Set to take place online from 5-25 August 2021, with the possibility of adding some physical events later on still wide open, the 25^th edition of the Montreal-based Fantasia International Film Festival has announced the first titles in this year’s programme. The full line-up, as Cineuropa learnt, will be revealed in July.

Featuring an enhanced focus on Japanese cinema, there will also be room for American productions, starting with world premieres such as Edoardo Vitaletti’s The Last Thing Mary Saw, Hellbender – directed by John, Toby and Zelda Adams, aka the Adams family – Mikhael Bassilli and Luc Walpoth’s Baby Money, and finally Richard Bates Jr’s Kin Knight, about the high priest and priestess of a coven of witches in a small California community.

With Canada represented by Mark O’Brien’s The Righteous and Seth A Smith’s Tin Can – showing a parasitologist studying a mysterious fungal infection until she one day wakes up in a human-sized tin can – three European productions made the cut as well, starting with the Spanish-French Ilargi Guztiak. Todas las lunas [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Igor Legarreta
scheda film], shot in the Basque language, by Igor Legarreta. “The director masterfully employs the tenets of vampire lore as the basis for an intimate epic dealing with the themes of life and death, love and loneliness, devotion and intolerance. Impeccably crafted, it ranks among the best of vampire cinema,” it was stated.

More fangs will feature in the animated Little Vampire [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Joann Sfar, based on his own graphic novel series and focusing on a friendship between a vampire and a human boy. Finally, Estonia’s Rasmus Merivoo will introduce Kratt [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Rasmus Merivoo
scheda film]: a Terminator-like demonic spirit that must always be fed work. “It’s pretty safe to say that no other movie at Fantasia 2021 will reach Kratt’s delightful preposterousness – unless another Estonian dry comedy/fantasy/political commentary comes along to outplace it,” noted the organisers. “Kratt is like a mullet haircut,” the director told Cineuropa; “business in the front, party at the back – perfect for those who enjoy things a bit wild, weird and liberatingly entertaining.”

Find more information on the titles announced here.