• Fantasia International Film Festival
  • News

Fantasia International Film Festival announces Audience Awards and 2026 dates

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.

Read More

Ad Space
Get The Grim Reader.
Rue Morgue's free newsletter.
Editor's notes.
Cultural insight.
Curated horror across film, books, music, and art.
First looks.
Select previews.
No algorithms.
Join Free

In Print Since 1997

Issue 231

Rue Morgue #231 Jul/Aug 2026

Plus

Inside Rue Morgue #231 – Summer Slasher Issue FEATURES Filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun’s TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA guts the slasher formula from the inside out, turning it into a romance about the horror of becoming who you were always meant to be. Plus! GILLIAN ANDERSON and HANNAH EINBINDER unpack Schoenbrun’s radical dismemberment of…

Issue 230

Rue Morgue #230 May/Jun 2026 – RARE

Plus

Inside Rue Morgue #230 FEATURES Filmmaker Curry Barker transforms a simple wish into a spiralling nightmare of love, possession, and bloodshed in his breakout feature OBSESSION. Plus: The story of Barker’s found-footage shocker MILK & SERIAL, which turned a micro-budget experiment into a viral horror breakout. Hollywood made it a monster. History tells a different…

Issue 229

Rue Morgue #229 Mar/Apr 2026

Plus

Inside Rue Morgue #229! FEATURES A nerve-shredding found-footage thriller built around sound, UNDERTONE signals the arrival of a terrifying new voice in Canada’s booming independent horror scene. Plus! Meet the new breed of independent Canadian horror filmmakers behind DREAM EATER, SWEETNESS, HANGASHORE, THE LAND OF NOD and THE CURSE OF GHOST ISLAND. Part post-punk, part…

Issue 228

Rue Morgue #228 Jan/Feb 2026

Plus

Inside Rue Morgue #228! FEATURES He fascinated audiences in 2001 with the French period martial arts horror film BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF. Then he followed it up in 2006 by bringing the eerie world of SILENT HILL to cinematic life. Now, visionary director CHRISTOPHE GANS unleashes his latest nightmare with RETURN TO SILENT HILL. Plus!…