Special Report: Fantasia 2026

About this episode

Mike previews the Fantasia International Film Festival 2026, highlighting key films and events.

July in Montreal means Fantasia is back. Mike offers his annual curtain raiser for the Fantasia International Film Festival — one of the great genre film festivals on the planet — running July 16th through August 2nd, 2026. This year's lineup spans Nicolas Winding Refn's mist-shrouded sci-fi nightmare Her Private Hell (opening night), a 147-minute samurai epic from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Agnieszka Smoczynska's A.I. thriller Hot Spot starring Noomi Rapace, and Jenn Wexler's The Last Temptation — the Becky sequel nobody asked for but everyone needed. Closing Night belongs to The Fox, an Australian dark comedy with Olivia Colman voicing a talking fox with opinions about your fiancée. The Retro section alone is worth the trip: 35mm screenings for Robert Lepage's Le Confessionnal and Bruce McDonald's Pontypool, a 4K restoration of Paul Morrissey's Forty Deuce, and the world premiere restoration of Metal Messiah — a 1978 Canadian glam-rock sci-fi film that has been hiding in the dark for nearly fifty years. Plus, Takashi Shimizu receives a career honor and brings two new films. It's a full plate. Become a supporter of this podcast…

People in this episode

Host: Mike

Topics covered

• Fantasia International Film Festival
• genre film
• film festival
• movie reviews
• sci-fi
• dark comedy

Keywords

• Fantasia
• film festival
• sci-fi
• dark comedy
• movie reviews
• Nicolas Winding Refn
• Takashi Shimizu

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Fantasia International Film Festival

Books & works: Her Private Hell, Hot Spot, The Last Temptation, The Fox, Le Confessionnal, Pontypool, Forty Deuce, Metal Messiah

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