The inaugural Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas has come to a close with the world premiere of “The Final Wave” and an apocalyptic closing night.
The fantastic fest schedule is a list of all the events that are happening during the festival. It includes both the U.S. and international events, so there should be something for everyone!
The BLACK PHONE, from Universal Pictures, Blumhouse, and Crooked Highway, Netflix’s THERE’S SOMEONE INSIDE YOUR HOUSE, SYFY’s MASSACRE AT A SLUMBER PARTY, and Shudder’s V/H/S 94, as well as the U.S. Premieres of IFC’s A BANQUET and THE INDEPENDENTS, and Closing Night Film NIGHT OF SILENCE, join the 2021
9 September 2021, AUSTIN, TX — Fantastic Fest is pleased to announce the last wave of programming for the festival’s 16th edition, which will include the largest variety of strange and amazing films from across the world, which will play in Austin, TX, from September 23rd to September 30th.
Fantastic Fest Director of Programming Annick Mahnert adds, “Working on this last wave has been a genuine pleasure for the programming team.” “With films from Senegal, Latvia, Iran, and Kazakhstan, with themes ranging from adolescent assassins, circus freaks, serial murderers, and creepy youngsters toying with deadly abilities, there is no question that the Fantastic Fest audience will be enthralled by the program. 2021 is shaping up to be a wonderful year for Genre, and we’re thrilled to have acquired so many outstanding films. We can’t wait to reconnect with the Alamo Drafthouse audience and talk about our upcoming lineup with you.”
The World Premiere of THE PHONE IN BLACK, written by Scott Derrickson (DOCTOR STRANGE, SINISTER series) and Austin screenwriter C. Smith, is the first studio title to be announced.
Based on a short tale by Joe Hill and directed by Robert Cargill (DOCTOR STRANGE, SINISTER series). The much-anticipated horror thriller from Universal Pictures, Blumhouse, and Crooked Highway reunites filmmaker Derrickson and four-time Oscar winner Ethan Hawke (SINISTER) in one of the most frightening Blumhouse pictures ever.
A BANQUET (IFC – Un Certain Regard 2021), a frightening psychological thriller about a mother’s love for her daughter, and THE INNOCENTS (Cannes – Un Certain Regard 2021), a beautiful Norwegian drama about youngsters with magical abilities, are among the studio’s other releases. THERE’S SOMEONE INSIDE YOUR HOUSE, a violent and extremely entertaining slasher from filmmaker Patrick Brice (CREEP), and SYFY’s SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE, a modern and hilarious remake of the 1982 slasher cult classic helmed by Fantastic Fest alumni Danishka Esterhazy, are among the World Premieres (LEVEL 16).
Last but not least, Fantastic Fest is pleased to announce that Camille Griffin’s pitch-black comedy SILENT NIGHT, starring Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, and Roman Griffin Davis, will conclude the festival (JOJO RABBIT). You’re invited to witness the weirdest holiday party of the year, as a family gathers for a high-stakes Christmas dinner in Griffin’s directorial debut, in keeping with this year’s festival theme.
This last wave of Fantastic Fest films includes 37 feature film titles, 56 short film choices, and one pre-fest showing, including global, US, and regional debuts.
On September 22, we’re thrilled to host a special pre-fest screening of Utopia’s brand new 35th anniversary restoration of RAD, with star Bill Allen in attendance. Arrive early to see a pre-show bike stunt outside the theater, sponsored by Rambler Sparkling Water, featuring the riders of Austin’s 512 Wheelie Crew as well as some surprise guests.
GroundUp Music has teamed together with Alamo Drafthouse Cinema to offer seven silent cinema masterpieces reinterpreted by five different GroundUp Music musicians. The festival will screen QUEEN OF MARS AELITA, a 1924 Soviet silent film with a new soundtrack by Chris Bullock of Snarky Puppy. On Fantastic Fest @HOME, four more film pairs will screen: House of Waters with the three shorts MENILMONTANT (1926), LE VOYAGE DANS LA LUNE (1902), and BALLET MECANIQUE (1923); PRD Mais with WAXWORKS (1924); Sirintip with THE LOST WORLD (1925); and Bob Lanzetti with NOSFERATU (1925). (1922). Alamo On Demand will then have all seven titles accessible. Later this year, at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema’s soon-to-open Manhattan theater, certain projects will be presented as live score events.
The choice to go hybrid in 2021 was a no-brainer after a successful virtual event in 2020. Fantastic Fest @HOME will air on Alamo On Demand from September 30 to November 11. Our new accessibility effort will be sponsored by Rev.com.
“Offering a virtual alternative with a reasonable badge price was the first step in establishing access,” explains Ahbra Perry, Head of Alamo On Demand. “With the help of our friends at Rev.com, we’ll be able to provide Closed Captions for the virtual films and shorts that don’t have their own. That is a significant step forward, and hopefully just the beginning.”
Over 30 films from the current festival program, including ALONE WITH YOU, LUZIFER, AFTER BLUE, and ASSASSINATION OF CHILDREN, will be accessible online. Films will be available for 48-hour periods to badge holders. We’re also thrilled to have an unique selection of Fantastic Fest films from previous years, many of which are hard to locate, accessible for the length of the virtual festival, as well as a virtual closing night party presented by Fantastic Fest @ Home sponsor Alter.
Update on COVID Safety Protocols
While evidence of vaccination is preferred, the festival must now accept a negative COVID test from a state-approved test provider within 24 hours of each day’s screenings due to a state mandate. As spectators enter the theater for all Fantastic Fest films, festival personnel will check for either vaccination cards or test results. Attendees who have a vaccination card will be issued a bracelet to make the process of attending numerous screenings more convenient. Additionally, while not eating or drinking, masks must be worn at all times inside.
THE FEATURE FILM LINEUP FOR THE FINAL WAVE IS AS FOLLOWS:
AELITA: QUEEN OF MARS
1924, Russia
Chris Bullock’s Score, 113 minutes, has its world premiere.
Yakov Protazanov is the director.
A silent science fiction film produced by Soviet director Yakov Protazanov with a new soundtrack by Chris Bullock, a saxophone and multi-instrumentalist who has won four Grammy awards as a longstanding member and composer for Snarky Puppy.
BABY ASSASSINS
Japan in the year 2021
95 minutes, international premiere
Hugo Sakamoto is the director.
When two teenage assassins have a run-in with the Yakuza, their preparations are thrown into disarray. Bummer!
A BANQUET
2021, United Kingdom
97 minutes, US Premiere
Ruth Paxton is the director.
Betsey, the oldest daughter of a widowed mother, finds herself unable to eat for no apparent reason. Betsey considers this a spiritual gift rather than a disease, a view that jeopardizes her family’s unity.
BELLE
Japan in the year 2021
Premiere in Texas, 122 minutes
Mamoru Hosoda is the director.
Suzu is a timid small-town girl who moonlights as a pop singer in the digital world known as “U.” Suzu is motivated to seek out its owner in the real world when a strange dragon interrupts one of her concerts.
FRIDAY THE 13TH
USA, 2021
84 minutes, world premiere
Casey Tebo is the director.
When Black Friday customers mutate into violent monsters, a motley crew of toy store workers gets more than they bargained for.
THE BLACK PHONE
USA, 2021
102 minutes, world premiere
Scott Derrickson is the director.
After being kidnapped by a child murderer and imprisoned in a soundproof cellar, a 13-year-old boy begins getting calls from the perpetrator’s past victims on a disconnected phone.
ORANGES BLOODY
France in the year 2021
102 minutes, North American Premiere
Jean-Christophe Meurisse is the director.
In this startling dark comedy, an apparently innocuous glimpse into the everyday lives of individuals living in modern-day France goes totally crazy.
SECRET COP
Iceland in the year 2021
98 minutes, North American Premiere
Hannes Thór Halldórsson is the director.
In the Reykjavik police department, Bussi is the best and most irresponsible officer. When he’s teamed up with Hördur, Gardabaer’s best and sexiest policeman, after foiling a bank robbery, passions ignite. On a professional and personal level
DEALER
Belgium in the year 2021
104 minutes, world premiere
Jeroen Perceval is the director.
Johnny is an Antwerp street smart youngster who survives by moving narcotics. When he strikes up a relationship with one of his customers, an actress concerned about staying relevant, they both hope for a fresh start.
THE KING OF THE DEER
Japan in the year 2021
Premiere in the United States, 114 minutes
Masashi Ando and Masayuki Miyaji are the directors.
Enslaved warrior Van may possess the cure to a sickness known as Black Wolf Fever in the Kingdom of Aquafa, which is under Zol’s control. A search starts as he escapes the mines.
THE STORY OF THE DEVIL
1986, France
4K Restoration World Premiere, 78 minutes
Bernard Launois is the director.
Mummies! Mutants who are Nazis! Ghost horses! Stupid goddamn ghost horses! And, oh no, keep an eye out for the pirate ship! DEVIL STORY is a caustic anti-human geyser of sanity-proof mayhem that comes directly from the armpit of the 80s French trash-horror cuckooverse, entirely original, nearly completely unseen.
EXECUTION EXECUTION EXECUTION EXECU
Russia in the year 2021
130 minutes, North American Premiere
Lado Kvataniya is the director.
Issa Valentinovich is congratulating himself on his promotion to police chief when he receives a phone call informing him that the serial murderer case that launched his career may not be solved.
FIRE’S EYES
USA, 1983
4K Restoration 86 minutes, world premiereutes
Avery Crounse is the director.
The iconic American folk horror film, which has been inaccessible on home video for decades, is now available in a stunning 4K restoration supervised by director Avery Crounse from Severin Films.
SCARED TO DEATH
2021: Italy vs. Belgium
140 minutes, international premiere
Gabriele Mainetti is the director.
After circus director Israel vanishes during WWII in Italy, four performers with unique abilities travel in search of him and unwittingly fall into a trap set by an SS Officer who is obsessed with finding them.
GLASSHOUSE
South Africa in the year 2021
94 minutes, US Premiere
Kelsey Egan is the director.
A matriarch tries to safeguard her children in a perilous dystopia by shielding them from the harsh realities of life.
HOMEBOUND
2021, United Kingdom
75 minutes, world premiere
Sebastian Godwin is the director.
A vacation to the countryside for a father and his new fiancée turns out to be far from dreamy when his children feel the home is a bit too crowded…
MISSING CELEBRITY: HOSTAGE
2021, South Korea
94 minutes, North American Premiere
Gam-sung PIL is the director.
In HOSTAGE: MISSING CELEBRITY, a no-holds-barred thriller in which the Korean celebrity plays himself, Hwang Jung-action min’s film skills are put to the test.
THE INNOCENTS
Norway in the year 2021
Premiere in the United States, 117 minutes
Eskil Vogt is the director.
A group of youngsters discovers they have unexplainable psychic abilities. Will they utilize them for good… or for nefarious purposes?
LUZIFER
Austria in the year 2021
103 minutes, North American Premiere
Peter Brunner is the director.
Johannes, a guy with a child’s mentality, lives with his God-fearing mother in the Austrian Alps. When a developer begins purchasing property in order to construct a cable car, their lives are flipped upside down, with terrible results.
THRESHOLDING THRESHOLDING THRESHOLDING HOLD
Austria in the year 2021
90 minutes, world premiere
Johannes Grenzfurthner is the director.
To better understand and treat his tinnitus, an IT expert confines himself in his flat and sets up a makeshift lab. His experiment will inevitably end in disaster.
MLUNGU WAM WAM WAM WAM WAM WAM WAM WA
South Africa in the year 2021
Premiere in the United States, 92 minutes
Jenna Cato Bass is the director.
As a daughter attempts to rescue her mother from the clutches of her mystery employer, the tremors of apartheid resonate through a family.
NR. 10
2021, Netherlands, Belgium
103 minutes, world premiere
Alex van Warmerdam is the director.
A stranger whispers the word “kamaih” into Günter’s ear and then vanishes. Günter was abandoned as a kid in a wilderness and has never worried about his biological parents… until today. Will his desire to solve the riddle of his history bring him serenity, or will it further destabilize him?
SALOUM
Senegal in the year 2021
Premiere in the United States, 80 minutes
Jean-Luc Herbulot is the director.
In Jean-Luc Herbulot’s sleek and dynamic genre-shifting thriller, a group of mercenaries find themselves traversing a strange Senegalese area.
TRAVELS OF SAMUEL
Latvia in the year 2021
85 minutes, world premiere
Aik Karapetian is the director.
Samuel journeys to Eastern Europe in search of his father, whom he has never met. He is enslaved to the owner’s farm after unintentionally hitting a piglet with his vehicle.
SILENT NIGHT
2021, United Kingdom
90-minute premiere in the United States
Camille Griffin is the director.
Christmas is a time when family and friends gather together to celebrate. The meeting soon devolves into squabbles and rehash of old grievances, but there may be a very simple explanation for the implosion’s fast rise.
SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE
South Africa in the year 2021
World Premiere, 86 min
Danishka Esterhazy is the director.
A unexpected, hilarious, and gory remake of the 1980s slasher classic SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE comes from Fantastic Fest alum Danishka Esterhazy (LEVEL 16).
SOME PEOPLE PREFER IT RARE.
France in the year 2021
87 minutes, North American Premiere
Fabrice Eboué is the director.
Vincent’s butcher business is struggling. He uses his talents to dispose of the corpse of a vegan protester who has damaged his shop after he deliberately drives him over… to the pleasure of his befuddled clients
YOU WON’T BELIEVE IT, SWEETIE.
2020 Kazakhstan
Premiere in Texas, 85 minutes
Yernar Nurgaliev is the director.
When they see a mob hit in the forest, what starts out as a fishing excursion with the boys soon spirals out of hand, and that’s only the beginning of this crazy, violent, and funny misadventure from Kazakhstan.
THE SELECTION
USA, 2021
76 minutes, world premiere
Alexandre O. Philippe is the director.
Alexandre O. Philippe examines the legend of Monument Valley, its symbolism in westerns (particularly John Ford’s), and its importance during the conquest of the West and in American history in his beautiful new documentary.
SOMETHING IS INSIDE YOUR HOUSE.
USA, 2021
96 minutes, world premiere
Patrick Brice is the director.
Makani Young and the Osborne High graduating class are being stalked by a masked assailant bent on revealing their deepest secrets to the world.
UNTIL THE NEXT TIME WE MEET
Taiwan in the year 2021
128 minutes, North American Premiere
Giddens KO is the director.
Alan awakens to find himself in a bureaucratic underworld after being hit by lightning. Faced with the possibility of being reborn as a snail, he chooses to become a love god instead.
THE ETERNAL TIMEKEEPERS
Greece in the year 2021
64 minutes, world premiere
Aristotelis Maragkos is the director.
A Stephen King television movie is compressed and altered in this fascinating experimental film via hypnotic black and white collage animation that carefully reconstructs and reshapes its spooky narrative to an unsettling and deep effect.
THE UNITED STATES OF MENTAL ILLNESS
USA, 2021
99 minutes, world premiere
Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez are the directors.
In this enlightening documentary about the Insane Clown Posse, see the guys behind the makeup as they battle for their fans’ right to enjoy their music without government persecution.
V/H/S/94
2021, USA-Indonesia
100 minutes, world premiere
Chloe Okuno, Simon Barrett, Timo Tjahjanto, Ryan Prows, and Jennifer Reeder are the directors.
In this fourth chapter of the blood-soaked found footage horror omnibus series, Chloe Okuno, Jennifer Reeder, and Ryan Prows join franchise veterans Simon Barrett and Timo Tjahjanto.
WHO DID THE KLF KILL?
2021, United Kingdom
88 minutes, world premiere
Chris Atkins is the director.
They came to cause mayhem and get you to dance. When the dancing ended, all that was left was pandemonium. WHO KILLED THE KLF, in one way or another? is going to shake your world.
A HISTORY OF FOLK HORROR WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED
USA, 2021
192 minutes, US In-Theater Premiere
Kier-La K. Janisse Dracula III is the director.
Kier-La Janisse, the world’s most informed and enthusiastic genre cinema specialist, takes you on a worldwide tour of folk horror that will simultaneously shake your world and alter your life forever.
ZALAVA
Iran in the year 2021
93 minutes, US Premiere
Arsalan Amiri is the director.
When a skeptical military officer investigates claims of demonic possessions in a rural hamlet, an intriguing exorcist puts his faith to the test.
THE FILM LINEUP FOR FANTASTIC FEST 2021 IS BELOW:
Each short film will be shown as part of one of our regular shorts block programs (Great SHORTS, SHORT FUSE, SHORTS WITH LEGS, and DRAWN AND QUARTERED) or alongside one of our fantastic features.
THE 27 PERISHES (Dir. Franklin Connor Ritch, USA, 2021)
THE ALGORITHM (Dir. Edwina Casey, Ireland, 2020)
THE ARCHIVISTS (Canada, 2020, dir. Igor Drljaa)
BOY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! (Dir. Jordan Michael Blake, USA, 2021)
HOLE IN THE DARK (Dir. Jamie Parslow, USA, 2021)
CALVING is a term used to describe the process of (Dir. Louis Bhose, United Kingdom, Ireland, 2021)
EX MACHINA CELEBRITAS (Dir. Joe Nicolosi, USA, 2021)
CERBERUS is a mythical creature (Dir. Kaspar Ainelo, Estonia, 2021)
THE PERILOUS TYPE (Dir. Tipper Newton, USA, 2021)
THE WINEMAKER AND DEATH (Dir. Victor Jaquier, Switzerland, 2021)
THE REAL-WORLD GUIDE TO SETUP AND WORKFLOW IN DIGITAL VIDEO EDITING WITH ADOBE PREMIERE PRO (Dir. Seong-yoon HONG, South Korea, 2020)
BATH IN DUST (Dir. Seth A Smith, Canada, 2021)
EXPECTATION (Dir. Juho Fossi, Finland, 2020)
FAMILIARITIES (Dir. Millicent Malcolm, Australia, 2020)
THE GIRL FROM SATURN (Portugal, 2021, directed by Gonçalo Almeida)
GUTTER (Dir. Chris McInroy, USA, 2021)
GOLDEN HEART (Dir. Simon Filliot, France, 2020)
HERZOG & HIS (Dir. Gates Bradley, USA, 2020)
SUCCESSIVE INHERITANCE (Dir. Annalise Lockhart, USA, 2021)
ITCHING (Dir. Susannah Farrugia, Malta, 2021)
SIEMPRE LA CIGUAPA (USA, 2021, directed by Monica Moore-Suriyage)
THE FINAL DAYS (Dir. Dipo Baruwa-Etti, United Kingdom, 2021)
GET STARTED (Dir. Leah Shore, USA, 2021)
ADIE LILIAS (Dir. Elize du Toit, United Kingdom, 2021)
LUCIOUS (Dir. Deanna Milligan, Canada, 2021)
A MAN OR A TREE? (Dirs. Varun Raman & Tom Hancock, United Kingdom, 2021)
INVISIBLE TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT (New Zealand, 2020, directed by Adam Harvey)
MISTER POWERFUL (Brazil, 2021, dir. Oriol Barberà Masats)
BUNKER, MOTHER (Dir. George Metaxas, Australia, USA, 2020)
The fantastic fest first wave is a movie festival that takes place in Austin, Texas. It features premieres from the U.S. and around the world.
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