Film Festivals

Our film festival coverage over the years has included Sundance, Fantasia Fest, Fantastic Fest, TIFF and more! Find many movie reviews and insights into visiting these festivals below!


 

Film FestivalsMovie ReviewsReviews

Fantastic Fest 2025: ‘Black Phone 2’ Finds Depth Through Nightmares

Last night, we attended the first screening of Black Phone 2 at Fantastic Fest 2025. The sequel sparked considerable interest with its Nightmare on Elm Street-inspired advertising. Showcasing a follow-up that would maneuver the marquee villain of the franchise into a dream-lurking killer in the vein of Freddy Krueger. And given the long, extensive absence of that franchise, using Black Phone

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Fantastic Fest 2025: ‘Shelby Oaks’ is a Worthy Misfire

Our Fantastic Fest 2025 coverage continues with Shelby Oaks. When it comes to the topic of film criticism, it’s hard to identify anyone who has made more of an influence on my career than Chris Stuckmann. He remains one of the rare YouTube movie critics who can articulate constructive feedback with class and sincerity for the art form. Being put in the

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Fantastic Fest 2025: ‘Primate’ is a Slick, Animalistic, Horror Throwback

Primate is the latest film from Johannes Roberts, whose last movie was Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. As the festival kicked off, Fantastic Fest audiences gathered in a theater with various small cameras on tripods pointing toward the crowd. It was clear that Paramount was preparing to record the reactions of the movie-going audience. Right away, there was a strong

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Fantastic Fest 2025: 7 Highly Anticipated Films to Watch

Fantastic Fest 2025 kicks off today in Austin, Texas, with another year of potentially great offerings. The festival is jam-packed with several great titles and early premieres. For example, the highly anticipated sequel to Scott Derrickson’s The Black Phone is expected to captivate the Austin community during the first weekend. The festival will also feature Chris Stuckmann’s long-awaited movie debut, Shelby

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TIFF 2025: ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ is Rian Johnson’s First Disappointment

Rian Johnson is known for subverting audience expectations and rejecting traditional narrative structures, which is why I’m always drawn to his work, even if some of them weren’t as acclaimed as others. I will still be the first to defend and praise Star Wars: The Last Jedi as the best film of 2017, one of the decade’s crowning achievements, and the best Star Wars movie

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Fantasia Film Festival 2025 ‘Foreigner’ and ‘Hellcat’ Movie Reviews

Our Fantasia Film Festival 2025 coverage continues with two unique films that explore themes of isolation. The first is a haunting film about the struggles of assimilation faced by a child of migrants in a white suburban school. The other film centers on a 10 Cloverfield Lane-inspired narrative about a woman trapped inside a moving camper. Foreigner and Hellcat may differ

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Fantasia Fest 2025 Review: ‘Together’ Provokes Without Much Substance

As has been the case for its previous horror movies, NEON has raked up interesting marketing campaigns for some of their more terrifying titles, such as Osgood Perkins’ Longlegs, The Monkey, and Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo. The studio wants as many people as possible watching in cinemas knowing as little as possible about the movie itself. That’s why you’ll see many ads

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Fantasia Film Festival 2025: ‘Hold the Fort’ and ‘Noise’ Offer Residential Horror

Our Fantasia Film Festival coverage continues with two films that offer distinctive horror experiences in housing communities. The first is a horror-comedy called Hold the Fort, about an HOA fighting forces of evil in slapstick fashion. The second movie is called Noise, involving a woman with hearing loss attempting to find her missing sister, who disappeared after hearing supernatural noises above

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Fantasia Film Festival 2025: ‘Rewrite’ Offers Complex and Sincere Sci-Fi

Each year, covering Fantasia Film Festival reminds me of how dull America’s writing has become. Rewrite exemplifies this idea, not just because it’s penned by one of Japan’s best sci-fi screenwriters. The film blends an earnest high school drama with a complex time travel story. It’s especially appealing because its source material is inspired by the brilliant anime, The Girl Who

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