July 16th, 2026 marks the 30th time that Montreal will host the Fantasia Film Festival. Fantasia, a literal combination of “Fantasy” and “Asia”, the two main focuses of the festival upon its founding, has grown to incorporate a focus on Canadian film through the Quebec focused “Les Fantastiques week-ends du Cinéma Québécois” program that unspools over the 2nd weekend of the festival. As well as the Septentrion Shadows programming shingle which focuses solely on Canadian Content. 

Fantasia also added a film market, Frontieres, along the way which has grown into one of the most important genre based film markets in the world, including spawning partnerships worldwide like the Frontieres market at the Cannes Film Festival. As Fantasia enters its 30th edition, it’s easy to see how it’s become one of the most important film festivals in the world. And here’s some of this year’s impressive lineup that has caught our eyes here at In The Seats.

COLONY

Director Yeon Sang-ho returns to the genre that made him a known commodity stateside after Train to Busan took the world by storm. He gives usanother zombie outbreak film that promises to be just as crowd pleasing and bombastic as its predecessor. Sang-ho returns to Fantasia screens after a decade when Train to Busan and Seoul Station both played Fantasia the same year. Colony is set inside a biotech conference where the outbreak starts to spread and the biotech engineers themselves have to fight back as the outside authorities seal them all inside the building to contain the contagion. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like it might be Die Hard meets Big Bang Theory with zombies in the mix and that has me very intrigued. Also, knowing this has played to raucous crowds in other parts of the world as well only builds the hype more.

WIND BREAKER

The live action adaptation of the beloved manga and anime of the same name, Wind Breaker debuted in Japan late last year and is finally making its International Premiere at this year’s Fantasia festival. And if the film manages to capture just a portion of the energy and tenaciousness of the first season of the anime, then it should have crowds cheering throughout. The story of delinquent Sakura finally finding a home and a reason to fight after moving to yet another new school may not be the most original tale, and yes, it takes inspiration from many high school dramas of the ilk as well asWalter Hill’s seminal The Warriors. But the way that the writers of the manga slowly start to turn Sakura into someone who does care is quite well done. Let’s hope it translates to a live action feature.

JUNCTION ROW

Accomplished short film/music video director Ashlea Wessel makes the jump to features with her debut film Junction Row. And she bloody well got Canadian genre royalty Katharine Isabelle (fresh off her appearance in the smash hit indie Backrooms) to be her star! This mixture of crime drama and supernatural/ alien thriller should be appealing to the Fantasia audience. Add in appearances from Tulsa King standout Glen Gould and another Canadian Genre icon in Julian Richings and Junction Row has all the makings of a sleeper hit, one of the possible ‘finds of the fest’.

GROTESQQQUE

Beloved anime director Atsushi Nishigori is the driving force behind celebrated anime like The Promised Neverland and Darling in the Franxx, as well as working in the animation department for Your Name, Kill La Kill, Gurren Lagann, and many more. He brings his newest creation to Fantasia’s Animation Plus program this year. Grotesqqque is an anthology film consisting of 3 parts (which I suspect is why the title features 3 QQQ’s), that is having its World Premiere at Fantasia. Aliens, Gyarus and Vampires are the centers of the three stories as Atsushi has coordinated a smorgasbord of voices from different backgrounds to voice his tale. The cast includes Idol singers from the group Nogizaka46, to veteran voice actors Rie Kugimiya, Rumi Okubo, Saori Hayami, and even renowned actor/singer Gen Hoshino (from Sion Sono’s masterpiece Love & Peace, a previous Fantasia selection).

MUM, I’M ALIEN PREGNANT

This year’s winner for best title goes to this Kiwi oddity is directed by the equally wildly named director duo Thunderlips. Equally bizarre and fascinating, the script for Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant sets out to answer the question in sure some small part of the internet is dying to know the answer to, what happens to an introvert who is obsessed with tentacles, yes as in hentai tentacles, suddenly crosses paths with a male that has said tentacles where his testicles should be. This New Zealand oddity has already played to rowdy audiences worldwide, picking up acclaim and believers as it goes, so there’s no reason to believe it won’t do the same in Montreal.

TOKYO BURST: CRIME CITY & THE SPECIALS

Fantasia alum Eiji Uchida (Love and Other Cults, Lowlife Love, The Naked Director) returns to the festival this year with not one but two vastly different films. Tokyo Burst: Crime City, dubbed a loosely based spinoff of Korea’s The Roundup series, promises to deliver the gritty grounded fights that the beloved Don Lee led Korean series has delivered for years now. Sota Fukushi plays the street wise rookie detective who works and enforces the Yakuza laden streets of his youth with an iron fist and Um Ki-joon plays the special agent from Korea assigned to him to solve a high profile case. All the trappings of the familiar buddy cop film with the promise of non stop action set in the streets of Tokyo, sign me up.

The Specials on the other hand leans more heavily into the more comedic side of the action when 5 hitmen of various ages are forced together in a desperate attempt to assassinate a reclusive Yakuza head. The plan? The five must infiltrate a dance competition and fare well enough that they arrive in the finals of the competition, directly in front of their target. Featuring Takashi Miike regulars, a Baby Assassins level of kookiness and a soundtrack packed with 80’s Japanese pop music, The Specials figures to be a fun night out.

FANTASIA’S RETRO SCREENINGS

I’d be remiss not to mention Fantasia’s Retro Screenings block, often a highlight of the festival. Frequently headlined by veteran programmer King-Wei Chu’s unearthed Shaw Brothers oddities. This year sees Arrow’s 2K restoration of The Delinquent, and the 35mm screening of the long lost Hong Kong Godfather. Also included here are the Shout Factory 4K restoration of City War starring Chow Yun-Fat and Ti Lung, a Vinegar Syndrome 4K restoration of a pre-Footloose Kevin Bacon thriller Forty Deuce, one of Takashi Miike’s most messed up fever dreams Gozu, Fantasia favorite anime Redline, and Bruce McDonald’s Canadian classic Pontypool.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

We’d be remiss not to touch briefly on some other picks that caught our eye from this year’s massive lineup. Belgium/ Netherlands co-production Attack on Paradise‘s description sounds a bit like Attack the Block meets The Raid and that’s intriguing. Sundance oddity Buddy has had me wanting to get my eyeballs on it since that festival bowed. The insane cast of The Fox mixed with its “Fantastic Mr. Fox” gone horribly wrong” type premise has us hooked. Kung Fu looks like a blast. Tristes Tropiques, a film about assassins trained from childhood taking their revenge looks to be a bloody good time (literally). Anymart‘s description of Clerks meets Falling Down got us instantly hooked. And Rupert Grint, yes, of Harry Potter fame, trying to come to grips with the fact that his newborn might actually be a demon in Nightborn just sounds like our cup of coffee.

For more information of these and all the other films, as well as ticketing and other festival details, head to https://fantasiafestival.com