The organizers of Fantastic Fest recently send us over information about the second wave of films that were announced for this years festivals. The most noteable films included US Premiere of Yorgos Lanthimos' "The "Lobster", Ridley Scott's "The Martian", Ben Wheatley's "High-Rise" and Jeremy Saulnier's "Green Room".
Fantastic Fest takes place from September 24 - October 1 in Austin, TX at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar.
For more information on this festival, you can visit the festival's official website at:
www.fantasticfest.com
Press Release:
Fantastic Fest is excited to announce the second wave of programming featuring the US Premiere of Yorgos Lanthimos' THE LOBSTER as
the opening night film. Lanthimos will be in attendance to share his
wonderfully surreal examination of human connections. Joining THE
LOBSTER is a dazzling array of the year's most anticipated genre films from heavyweight directors including Ridley Scott's sci-fi epic THE MARTIAN, Ben Wheatley's HIGH-RISE and Jeremy Saulnier's GREEN ROOM.
Fantastic
Fest will also host the World Premiere of LAZER TEAM, the first feature
film from web series gods Rooster Teeth. LAZER TEAM director Matt
Hullum and cast members Burnie Burns, Alan Ritchson, Colton Dunn,
Michael Jones, and Gavin Free will be in attendance to celebrate the
highly anticipated sci-fi comedy and join Fantastic Fest's official opening night party, presented by Rooster Teeth.
"This is a big year for genre cinema. We're exceptionally proud to honor incredible filmmakers and welcome back some of Fantastic Fest's favorites," said Tim League, Fantastic Fest and Alamo Drafthouse CEO/Founder.
Fantastic Fest filmmaking alumni are represented in three of the fest's hottest titles: HIGH-RISE, GREEN ROOM and KLOVN FOREVER. Since his debut Down Terrace
world premiered and sold at Fantastic Fest, Ben Wheatley has seen all
of his subsequent films play at the festival. That streak continues with
HIGH-RISE, his dizzying adaptation of J.G. Ballard's chilling view of modern life. Jeremy Saulnier follows up his Fantastic Fest smash BLUE RUIN with GREEN ROOM, a
brilliantly crafted and wickedly fun horror-thriller starring Patrick
Stewart as a diabolical club owner who squares off against an
unsuspecting but resilient young punk band. On
a lighter note, the lovingly idiotic Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen
reunite for KLOVN FOREVER, the latest installment in their hilariously
disturbing friendship.
Sticking true to Fantastic Fest's
penchant for chaos and explosive events, they welcome Itchy-O to Austin
for the first time. A blazing, 32-member aural assault from the darkest
depths of Colorado, Itchy-O is a wholly immersive, musical experience
on a massive scale. Said festival director Kristen Bell, "We cannot wait for them to unleash their percussive mayhem on our audience as hysteria has a welcome home at Fantastic Fest."
Emphasizing the "world" in World Premiere, this year's slate is proud to debut titles from all corners of the globe. Regional hotbeds South Korea (Lee Sang-woo's DIRTY ROMANCE), Denmark (Bo Mikklesen's WHAT WE BECOME) and the United Kingdom (Gareth Bryn's
THE PASSING) are dutifully represented while attention is paid to the
less familiar markets like Puerto Rico (Angel Manuel Soto's LA GRANJA). And for the first time in Fantastic Fest history, we're world premiering a film out of the United Arab Emirates, Majid Al Ansari's electrifying cat-and-mouse thriller, ZINZANA.
See
below for the full lineup of newly announced film titles for Fantastic
Fest 2015. Final wave of titles to be announced shortly.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
APRIL AND THE EXTRAORDINARY WORLD
France, Belgium, Canada, 2015
US Premiere, 90 min
Director - Christian Desmares and Franck Ekinci
In an
alternate history where Napoleon's heirs rule France, scientists and
scholars have gone missing for years, leaving behind a world deprived of
their technological innovations. In this land powered by coal and
steam, young April searches for her missing scientist parents.
ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM
Japan, 2015
US Premiere, 110 min
Director - Eiichiro Hasumi
The
most heart-warming, touching coming-of-age tale of 2015 just also
happens to be the story of how one classroom of kids gets trained as
assassins so they can kill their teacher before he destroys Earth.
BASKIN
Turkey, 2015
US Premiere, 97 min
Director - Can Evrenol
It's a
quiet night on the beat for a mobile unit of Turkish police until
they're called out to support a squad encountering trouble in a remote
building.
BELLADONNA OF SADNESS
Japan, 1973
Regional Premiere, 86 min
Director - Eiichi Yamamoto
A
young and in love Jeanne is attacked by the local lord and makes a pact
with the Devil himself in one of the most important rediscoveries of
this year. Never before released in the US, this seminal psychedelic
masterpiece has been painstakingly restored in 4k digital.
THE BRAND NEW TESTAMENT
France/Belgium/Luxembourg, 2015
North American Premiere, 110 min
Director - Jaco Van Dormael
When
Ea gets fed up with her overbearing father (who happens to be God), she
decides to follow in her older brother's footsteps by leaving the
house, gathering her own apostles, and writing her own testament.
THE CLUB
Chile, 2015
US Premiere, 98 min
Director - Pablo Larraín
In a
secluded Chilean village, four men lead a quiet life, trying to redeem
themselves of their past sins. Their existence is threatened by the
arrival of a man whose own secret may reveal all which the four have
worked to forget.
COZ OV MONI 2
Ghana/Romania, 2014
North American Premiere, 63 min
Directors - King Henry Blackson & FOKN Bois
Beaten,
robbed and left for dead, Wanlov and M3NSA are back and looking for
revenge. But first, singing. And lunch. Prepare yourself for "the world's second first pidgin musical"!
DEMON
Poland/Israel, 2015
US Premiere, 94 min
Director - Marcin Wrona
A
day after discovering human remains in the backyard of their new home, a
man begins experiencing strange things which come to a head on his
wedding night.
DIRTY ROMANCE
South Korea, 2015
World Premiere, 94 min
Director - Lee Sang-woo
In
Lee Sang-woo's follow up to last year's I AM TRASH, Chul-joong is too
busy forcing his friend to sexually please his developmentally disabled
sister to notice someone may want to actually love her for who she is.
EVOLUTION
France, 2015
US Premiere, 81 min
Director - Lucile Hadzihalilovic
Lucile
Hadzihalilovic returns to directing with a surreal tale of a young boy
on a remote island who develops a mysterious illness and is subjected to
sinister medical treatments.
FEBRUARY
United States/Canada, 2015
US Premiere, 93 min
Director - Osgood Perkins
The
lives of two high school students will be linked together when they're
forced to stay at their boarding school over the winter break and an
evil presence starts to stalk them.
GREEN ROOM
United States, 2015
US Premiere, 94 min
Director - Jeremy Saulnier
Green Room is a brilliantly crafted and wickedly fun
horror-thriller starring Patrick Stewart as a diabolical club owner who
squares off against an unsuspecting but resilient young punk band.
GRIDLOCKED
Canada, 2015
World Premiere, 110 min
Director - Allan Ungar
A tactical assault officer is saddled with a hard partying star out to rehabilitate his image -and avoid jail time -in this throwback to the odd couple buddy action flicks of the early '90s.
HARD TO GET
South Africa, 2014
Regional Premiere, 94 min
Director - Zee Ntuli
Supremely
confident ladies man TK may have bitten off more than he can chew when
he sets his sights on Skiets, a township beauty with an edge who sets
the pair off on a non-stop rollercoaster ride through the local
underworld.
HIGH-RISE
United Kingdom, 2016
US Premiere, 118 min
Director - Ben Wheatley
Laing,
a young doctor, joins a community in a luxury building in Thatcher's
England, who exile themselves from society and gradually divide into
violent tribes.
THE KEEPING ROOM
United States, 2015
Texas Premiere, 95 min
Director - Daniel Barber
In
the waning days of the Civil War, three southern women (Brit Marling,
Hailee Steinfeld and newcomer Muna Otaru) defend themselves from two
Yankees in Daniel Barber's second film.
KLOVN FOREVER
Denmark, 2015
International Premiere, 90 min
Director - Mikkel Nørgaard
Five
years have passed since the first KLOWN, and with their friendship at
risk of fracturing forever, Frank must follow Casper to America... with
typically disastrous results.
L'AFFAIRE SK1
France, 2014
Texas Premiere, 120 min
Director - Frédéric Tellier
Frederic Tellier's tight police procedural recreates the events around the decade-long search and trial of "The Beast of the Bastille,"France's first serial killer, who was tracked down using DNA evidence.
LA GRANJA
Puerto Rico, 2015
World Premiere, 100 min
Director - Angel Manuel Soto
The
lives of a midwife, a young boxer, a mute kid and a young couple
collide unexpectedly in a story about the desperate pursuit of happiness
on the streets of Puerto Rico.
LAZER TEAM
United States, 2015
World Premiere, 93 min
Director - Matt Hullum
When Earth is threatened by an advanced alien race, our only hope lies in four morons, the self-proclaimed "Lazer Team."
THE LOBSTER
Ireland, Greece, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, 2015
US Premiere, 119 min
Director - Yorgos Lanthimos
Somewhere
in the near future, single people face a choice: Join a program to find
a mate in forty-five days or be transformed into an animal.
LUDO
India, 2015
US Premiere, 92 min
Directors - Q & Nikon
Time
and space collide when a possessed game grabs hold of two friends eager
for a sinful night of sex and drugs in Indian auteur Q's first foray into horror.
MAN VS SNAKE
United States/Canada/Italy/Japan, 2015
World Premiere, 93 min
Directors - Andrew Seklir and Tim Kinzy
1984.
One shiny quarter. 44.5 hours of continuous play. The race to be the
first gamer in history to score one BILLION points. Until recently,
Timothy McVey (not the terrorist) thought he had -for all these years -held
the world record on Nibbler. Note: a Nibbler cabinet will be available
in the lobby for the duration of Fantastic Fest for attendees to attempt
to break the current world record.
THE MARTIAN
United States, 2015
Special Screening, 120 min
Director - Ridley Scott
Get
ready to be blown away by Fox's latest action-packed 3D adventure, THE
MARTIAN starring Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor and
Kristen Wiig with a special screening of the upcoming film directed by
Ridley Scott. THE MARTIAN is the story of what happens during a manned
mission to Mars, when Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a
fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and
finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager
supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist
and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Millions of miles
away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to
bring "the Martian"home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible rescue mission.
MEN AND CHICKEN
Denmark, 2015
US Premiere, 100 min
Director - Anders Thomas Jensen
Mads
Mikkelsen as only his longtime absurdist Danish collaborator Anders
Thomas Jensen could conceive, a chronic masturbator with a hair-trigger
temper, desperately searches for his true identity.
THE MIND'S EYE
United States, 2015
US Premiere, 87 min
Director - Joe Begos
On
the heels of his Fantastic Fest debut ALMOST HUMAN, Joe Begos returns
with a classic battle of good versus evil. A drifter with suppressed
psychic powers must learn to unleash them to save the woman he loves.
THE MISSING GIRL
United States, 2015
US Premiere, 89 min
Director - A.D.Calvo
Mort,
a lonely and disillusioned owner of a comic book shop, has fallen for
his new employee Ellen, a smart, aspiring graphic novelist. A dark past
and a missing girl, however, will complicate their story more than
anyone can imagine.
THE PASSING
United Kingdom, 2015
World Premiere, 87 min
Director - Gareth Bryn
After
their car is driven off the road and crashed into a river, a young
couple on the run is taken in by a simple man living with his secrets in
his isolated home.
RABID DOGS
France, 2015
US Premiere,99 min
Director - Eric Hannezo
Four
violent criminals escaping a robbery take a man, an ailing child and a
young woman on a nightmarish road trip in this remake of Mario Bava's
near-lost Euro-crime nasty.
THE RIVER
Canada/Laos, 2015
US Premiere, 88 min
Director - Jamie Dagg
John,
a volunteer doctor, finds himself on the run in a strange country when
he tries to stop the rape of a drunk girl at the hands of an Australian
man.
TOO LATE
United States, 2015
Regional Premiere, 107 min
Director - Dennis Hauck
A
troubled private eye trawls through the belly of Los Angeles looking for
a missing young woman, slowly revealing a careful web of intrigue, lies
and connections.
WHAT WE BECOME
Denmark, 2015
World Premiere, 85 min
Director - Bo Mikkelsen
An
idyllic suburban summer is shattered with the outbreak of an
unexplained disease. With residents forced into quarantine with no
explanation, the situation quickly spirals out of control.
THE WITCH
Canada/United States, 2015
Texas Premiere, 90 min
Director - Robert Eggers
Sixty
years before the Salem witch trials, a Puritan moves his family away
from civilization to a homestead which shares its borders with
inescapable evil.
YAKUZA APOCALYPSE
Japan, 2015
Texas Premiere, 115 min
Director - Takashi Miike
After
a yakuza vampire boss is struck down, his most loyal disciple takes it
upon himself to avenge his mentor's death and eliminate the assassins
and their giant plush frog leader in Miike's classic yakuza tale turned
inside out.
ZINZANA
United Arab Emirates, Jordan, 2015
World Premiere, 91 min
Director - Majid Al Ansari
Talal
wakes up in a cell with no memory of the night before with no I.D. and
no escape. Nothing can prepare him, however, for the arrival of a
brilliant psychopath and the games he wants to play.
