This year is the 24th Fantasia International Film Festival, and I’m excited to be covering many of the featured films at the festival for the first time!

Fantasia is based in Montreal, Quebec. Because of the global pandemic of coronavirus however, this year’s festival is taking place online. Regardless, the festival is committed to offering a phenomenal selection of films from around the world. In fact, even with the festival online, Fantasia is hosting over 100 feature films and 180 short films.

The festival kicks off today, Thursday August 20th, with the horror film The Reckoning. Directed by Neil Marshall (director of The Descent and Tales of Halloween), this dark period thriller is set in 1665 England where the Great Plague has triggered suspicions of witchcraft. When an innocent woman is accused of being a witch and imprisoned under the harshest conditions, there’s hell to pay and a reckoning for her assailants to face.

Fantasia closes on Wednesday September 2nd with the film The Legend of Baron To’a, where a man who has briefly returned to his New Zealand hometown works to live up to his father’s legacy as a legendary wrestler.

In between over the course of two weeks, Fantasia has a spectacular lineup of screenings, panels, and workshops to experience.

One of the films I’m looking forward to most is Lucky, an American horror film directed by Natasha Kermani about a woman’s fight against the violence of a repeat attacker and against the disregard of everyone around her about these harrowing events. The premise is intriguing and hints at a mysterious - perhaps even paranormal - component to how the plot unfolds.

Another film I’m looking forward to is Crazy Samurai Musashi, a Japanese martial arts film that promises a lot of fighting and action as it touts a seemingly impressive selling point: 400 vs 1 in a single take. I love one-takes, so I’m very interested to see what that looks like.

Also, the film Jumbo - about an amusement park employee who *literally* falls in love with a park’s star attraction - has my attention. Not just because I’m a fan of amusement parks, but because that park employee is played by Noémie Merlant from Portrait of a Lady On Fire, one of my favorite films of 2019 largely because of her performance. I’m confident this is another role Noémie will be incredible in.

I hope to also experience a couple of the panels and discussions being streamed during the festival as well.

Despite being moved to an online platform, there is a lot to experience during Fantasia 2020. I’m looking forward to catching as many movies as possible and sharing my reviews! To keep up with coverage through ForReel, you can follow us on Twitter, or just search “Fantasia 2020” in the site’s search bar.

And if you want even more coverage of Fantasia 2020, my friends at Awesome Friday (Vancouver, BC) and Drink In The Movies (Seattle, WA) will also be publishing content throughout the festival as well.