By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The long-running Brazilian fest offers an extensive slate of movies and more.
The 17th edition of the Fantaspoa Fantastic Film Festival will be running on-line due to the pandemic April 9-18, showcasing 57 features and 103 short films. The movies will be georestricted to Brazilian viewers (streamed at the Darkflix platform), but the fest is offering multiple events accessible to worldwide fans: 1) Q&As with artists, to be held daily on the festival’s YouTube channel; 2) a brand new score by Brazilian band Quarto Sensorial to accompany Fritz Lang’s DESTINY (DER MÜDE TOD) to mark 100 years since its release, also on YouTube; 3) Medusa’s Laughter, an exhibition of new works from 20 female artists, accessible via Fantaspoa’s website; and 4) a kickoff on-line party on April 9 with nine DJs and a costume contest. “We know that Fantaspoa’s core is its amazing film selection, but the festival is so much more,” say festival directors João Fleck and Nicolas Tonsho. “Based on what we learned from last year’s digital festival experience, we’ve worked as hard as possible to try to bring the closest thing to the real Fantaspoa deal to the online community.”
These are the final 33 features announced for Fantaspoa XVII:
- AS IN HEAVEN, SO ON EARTH (d. Francesco Erba, 2020, Italy, International Premiere)
- BENNY LOVES YOU (d. Karl Holt, 2019, UK, Brazilian Premiere)
- BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES (d. Junta Yamaguchi, 2021, Japan, Latin American Premiere)
- BLACK MEDUSA (d. Youssef Chebbi and Ismaël, 2021, Tunisia, Latin American Premiere)
- BLEED WITH ME (d. Amelia Moses, 2020, Canada, Latin American Premiere)
- CLAPBOARD JUNGLE: SURVIVING THE INDEPENDENT FILM BUSINESS (d. Justin McConnell, 2020, Canada, Latin American Premiere)
- COLORFUL DREAMS (d. Jan Balej, 2020, Czech Republic, International Premiere)
- CORTEX (d. Moritz Bleibtreu, 2020, Germany, Latin American Premiere)
- DETENTION (d. John Hsu, 2019, Taiwan, Regional Premiere)
- EJEN ALI THE MOVIE (d. Muhammad Usamah Zaid, 2019, Malaysia, Latin American Premiere)
- ENTREI EM PÂNICO AO SABER O QUE VOCÊS FIZERAM NA SEXTA-FEIRA 13 DO VERÃO PASSADO (d. Felipe M. Guerra, 2001, Brazil)
- A GRAVE FOR THREE (d. Mariano Cattaneo, 2020, Argentina, Brazilian Premiere)
- HORSE TAIL (d. Manoj Leonel Jason and Shyam Sunder, 2020, India, Latin American Premiere)
- IMMORTAL (d. Fernando Spiner, 2020, Argentina, Brazilian Premiere)
- IN THE SHADOWS (d. Erdem Tepegoz, 2020, Turkey, Latin American Premiere)
- IT CUTS DEEP (d. Nicholas Santos, 2020, USA, Latin American Premiere)
- JUMBO (d. Zoé Wittock, 2020, France/Belgium/Luxembourg, Latin American Premiere)
- KEEPING COMPANY (d. Josh Wallace, 2021, USA, Latin American Premiere)
- KILL IT AND LEAVE THIS TOWN (d. Mariusz Wilczynski, 2019, Poland, Regional Premiere)
- LAUGHTER (d. Martin Laroche, 2020, Canada, Latin American Premiere)
- MENÁGE (d. Luan Cardoso, 2020, Brazil, Regional Premiere)
- MODELL OLIMPIA (d. Frédéric Hambalek, 2020, Germany, Latin American Premiere)
- A NAU DOS LOUCOS: MERGULHO E DECOLAGEM DE PAZUCUS (d. Gurcius Gewdner, 2021, Brazil, World Premiere)
- THE NEST (d. Roberto De Feo, 2019, Italy, Latin American Premiere)
- NON-LIVING (d. Agustín Rubio Alcover, 2020, Spain, Brazilian Premiere)
- THE NOSE OR CONSPIRACY OF MAVERICKS (d. Andrey Khrzhanovskiy, 2020, Russia, Regional Premiere)
- THE OLD WAYS (pictured above; d. Christopher Alender, 2020, USA, Latin American Premiere)
- PARALLEL MINDS (d. Benjamin Ross Hayden, 2020, Canada, Latin American Premiere)
- THE RETURNED (d. Laura Casabe, 2019, Argentina, Brazilian Premiere)
- RÖCKËT STÄHR’S DEATH OF A ROCKSTAR (d. Röckët Stähr, 2020, USA, International Premiere)
- THE SHADOW OF THE ROOSTER (d. Nicolás Herzog, 2020, Argentina, International Premiere)
- TRANS (d. Naeri Do, 2021, South Korea, Latin American Premiere)
- VICTIM OF LOVE (d. Jesper Isaksen, 2019, Denmark, Brazilian Premiere)
Check out the festival’s trailer below.
