FANTASIA 30 (2026)—FIVE WORLD PREMIERES FROM THE FIRST WAVE

In this troubled world of political upheaval and environmental decline is there anything as ameliorative as a World Premiere at one of the most exciting and prestigious genre film festivals in the world? The Fantasia International Film Festival will celebrate its upcoming 30th edition with an electrifying program of screenings, workshops, and launch events running from July 16 through August 2, 2026, returning to the Concordia Hall and J.A. de Sève cinemas, with additional screenings and events at Montreal’s Cinéma du Musée. 

The festival’s full lineup will be announced in early July but in the meantime, here are five World Premieres from Fantasia’s First Wave of announcements to help you forget your troubles, if only for a frightened climate-changed spell.  

Hot Spot (2026), Poland; Director: Agnieszka Smoczynska—In a near future society ruled by sentient A.I., a private eye investigates a murder case only to discover a rebel group capable of undermining the digital overlord. As the detective's identity slowly unravels, his world enters a state of hypnotic meltdown. A singular, provocative and aesthetically stunning new work from celebrated Polish visionary Agnieszka Smoczyńska (The Lure, Fantasia 2016), starring Andrzej Konopka, Noomi Rapace, and Reika Kirishima. A reminder that Smoczyńska’s The Lure is available for streaming on the Criterion Channel. 

Hot Spot is participating in the Cheval Noir Competition, Fantasia’s flagship section, which highlights the best feature-length genre films. Winners are awarded with the festival's mascot statuette, a mighty black Pegasus. The winged black horse draws thematic inspiration from the mythological roots of dark fantasy, reflecting Fantasia’s identity as a premier North American destination for niche, indie, and genre cinema. Recent Best Film awards went to Mother of Flies (2025) and The Count of Monte Cristo (2024).

   

Ancestral Beasts (2026), Canada; Director: Tim Riedel—Red River Métis director Tim Riedel’s Ancestral Beasts first appeared as a proof-of-concept five-minute film at the 2025 Frontieres Platform project at Cannes and is backed by executive producer Edmon Rotea of Skinamarink fame. Riedel’s film casts a demonic lens on intergeneration trauma. Family is complicated, even in the best of times, but when you have skeletons in the closet and grief as an unwanted houseguest, it becomes something that consumes you—and that’s what Elyse (Morgan Holmstrom) finds out the hard way. Dealing with her mother’s death, a snarky sister, and a distant aunt, Elyse leaves the city for her aunt’s rural home to work on her mental health. But she’s not alone and will soon find that intergenerational trauma comes in many forms ... and here, it’s demonic. Riedel draws on his talent for storytelling, personal experience, and genre to weave a tale of Indigenous mothers, sisters, and mental suffering. Look out for Canadian legend Gail Maurice as Elyse’s Aunt Adele in this fresh new take on the haunted house film.  

Ancestral Beasts is featured in Fantasia’s Septentrion Shadows Section, a dedicated programming strand that showcases cutting-edge, character-driven genre cinema—including horror, sci-fi, and dark fantasy—with a primary focus on Canadian and Northern regional perspectives.  

The Last Temptation of Becky (2026), United States; Director: Jenn Wexler—Fantasia’s family of returning filmmakers is large, and proudly includes director/producer powerhouse, Jenn Wexler. Her breakout debut, The Ranger, came to Fantasia in 2018 and was followed by the World Premiere of her supernatural Christmas crime heist, The Sacrifice Game, in 2023. For Fantasia’s 30th anniversary, the fest couldn’t be happier to have her back with the next chapter of the popular BECKY franchise, The Last Temptation of Becky! 

Becky Hooper (Lulu Wilson) has annihilated Neo-Nazis and all manner of victimizers, but this time, she’s going straight to the source! Now a CIA agent, managed by genre favorite Kate Siegel, she’s taking down a nefarious modern-day Nazi played with camp brilliance by the one and only Neil Patrick Harris! Wexler shines here, highlighting the underdog heroine and going for broke with tons of gore and crazy kills. Meanwhile, Wilson reprises her beloved character with gusto, unleashing Becky’s signature rage on an army of insane baddies! 

 A reminder that The Ranger and The Sacrifice Game are both available for streaming on Shudder.  

No Rest For the Wicked (2026), Denmark; Director: Kasper Kalle—A young fisherman’s first love with a stranded whaler unfolds in secrecy under the pressures of family, faith, and community in this haunting and subversive Queer vampire film with chilling folk horror flavors. Singular in scope and depth, Kasper Kalle’s No Rest For the Wicked is a vivid new landmark in Danish genre cinema that brings imaginatively radical and nightmarish new elements into the vampire lore. 

Adapted from Karl Heinrich Ulrichs’s iconic 1884 novella Manor, the film is set against the harsh, unforgiving landscape of the 19th-century Faroe Islands. Its stark, yet dreamy, uncanny atmosphere recalls the work of Carl Theodor Dreyer or even Robert Eggers, while its full-blooded heart is just as much an ode to the painful longings of Gothic romance as it is to the genre’s cruelties and horrors. Anchored by a remarkable lead performance from screen newcomer Egor Venned, it co-stars Pilou Asbæk alongside strong performances from Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, and Sofia Nolsøe. No Rest For the Wicked is eligible for the Cheval Noir prize.  

Rubberhead: The Life & Monsters of Steve Johnson (2026); Director: Nick Taylor. Known for his intense work ethic, perfectionism, and obsession with breaking new ground, Steve Johnson has created iconic creatures and effects for some of the most beloved genre films in cinema history, working with everyone from John Carpenter, David Cronenberg, and Sam Raimi to James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, and Guillermo del Toro. His drive and ambition also led to heartbreaking acts of self-sabotage, divorce, and a serious drug addiction. 

Over seven years in the making and stacked with incredible, never-before-seen archival footage, Rubberhead: The Life & Monsters of Steve Johnson is a revealing portrait of an immense talent who could also be his own worst enemy. Director Nick Taylor lets the artist—an enormously engaging raconteur—do much of the showing and telling (though the likes of Linnea Quigley, John Landis, Tom Holland, and Oscar-winner Bill Corso also contribute). Rubberhead is at once a captivating reflection on the game-changing practical FX glory days when everything was unexplored ground primed for radical invention and a fascinating, moving story of an FX master whose greatest monster may have been himself.  

Rubberhead is slotted into Fantasia’s Documentaries from the Edge section introduced ten years ago to showcase innovative, provocative non-fiction cinema. The sidebar focuses on edge-of-your-seat subjects, genre-adjacent stories, cult retrospectives, and subversive real-world topics. 

As a sample of what to expect from Rubberhead: The Life & Monsters of Steve Johnson, here’s a promotional video for the second volume of Johnson’s AM Ink autobiography Rubberhead: Volume Two, notable for glimpses into all of the projects that—as he frames it—“got away.”