The third and final wave for the Fantasia Film Festival is finally here. The last titles added to the line up for 2020’s virtual event which runs from 20th August until the 2nd September. Please check out some of the latest images to be released to the public and as per Mother of Movies’ previous curtain raisers, I’ve added some trailers.
For more information on the complete festival and 1st and 2nd wave titles, check out the previous articles. Mother of Movies will be back with a highlights list before diving into reviews as embargoes get lifted.
Dinner In America
Being on the run is hard enough but this punk rocker has just fallen in love with one of her groupies and together they see stars. Written and directed by Adam Rehmeier (The Bunny Game) and starring Kyle Gallner, Emily Skeggs, and Mary Anderson, Dinner in America is a comedy filled with all the best music. Well received by those that saw it earlier in the year for Sundance 2020, many critics have remarked if you stick with it you will be rewarded.
Clapboard Jungle
A 98-Minute documentary written and directed by Justin McConnell. McConnell is best known for his previous documentary Skull World 2013 and a crime-thriller, Broken Mile 2016. Here he tackles indie filmmakers and their will to survive. In a make-or-break climate, how does one climb to the top and actually make some money?
Features interviews with Guillermo Del Toro, Richard Stanley, Barbara Crampton, Paul Schrader, Tom Savini, George A. Romero, Gigi Saul Guerrero, Michael Biehn, Frank Henenlotter, plus heaps of the others.
A Witness Out of the Blue
A Witness Out of the Blue aka Fan zui xian chang. A crime thriller from Hong Kong written and directed by Chi-Keung Fung. Starring: Louis Koo, Jessica Hester Hsuan, Louis Cheung. When a dead man is discovered inside an apartment the only witness is a parrot found next to the body. A mystery of the feathered kind.
Woman of the Photographs
- Written and Directed by Takeshi KUSHIDA
- (Debut Feature Film of a Director)
- 89min / 2020 / Japan / Narrative Fiction
A misogynic photographer discovers for the first time in his life the joys of loving a woman, this one confused about her self-identity and self-esteem, by helping her in her perceptions of herself with his retouching skills.
Free Country
A drama from Mandate Pictures and directed by David Gordon Green (Halloween and Prince Avalanche.) Written by Josh Parkinson (of The Terror TV Series) the film is set in Germany in 1992, 2 years after the reunification. Two teams of police embark on a perilous mission to track down the women who left and headed west.
A German-language film that would have played at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival was canceled in 2020.
Patrick
A Portuguese language drama set against a man who was abducted as a child and finally returns home. Written and directed by Gonçalo Waddington alongside co-writer João Leitão (Co-Writer.) Starring Alba Baptista of the new Netflix series Warrior Nun, Hugo Fernandes (Cezanne et Moi), and Lydie Barbara (The Last Time I Saw Macao.)
The trailer might make you re-think Patrick as a simple story.
Baby: The Secret Diary of a Mom to Be
Check out this trailer for Baby: The Secret Diary of a Mom to Be.
Cosmic Candy
Writer-director Rinio Dragasaki and co-writer Katerina Kaklamani follow 10-year-old Persa who finds herself under the care of her neighbor when her father goes missing. In a comedy fantasy film that is as much an ode to growing up as it is to moving on, the neighbor, Anna lives in the past. If you want to re-live the joys of pop rocks and self-improvement, then Cosmic Candy will show you life isnt always sweet but is funny.
A Greek language film from Blonde Audiovisual Productions and distributed by Weird Wave.
Monster of Seafood Wars
Monster of Seafood Wars is a Japanese language comedy and fantasy science fiction movie from
Minoru Kawasaki. Co-written by Masakazu Migita with the original story by Eiji Tsuburaya. If you were going to see a gigantic mutated squid movie this year, you’ve come to the right place.
Survival Skills
A narrative POV drama starts with an introduction to Jim. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as ever a cadet straight out of the academy can be. But a domestic disturbance festers as Jim struggles to resolve the dispute without using the law he had just promised to uphold. Writer-director Quinn Armstong is better known for his role in the TV series Grimm, Survival Skills marks his directorial debut.
HK: Forbidden Super Hero & HK2: The Abnormal Crisis
If Mother of Movies gave away any more information, I’d be ruining the fun. A high school boy discovers he has superhero powers after putting panties on his face.
- DirectorYûichi Fukuda
- WritersKeishû Andô (manga) | Yûichi Fukuda (screenplay) | Shun Oguri (screenplay)
Morgana
An Australian biographical documentary starts with a housewives desires to end her life. Just when everything is planned to go, she discovers there is more to life than death. Directed and written by Josie Hess & Isabel Peppard.
An Australian-made film that promises more than you bargained for.
Legally Declared Dead
Director Kim-Wai Yuen’s Legally Declared Dead knows that the road to Hell is often paved with good intentions. Sean is an insurance agent who begins to suspect fraud is afoot involving the suicide of a young man. But when Sean makes his own inquiries, he discovers a new suspect. One that is putting him and everyone he loves in danger. A dramatic crime thriller, Legally Declared Dead will keep you on your toes.
Perdida
The Hidden Face is a Colombian film made in 2011. Perdida is a remake. A breakup, an aspiring conductor, and a mysterious disappearance begin as the thread of a thrilling and dramatic puzzle.
Director Jorge Michel Grau Writers Anton Goenechea | Hatem Khraiche (writer original film “La Cara Oculta.”)
Wildland
Wildland is from Denmark and comes from director Jeanette Nordahl. A tragic accident leaves Ida to move in with her aunt and cousins. A seemingly normal and loving household, this family bleeds violence. Once outside the home they are nothing but criminals.
YOU CANNOT KILL DAVID ARQUETTE
Directed by David Darg and Price James, You Cannot Kill David Arquette is a documentary. David Arquette returns to the ring of WCW Heavyweight Championship wrestling.
The Mortuary Collection
Ryan Spindell is best known for The Babysitter Murders and Kirksdale and now he wants to bring the scariest stories to life. An Anthology film that will have fans of Tales of the Crypt wondering why they haven’t heard of The mortuary Collection before. This time the stories are chosen by a young boy wanting a job in a mortuary. Spurred by karmic and horror-filled solutions, this will give you those creeps you desperately desire. 4 stories starting in the 1950s and ending in the 1980s.
World Premiere Titles – Final Wave
Marygoround
- Director Daria Woszek
- Writers Sylwester Piechura | Aleksandra Swierk | Daria Woszek
A short 80-minute Polish drama. A movie about one woman’s zest for life after her hormone imbalance is rectified. Suddenly feeling like everything is opening up to her but also conflicted by her religious upbringing.
Anything For Jackson
World Premiere, Anything for Jackson stars Sheila McCarthy (The Umbrella Academy) and Julian Richings (Supernatural.) A teeth-gritting horror story about two old ladies who just happen to be Satanists. A screenplay by Keith Cooper and directed by Justin G. Dyck is a tale that promises to snowball over its minutes into a nasty intensity.
Hunted is a World Premiere of a Big Bad Wolf Story
Once upon a frenzied time, man meets woman. A man kisses a woman. The woman escapes the man. Man chases woman. This oft-recycled revenge plot takes an unexpected turn in HUNTED – a bold story where codes are bent and reborn. The psychotic Big Bad Wolf, the embodiment of patriarchy, and his dummy sidekick engage in a wild hunt within mother nature’s protective maze of trees; meanwhile, our tale’s Red Riding Hood awaits with killer moves – and won’t surrender so easily. Vincent Paronnaud (acclaimed comic book creator and co-director of the Academy Award-nominated PERSEPOLIS) brings us a thrilling, humanist tale that’s as animalistic as it is mystifying.
Paper Tigers
A trio of washed-up Kung Fu prodigies is now middle-aged. In between being a dad and working in bottom rung careers, they find themselves required to avenge their master after he gets murdered. Written and directed by Bao Tran Paper Tigers will show you the journey as well as the moves for what it takes to be great at King Fu.
Stars: Clancy Brown, Caitlin Custer, Christine Kilmer
The Terrible Ivan
Ivan Cardoso (NOSFERATU IN BRAZIL, THE SECRET OF THE MUMMY) is one of the country’s most significant genre filmmakers. Throughout his decades-spanning career, Cardoso has blended radical aesthetics with lowbrow ambitions and pioneered a style of filmmaking called Terrir (a play on the word terror, and the Portuguese word for “to laugh”).
Intercut with animation, interviews, and clips, Mario Abbade’s IVAN, THE TERRIBLE is a crash course on Brazil’s best-kept genre secret and a fun homage for his biggest fans. While the country’s cinematic past and present are under threat with President Bolsonaro in power, this film emerges during a moment of national reflection on the importance of art and liberty under political oppression
Hail to the Deadites
This needs no explanation for the hordes of superfans of The Evil Dead franchise. Sit back and relax into interviews with collectors, cast and crew, obsessors, and, Evil Dead geeks. From Steve Villeneuve, who is best known for, Under the Scars, Hail to the Deadites is a documentary for the fans.
Texas Trip – A Carnival of Ghosts
Amidst the ruins of drive-in theaters, monsters and fears can no longer be seen on the screen. They haunt another margin. Using the freak figure to create their own myths, Texan artists question their role in this transvestite world. Masks and weird rituals lead us to an intimate view of their culture and the struggle to survive through poetry.
ADDITIONAL TITLES
Other titles to look out for are: WOTAKOI: LOVE IS HARD FOR OTAKU, SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD, ROM, CHASING DREAM, THE LEGEND OF BARON TO’A, NO WAY HOME 4K RESTORATION, DAY OF THE BEAST RESTORATION and STING OF DEATH 2K RESTORATION
The Fantasia Film Festival 2020 will also host a tribute to JOSÉ MOJICA MARINS, a JOHN CARPENTER LIFETIME, and ACHIEVEMENT AWARD AND MASTERCLASS
- Netflix Original: Open House Review
- Buy Running Time: A restoration from Synapse Films, starring Bruce Campbell
- Watch: The Hole in the Ground
