Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the US, specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, and action movies from all around the world. The festival is dedicated to championing challenging and thought-provoking cinema, celebrating new voices, new stories, and supporting new filmmakers. They work with various other festivals, archives, cinematheques, and individuals to spotlight lesser-known film regions, while expanding the general knowledge and appreciation of cinema. Fantastic Fest is committed to supporting film in its most provocative, ground-breaking, and underseen forms, granting audiences the opportunity to find new favorites and future genre classics. Each year the festival brings together fans, guests, industry, press, and others in an inclusive environment for a fun week-long celebration of film in all its forms, carefully curated screenings and events, both in and outside of the theaters. 

Fantastic Fest runs in-person from September 22th to the 29th in Austin, and online from September 29th until October 4th. FF@Home is a fully virtual companion to Fantastic Fest that gives audiences access to a selection of new titles from this year’s fest, crowd favorites from past editions, and a new, online-only section of programming – Burnt Ends.

Showing five rounds of films per day, Fantastic Fest has a stacked lineup, including new festival favorites like Bones & All, The Banshees of Inisherin, Triangle of Sadness (review), and The Menu (review) while also showcasing rising new voices in horror, documentaries, shorts, and foreign films. This year, horror fans can be frightened in catacombs of Paris in Deep Fear, feel overcome with terror in Smile, and run for their lives from Art the clown in Terrifier 2.

Over the years, Fantastic Fest has premiered many beloved films like John Wick, There Will Be Blood, Zombieland, and Frankenweenie. The festival has also hosted grand talents like Nicolas Winding-Refn, Lilly and Lana Wachowski, Robert Rodriguez, Rian Johnson, Bill Murray, Winona Ryder, Ryan Reynolds, Darren Aronofsky, M. Night Shyamalan, James McAvoy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Steven Yeun, and more. 

Festival Director Lisa Dreyer is a film fanatic based in Austin, Texas. She champions in bringing some of the best and most obscure films from all around the world to Fantastic Fest every September. Along with Fantastic Fest, Dreyer has programmed a variety of other festivals, including the Oak Cliff Film Festival and Contrast Film Festival. She previously worked for the Austin Film Society and is currently an acquisitions consultant for Drafthouse Films. Dreyer is passionate about supporting radical new voices and boundary-pushing projects, the weirder the better! 

Fantastic Fest has been hailed as one of the “25 coolest film festivals” by MovieMaker Magazine, “the wildest film festival in America” by The Guardian, as well as “the coolest film festival in the world” by IGN. 

About Burnt Ends

Burnt Ends is a virtual showcase of outlier and outsider media that breaks boundaries and blurs the lines of genre, shattering all traditional ideas of what defines/divides avant-garde and trash art. The section seeks to champion eccentric independent cinema, from micro-budget genre experiments whose aesthetics and sensibilities provoke or defy mainstream conventions to inspired obscurities deserving of a larger cult audience. Media that is strangest of the strange, not hindered by modest resources, bursting with limitless ambition and extraordinary personality. Burnt Ends may not be for all audiences, but it’s an exuberant treat for those who indulge. 

Partners

Alamo Drafthouse, Dark Star Pictures, Hi-Yah!, Milton Sleep Co., Mubi, Rev, Smile, and Wicked Kitchen. 

For more information on the festival, including the full line up, schedule, tickets, panels, and special events, go to: https://2022.fantasticfest.com/welcome.