The Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 16 through August 3, 2025, in Montreal. We are covering the festival this year at ScreenAge Wasteland, so you can expect to see some film reviews appearing in the coming weeks. The lineup this year includes over one hundred films, so we did the hard work for you of sorting through them for some future classics and hidden gems.
Here are our most anticipated movies of the festival.
Eddington – dir. Ari Aster
Nostalgia is a powerful thing, but I don’t think any of us are all that nostalgic for 2020. Still, Ari Aster has a unique talent for making compelling movies out of discomfort, and it seems we are in for more of that with his latest film, Eddington. It is a COVID-centric black comedy that sets Joaquin Phoenix’s conservative sheriff against Pedro Pascal’s liberal mayor. After a world premiere at Cannes, it is set as Fantasia’s opening night film in advance of a wide theatrical release on July 18.
Together – dir. Michael Shanks
After the smash success of ScreamAge Horror Best Picture Winner The Substance, the body horror resurgence is in full swing. Early word out of Sundance has this film as another vomit-inducing body transformation movie. Together stars real-life couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco in a horror fable on codependency. Its appearance in the Fantasia lineup sets up a wide theatrical release on July 30.
Lurker – dir. Alex Russell
Lurker is the debut film from Alex Russell. If his impressive writing resumé is any indication (he’s an alumnus of The Bear, Dave, and Beef), we are in for a well-structured and taut thriller. Lurker is about a retail worker who befriends a rising pop star and attempts to ingratiate himself into the star’s inner circle. Another Sundance hit, it will appear at Fantasia en route to an August 22 theatrical release.
It Ends – dir. Alexander Ullom
A theme at this year’s Fantasia is films that literalize the internal realities of their characters through external metaphors. This thriller follows recent college graduates who get stuck on a supernaturally infinite road with threats along the way – sort of like graduating into adulthood! It Ends premiered at SXSW to positive reviews and is currently seeking US distribution.
Bullet in the Head – dir. John Woo
Fantasia Festival also features many repertory screenings, the most exciting of which is John Woo’s underseen heroic bloodshed masterpiece. Bullet in the Head has now gotten a 4K restoration that Fantasia will be showing, with a physical media release pending from Shout! Studios. If there is justice in the world, the new restoration should get this film more widely seen and rightfully placed towards the top of the John Woo canon.
