Every year I scale back a little more and a little more on reviews and movie coverage. At this point, I barely cover wide, mainstream releases, and I’ve scaled film festival coverage down to a bare minimum. But like clockwork, when this time of year rolls around, I can’t escape the allure of Fantasia.
Every time, the lineup is absolutely stacked with the best and wildest international genre fare and it remains a huge bucket list item to attend in person one of these years. You know, when money and time and day jobs aren’t an issue. Sigh.
Fantasia 2026 is, as one would assume, another absolute banger. It features all manner of horror and action and sci-fi, and many much-less-easily-classifiable films from across the globe. It’s going to be a good one.
[Related Reading: 10 Movies to See at Fantasia 2025]
I’m covering the fest remotely again this year, so what films will and won’t be available to me remains up in the air. Still, here is a list of films I’m excited to check out if I have the opportunity.
Some of these I’ll see, some I’ll miss. There are sure to be titles I wind up loving that I haven’t even heard of yet, which happens every year and is one of the great things about film festivals.
Fantasia runs from July 16-August 2, so look for coverage to start in earnest around then. And if you’re so inclined, sound off if there's anything you’re psyched to see in Montreal in 2026.
The Last Temptation of Becky
Everyone’s favorite precocious teen Nazi killer, Becky, now a CIA agent, returns. Directed by The Ranger helmer Jenn Wexler, this gets a bit ol’ hell yeah.
Anymart
As someone who worked in a convenience store for years, some truly horrifying things go down in these spaces, which makes it the perfect setting for a horror movie.
Hot Spot
The Lure director Agnieszka Smoczynska is back, this time with an ‘80s-coded future dystopia. That is my kind of Mad Libs.
Unholy Night
Holiday horror in the dead of summer, what better time of year?
Our Effed Up World
At this point, it wouldn’t be Fantasia without an entry from Alice Maio Mackay. The 21-year-old Australian phenom is back with yet another feature, this time tackling the under-utilized sci-fi horror genre.
Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant
Let’s be honest, I want to watch this based on the title alone.
God Skin
Underground Muay Thai fights, a weird high-tech twist, and a character named Nerdass. Let’s go.
Break Free
The Yakuza, dance battles, and Akito Fuji from Baby Assassins add up to a logline I can’t ignore.
Sleep No More
This body horror out of Singapore and Indonesia revolves around a maybe-haunted wig factory, the very idea of which is already all kinds of unsettling.
Attack on Paradise
This Dutch/Belgian co-production plays like a mix of The Raid and Walking Tall. You know what to do with the combination.
Tristes Tropiques
This South Korean action thriller revolves around a group of orphaned children raised in the woods as assassins controlled by a mysterious organization. Just say you made the movie specifically for me.
Ancestral Beasts
Family dysfunction, mental illness, and generational trauma envisioned as a deep-woods haunted house yarn, all through an Indigenous filter, adds up to a must-see horror.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
Jane Schoenbrun is two for two when it comes to dropping bangers, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair and I Saw the TV Glow, so when she shows up with a queer camp slasher satire, one staring Gillian Anderson no less, you have my undivided attention.
Freaks Part II
2018’s Freaks took me by surprise, watching like a unique spin on a superhero origin story, and I’ve always wondered what came next. Well, now we’re about to find out.
Wind Breaker
High school martial arts gangs battling one another for domination. Need I say more?
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