Fantasia Fest 2025: 8 Potential Gems at This Year’s Festival
The time has come for another Fantasia International Film Festival. The Canadian-based festival, which focuses on fantastical genre works, has been the home of numerous great titles over the years. For example, last year saw the premieres of high-profile offerings such as the Neon film Cuckoo and Chris Stuckmann’s debut feature film Shelby Oaks. Fantasia Fest has also welcomed up-and-comers such as Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow) before the filmmaker captured critical success with A24.
Fantasia Fest 2025 has a stacked offering once again, with a massive catalog of movies to watch. While everyone will mention titles such as Genndy Tartakovsky’s (Samurai Jack, Primal) animated film, Fixed, we are here to offer an eclectic mix of eight films that may not be on everyone’s radar. Here are eight films worth considering to watch at Fantasia Fest 2025.
8. Maya, Give Me a Title
Michel Gondry‘s career flew high in the 2000s with films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep. Then he made The Green Hornet and somewhat fell off the mainstream limelight for a while. Despite opinions about The Green Hornet, the film had a great visual style for the Kato sequences. It’s because of Gondry’s visual sensibilities that his film made this list.
The new vision is said to be Gondry’s most personal film to date. The movie titled Maya, Give Me a Title offers a collection of animated vignettes involving Gondry making stories out of his daughter Maya. The collection came together while Gondry was far away from his child. She would provide the title, and he would make a short animation out of it starring Maya. Truthfully, it sounds like a beautiful and sentimental work for the Fantasia audience this year.
7. Rewrite
Rewrite is possibly my most anticipated film on the list, given the talent behind the movie. Screenwriter Makoto Ueda is a name familiar to Fantasia Fest because he is responsible for exceptional works such as Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes and the remarkable film River. Both titles were dazzling time travel spectacles full of intelligence and humor.
Rewrite sees the screenwriter collaborating with a new filmmaker, Daigo Matsui. The film, written by Ueda and Haruka Hojo, tells a coming-of-age love story about a teenage romance involving a girl from the future. Ueda’s previous films were outstanding, and if Rewrite has 10% of the quality of River or Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, it should be a priority for Fantasia audiences.
6. Good Game
It’s very rare to see the words “Esports” and “action movie” in the same title, but Good Game wears them both. The Fantasia Fest 2025 website makes the movie sound like Gran Turismo but with a Hardcore Henry first-person shooter spin. And honestly, the collision sounds rather entertaining as a movie.
Directed by Dickson Leung Kwok-Fai, the film centers on a man running a slowly failing internet cafe. The premise goes on to say that his business is floundering due to the excessive surge in cellphone gaming. And it’s in the moment of desperation that he decides to compete in an Esports tournament to save his business.
5. Good Boy
Good Boy has garnered significant praise for quite some time. It’s not a surprise given the clever premise and the heartwarming nature of a dog at the center. But the surprising detail is the fact that a movie with a dog as the main character is being hailed as one of the scariest films this year.
Directed and co-written by Ben Leonberg, Good Boy centers on a dog named Indy, who moves with his owner, Todd, to a remote house. The house belonged to Todd’s grandfather, and the premise states that Indy immediately senses danger when entering the home. And as the title indicates, Indy is a “good boy” and will protect his owner from pesky supernatural forces. The concept sounds like a real winner at Fantasia Fest.
4. Redux Redux
It’s hard to go anywhere these days and not see a multiverse movie in the cinematic cosmos. However, it is rare to find one that combines the elements of a vengeance thriller. Redux Redux is a movie that has all the makings of a film in the vein of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance with a sci-fi interdimensional edge to it.
Written by Kevin and Matthew McManus, the team who wrote American Vandal and Cobra Kai, the film stars Michaela McManus as Irene, a mother who makes the man who killed her daughter suffer in every dimension. Similar to most vengeance movies, the never-ending dimensional pursuit of killing her murderer is said to tear away at whatever soul she has left. But the Fantasia website withholds the rest of the details, which leads us to believe surprises are lurking in Redux Redux.
3. Terrestrial
On the surface, Terrestrial sounds like it will be a dark comedy. The Fantasia website even refers to the film in that category of subgenre. However, when unpacking the details further, it appears Terrestrial might be a character study about self-validation.
Directed by Steve Pink, the filmmaker behind Hot Tub Time Machine and the screenwriter of Grosse Point Blank, comes a story about a successful science fiction writer named Allen (Jermaine Fowler) who shows a dark side when his friends come to visit. Pink’s work on Grosse Point Blank demonstrated a strong sense of irreverent comedy with a mixture of humorous, violent elements. There is a strong chance his work on Terrestrial can exemplify the same balance of wit and darkness while giving the Fantasia audience great characters.
2. Death Does Not Exist (La mort n’existe pas)
There is a fantastic line-up of animated films at Fantasia Fest 2025. For example, the festival will close with a screening of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Fixed. They will also be hosting a screening for Smurfs, because why not? But it’s the French animated film La mort n’existe pas, or Death Does Not Exist, that feels the most meaty in substance.
Directed by Félix Dufour-Laperrière, the film centers on a timely subject involving a rebellion gone wrong and the regret of one woman as she becomes haunted by the memories of her activist friend. The Fantasia website features the trailer, and the animation has all the political beauty of a Banksy mural.
1. Noise
As a person with a disability, it’s a commitment of mine to highlight possible great films involving that life experience. The Korean film Noise seems to fit in that category. And according to Fantasia, this is a horror/thriller with incredibly impactful sound design.
Directed by Kim Soo-jin, Noise centers around Joo-young (Lee Sun-bin), a woman with hearing issues who requires a hearing aid. After moving into a new apartment, she experiences strange, unnerving sounds. The premise goes on to say that Joo-young’s sister mysteriously disappears, and she believes the disturbing noises are connected. A few years back, Midnight played for Fantasia audiences, showcasing a riveting thriller about a deaf woman trying to survive a stalking serial killer. Noise might follow in the footsteps of that suspenseful film.
Fantasia Fest 2025 starts July 16th!
Will you be attending? Let us know what films you’re most interested in seeing or having us review on social media @MyCosmicCircus! For more information about Fantasia Fest 2025, visit the official website.
