest, and Rec Revan's science fiction tragedy Aporia, which asks thorny ethical questions about efforts to recover a dead loved one.

The festival will also see a special award go to 85-year-old Canadian underground filmmaker Larry Kent, and will screen new 4K restorations of his landmark Vancouver Trilogy alongside a selection of his other works.

Fantasia runs from 13 July to 2 August. The full line-up will be revealed in early July.

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