By MICHAEL GINGOLD
With the 29th edition of Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival having come to a close this past weekend, the announcement has been made of the audiences’ favorites, and when the 30th edition will take place.
Fantasia 2025 saw record-breaking ticket sales and numerous sold-out screenings for the nearly 120 feature films screened, and over 200 international shorts alongside numerous Canadian works. Thousands of votes for the Audience Awards have now been tabulated, and the results are:
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
- Gold: FLUSH (pictured; Dir. Grégory Morin, France)
- Silver: FUCKTOYS (Dir. Annapurna Sriram, United States)
- Bronze (Tie): TERRESTRIAL (Dir. Steve Pink, United States) and THE FORBIDDEN CITY (Dir. Gabriele Mainetti, Italy)
BEST ASIAN FEATURE
- Gold: BURNING (Dir. Radik Eshimov, Kyrgyzstan)
- Silver: HI-FIVE (Dir. Kang Hyung-chul, South Korea)
- Bronze: I FELL IN LOVE WITH A Z-GRADE DIRECTOR IN BROOKLYN (Dir. Kenichi Ugana, Japan)
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
- Gold: DEATH DOES NOT EXIST (Dir. Félix Dufour-Lapperrière, Canada)
- Silver: I AM FRANKELDA (Dirs. Arturo Ambriz and Roy Ambriz, Mexico)
- Bronze: MONONOKE THE MOVIE: CHAPTER II–THE ASHES OF RAGE (Dirs. Kenji Nakamura and Kiyotaka Suzuki, Japan)
BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT
- Gold: LET’S SETTLE THIS! (Dir. Jack Woon, New Zealand)
- Silver (Tie): STEAK DINNER (Dir. Nathan Ginter, United States) and SKIN (Dir. Urvashi Pathania, United States)
- Bronze: CHECK PLEASE! (Dir. Shane Chung, United States) and THE NIGHTWALKER (Dir. Mark Reyes, United States)
BEST ASIAN SHORT
- Gold: FLOOR (Dir. Jo Ba-reun, South Korea)
- Silver: THE LAST RIDE (Dirs. Yashoda Parthasarthy and Vijesh Rajan, India)
- Bronze: RED SPIDER LILIES: THE ASCENSION (Dir. Koji Shiraishi, Japan)
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
- Gold: LOCA! (Dirs. Ion Miyamoto and Yuta Uchiya, Japan)
- Silver: MAMIKO’S POOP (Dir. Yasuteru Ohno, Japan)
- Bronze: BEYOND THE TRAIL (Dir. Vab.png, Japan) and MAYBE BLUE (Dir. Zhou Qian, China)
BEST CANADIAN FEATURE
- Gold: THE UNDERTONE (Dir. Ian Tuason, Canada)
- Silver: FOREIGNER (Dir. Ava Maria Safai, Canada)
- Bronze: BUFFET INFINITY (Dir. Simon Glassman, Canada)
BEST CANADIAN SHORT
- Gold: THE SPHINX (Dir. Jesse Padveen, Canada)
- Silver: SHRIMP FRIED RICE (Dir. Dylan Pun, Canada)
- Bronze: HEIRLOOMS (Dir. Dan Abramovici, Canada)
BEST QUÉBEC FEATURE
- Gold: MESSY LEGENDS (Dirs. Kelly Kay Hurcomb and James Watts, Canada)
- Silver: AU PIED DU MUR (Dir. Alexandra Elkin, Canada)
- Bronze: ANNA KIRI (Dir. Francis Bordeleau, Canada)
BEST QUÉBEC SHORT
- Gold: DUCHESS 17 (Dir. Daly Sonesaksith, Canada)
- Silver: STEAL MY LIFE (Dir. Annie Wren, Canada)
- Bronze: LE PUNK DE NATASHQUAN (Dir. Nicolas Lachapelle, Canada)
L’ÉCRAN FANTASTIQUE AWARD
- I AM FRANKELDA (Dirs. Arturo Ambriz and Roy Ambriz, Mexico)
The 30th edition of Fantasia will take place July 16-August 2, 2026.
