Competitions

Matt Johnson is a Canadian actor and filmmaker. He first attracted accolades for his independent feature films The Dirties (2013), which won Best Narrative Feature at the Slamdance Film Festival, and Operation Avalanche (2016), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, in addition to the series Nirvanna the Band the Show. His most recent feature, BlackBerry (2023) premiered in competition at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival and recently broke all Canadian Screen Awards records with 14 wins, including Best Motion Picture, Achievement in Direction and Performance in a Leading Role (comedy), becoming the most awarded film in CSA history.

Spawned out of the gator-infested swamps of the Florida Panhandle, Steve Dollar was introduced to the glories of cinema on childhood trips to the drive-in, where his impressionable young mind was saturated in spaghetti Westerns, Mondo movies and Hammer horror. In the decades since, he has been a film critic and cultural journalist for The Wall Street Journal, Newsday, The New York Sun, The Washington Post and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, among many other websites and magazines. He currently contributes to The Los Angeles Times, Filmmaker, and the Florida-based Flamingo magazine, and is artistic director of the Tallahassee Film Festival.

Rob Jabbaz is a Canadian filmmaker and artist based in Taipei, Taiwan.

As a teenager, he stumbled into a screening of a 35mm print of "Street Trash" at Fantasia in 1998 and cites this as a pivotal moment that helped to transform him into a lifelong fan of subversive cinema. Rob went on to release his debut feature, The Sadness in 2021. It premiered internationally at the Locarno International Film Festival and went on to win multiple awards around the world, including the "New Flesh" award for best first feature at that year’s edition of Fantasia.

Still best known for her turn as the foul-mouthed Lynda in Rob Zombie’s Halloween and still least known for her upcoming feature directorial debut Noxturne, which she also wrote, produced and starred in, Kristina Klebe is an all-around bad-ass (though she would of course never call herself that). Klebe minored in film at Dartmouth College where she learned how to edit her 16mm shorts on a Steenbeck. She attended NYU Grad Film and has been listed as an up-and-coming director to watch by The Black List. She has shot, amongst other things, over a dozen open heart surgeries for Doctors Without Borders and Open Hearts Haiti. Over the years, she has appeared in countless features including Zach Parker’s TIFF breakout Proxy and Neil Marshall’s Hellboy remake, where she played filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. She co-starred in Ted Geoghegan’s SXSW hit Brooklyn 45 last year and is the voice of Sissy in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Game as well as IQ in Rainbow Six. www.kristinaklebe.com

Ariane is a French-Canadian filmmaker based in Montreal. Her debut feature, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2023), had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, where it earned her the Best Director award in the Giornate degli Autori program. The film had its North American premiere at TIFF and has gone on to win numerous awards internationally, including the Jean-Marc Vallée Discovery Award at the Directors Guild of Canada Awards, the Emerging Canadian Artist award at the Calgary International Film Festival, the award for Best Canadian Film at the Festival du nouveau cinema, the 2023 Stella Artois Jay Scott Prize, and is also in the running for the Rogers Best Canadian Film. Ariane made her directorial debut with the short film Wild Skin, a fantasy drama which has travelled to more than 50 festivals worldwide. In 2017, she directed Little Waves, which had its world premiere at TIFF, where it was named among Canada's top 10 films of the year, and its international premiere at the Berlinale. Her subsequent short films, The Depths (2019) and Shooting Star (2020), both had their world premieres at TIFF and garnered significant critical acclaim.

Rain Rannu is an Estonian film director and producer. As writer-director, his films include comedy-dramas Chasing Unicorns (2019) and Free Money (2023) and as producer, he’s behind Kratt (Fantasia 2021), The Invisible Fight (Locarno 2023) and Infinite Summer (Fantasia 2024). His production company Tallifornia produces and co-finances films from talented indie filmmakers.

Sapna Moti Bhavnani is best known as Producer/Director of the award-winning documentary Sindhustan (2019) Her second feature My Dog Is Sick was an official selection at the Visions Du Reel Market and World Premiered at New Horizons International Festival in 2021. Sapna is the founder of Wench Films and Wench Film Festival - India’s first Horror / Sci Fi / Fantasy Film Festival. She is currently developing her next feature Bearlike Man and a hybrid titled Wolf Song.

Long-time programmer and creator of the Action! section for the Fantasia Film Festival Éric S. Boisvert worked in television and the Quebec film industry before he began directing short films in 2008. Eric’s first short, Lilly, won best movie at the Fantastic weekend in 2012. In 2017, he left Montreal for Los Angeles and, working under the name Ricky Greenwood, became one of the most prolific adult film directors in the world. In the last seven years, he’s become known as a multifaceted filmmaker who works for all the top-shelf studios in the straight, gay, trans, and lesbian realms. Eric has received over 500 award nominations and has won countless prizes and accolades, including XBIZAwards for Director of Year—Body of Work (Narrative) and AVN Awards for Director of the Year and movie of the year twice.

Originally hailing from the West Coast, Amelia Moses has called Montreal home for over ten years. As a filmmaker she is interested in female-driven stories of the macabre and the uncanny. Her first feature Bleed With Me premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival and was distributed as a Shudder Original in 2021. Her second feature Bloodthirsty was the closing film at Austin’s Fantastic Fest and was nominated for two Canadian Screen Awards. She recently directed the thriller Guess Who for Tubi and is currently finalizing a new short film shot in Nova Scotia. She recently won the 2024 BANFF Jean-Marc Vallée bursary. She occasionally produces through her production company Havoc Films.

Heidi Honeycutt is a film festival programmer, film journalist, and film historian. She is the author of I Spit on Your Celluloid: The History of Horror Movies Directed by Women and the co-founder of Etheria Film Festival, the most prestigious festival showcase of new genre films directed by women, held at the American Cinematheque. Previously, Honeycutt co-founded the Viscera Film Festival and was the head of the Nightfall section of the Los Angeles Film Festival. She has contributed to a variety of books and magazines, including Fangoria, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Moviemaker Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Rue Morgue, and Delirium.

Jean Anne Lauer completed her Ph.D. in Radio-Television-Film at UT-Austin. She is a professor in the Depts. of Philosophy, Religion, and Humanities and Radio-Television-Film at Austin Community College. Jean began working professionally in film festivals at the International Pitching Market for the Guanajuato International Film Festival (Gto, Mexico, 2004 through 2013) and was a programmer for and then director of Cine Las Americas International Film Festival (Austin, TX, 2008 to 2022). Currently Jean is Director of Short Film Programming at Fantastic Fest (Austin, TX) having worked there in a variety of roles behind the scenes from 2013 to present.

Emily Lerer is a two-time audience award winner (Oscar-Qualifying Out On Film, Newfest) and Directors Guild of Canada award-nominated director raised by an empathetic special education teacher and charismatic rabbi. Her work explores the messiness of humanity, elevating under-represented characters. Selected as 2023’s “Comcast Rising Voices in Independent Film”, her work has screened at AMC, Laemmle and internationally renowned film festivals. T-Minus, her trans-abortion-road-trip film won audience awards at Oscar-qualifying Out on Film and Newfest. Punch Drunk, her cervical cancer-centered dramedy premiered at Hollyshorts and enjoyed international acclaim at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival. Her TV experience includes: Shameless (Showtime), Twenties (BET), and Pretty Little Liars (HBO). Emily is a proud alumna of the Sundance Directing TV Intensive, AWD Directing Lab, and member of the Television Academy and Producers Guild of America.

Gary Pullin, known to horror enthusiasts and collectors as "Ghoulish Gary," is a leading designer in the world of alternative movie posters, vinyl record packaging, and pop culture art. His coloruful signature style has graced numerous magazines including MAD, Fangoria and Rue Morgue, where he started as their original art director. He's had his artwork featured on blu-rays, book covers, soundtracks, in galleries across the globe, and creates highly sought-after art prints. You can see more of his work by visiting www.garypullin.com or follow @ghoulishgary on his socials.

Alex was born and raised in the great (yet increasingly problematic) state of Texas, growing up in Dallas and attending the University of Texas at Austin, where he graduated with a BFA in Radio-Television-Film in 2014. A lifelong consumer of cinema, Alex’s love of the silver screen drew him first to Los Angeles, and then to XYZ Films, where he began as an intern before joining XYZ's development team in 2018. In 2021, Alex joined XYZ's distribution department as an acquisitions executive, and he greatly looks forward to watching all of your movies.

Johane Matte graduated from the animation program at Algonquin College, Ottawa. She began her career in Montreal in 1991 as an inbetweener and clean-up artist. She worked at various studios (television, commercials, and video games) and held diverse roles including character designer and story artist. The opportunity to work at the Nickelodeon studio in California opened up, where she continued as a story artist on AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER. She then moved on to features at Dreamworks Animation, working on movies such as HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON and RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, for which she won an Annie Award for storyboards. Matte joined the crew of TALES OF ARCADIA: TROLLHUNTERS, where she added the role of director to her resume.

Jonathan Alvarez is a seasoned professional in theatrical distribution, with seven years of experience at Well Go USA Entertainment, a renowned film distribution company. Specializing in action, genre, and independent cinema from across the globe, Jonathan has worked with festivals and exhibitors to bring captivating films to North American audiences. Based in Plano, TX, he has orchestrated the releases of numerous indie and international gems, including films like THE WANDERING EARTH 2, EXHUMA, and MONSTER (2023). He received his BA at Pace University (New York, USA) with concentration in journalism, communications, and anthropology.

Elizabeth E. Schuch is an award-winning filmmaker with a career spanning directing, storyboarding, design, VFX, and indie feature production. Her award-winning directorial debut, THE BOOK OF BIRDIE, showcases her passion for female-driven genre filmmaking. Elizabeth co-directed the epic documentary GOD'S SOLDIERS: SIEGE OF MALTA and co-created cult Greek monster movie MINORE. Beginning as a set designer, she won Chicago's top award for theatre, participated in Berlinale Talent Campus, and trained in VFX in the UK. Specializing in storyboards for VFX, Schuch works in a range of media: commercials, factual, TV, titles, graphics, IMAX, VR, live events, and features (including WONDER WOMAN). Elizabeth is the lead producer at Melancholy Star studio in London, Greece, and Toronto, and the art director for the celebrated Fantaspoa IFF in Brazil.

Philip Kalin-Hajdu is a Canadian Screen Award-nominated producer and International Emmy Awards member. Since seeing Ken Russel’s DEVILS with his dad at 15, he’s wanted to make horror films. His most current projects include writing and producing the feature MOM, directed by Adam O’Brien and starring Emily Hampshire, François Arnaud, and Christian Convery, and producing Jenn Wexler’s 2023 Shudder Original and Fantasia’s Gold Audience Award-winning THE SACRIFICE GAME. Other projects include the VR experience LIGHTS, directed by Julien Mokrani with Atlas V, and he co-wrote/produced GAME OF DEATH, directed by Laurence Morais and Sebastien Landry, which premiered at SXSW and won Fantasia’s 2017 Bronze Audience Award.

Caroline Labrèche has been directing for over 20 years. She has over ten feature-length films under her belt, of note the 2017 feature RADIUS, which she also co-wrote, SECOND OPINION in 2018, winning Best Feature at the CSAs, and the 2019 THICKER THAN WATER, nominated for Best Direction at the DGC Awards. Her enthusiasm for working with actors is matched only by her ability to bring a strong vision to the projects she tackles—on time and on budget. Caroline has also started tackling TV projects, more recently directing a pivotal episode of the acclaimed last season of NBC/CTV’s TRANSPLANT.

Actor/cinematographer/editor turned director Francesco Giannini always had his heart set on storytelling. His debut short film, THE RACE OF LIFE, was chosen to play at Cannes in 2012. In 2016, THE FLARE debuted to critical acclaim at the Fantasia International Film Festival. He finally made his feature film directorial debut with a psychological horror film called HALL in 2020, named one to watch by the New York Times.

Serena Whitney is a Toronto-based film programmer and writer. She is currently the Programming Director at Revue Cinema, Toronto’s oldest operating cinema, and the creator of the popular film series Drunken Cinema, a monthly film series hosted in various Canadian cities (as well as abroad). She also co-hosts a film-based podcast with filmmaker Mark Palermo, MOVIES AND CHAOS. She has written for numerous publications such as Exclaim Magazine and Dread Central, and she was the script consultant for the 2022 Fantasia Film Festival opener, POLARIS.

Trevor Anderson is a writer-director whose movies have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, Drumheller Prison, and places in between. His feature film BEFORE I CHANGE MY MIND premiered at the 2022 Locarno Film Festival and was released theatrically in North America in 2024. Trevor’s short films have screened at many A-list and LGBTQ+ film festivals, including three times at Sundance, three times at SXSW, twice at TIFF, and twice at the Berlinale, where his musical THE MAN THAT GOT AWAY (2012) won the D.A.A.D. Short Film Prize. All of Trevor’s short films stream free at trevorandersonfilms.com.

Né à Lévis en 1987, Luca Jalbert produit sa première bande dessinée des aventures de ses personnages Fonck et Ponck à l'âge de neuf ans. Il fonde en 2002, à l'âge de quatorze ans, sa maison d'édition et de production CABRO* Productions, avec laquelle il a depuis, publié 6 tomes des aventures de ses personnages, fêté en 2018 ses 20 ans de carrière et deux générations de lecteurs. Outre la bd, il a aussi des romans à son actif publiés aux Éditions Héritage Jeunesse dans la célèbre collection Frissons. Après avoir réalise quatre saisons de la websérie Les Enfants Perdus, il propose une suite à cette tétralogie avec LES ÉCORCHÉS, une trilogie prévoyant trois films dont le premier sera présenté à Fantasia 2024 en première mondiale

Livia Gilbert est une jeune comédienne de 15 ans qui faite ses débuts à l’écran dans le film Les Écorchés, écrit produit et réalisé par Luca Jalbert. LES ÉCORCHÉS sera non une trilogie en trois films dont le premier sera présenté à Fantasia 2024 en première mondiale, mais aussi une série de trois adaptation en mots et en dessins aux Éditions Héritage Jeunesse dans la célèbre collection Frissons.

Vincent Feller est une jeune comédien de 14 ans qui fait ses débuts à l’écran dans le film Les Écorchés, écrit produit et réalisé par Luca Jalbert. LES ÉCORCHÉS sera non une trilogie en trois films dont le premier sera présenté à Fantasia 2024 en première mondiale, mais aussi une série de trois adaptation en mots et en illustrations aux Éditions Héritage Jeunesse dans la célèbre collection Frissons.

Alexandre Fontaine Rousseau is a film critic, as well as a translator and comic book writer. In addition to hosting the 24 images podcast, he edits the cinema section for Liberté. He also writes for Panorama-cinéma. As an author, he is known for Pinkerton (2012), Les cousines vampires (2014), La pitoune et la poutine (2019) and La conquête du cosmos. He was also the host of États altérés for 15 years, broadcast on CISM 89,3FM.

Prune Paycha is a photographer and film critic. She writes for the magazines Liberté and 24 images, as well as for Espace Art actuel. Her photographs have appeared in the magazines Vie des Arts, 24 images, Tristesse and Planches, as well as in daily newspapers such as Le Devoir and Libération. She is particularly interested in the notion of trace and spiritualism, as well as the representation of the ghostly in photography. She is currently working on the ritual of tarentism, an Italian folkoric dance that is a form of exorcism.

Guillaume Potvin is a film critic, film programmer and teacher. He has been writing for Séquences magazine since 2013 and teaching film and media since 2018. In August 2020 he joined Cinéma Public’s team as programming and technical coordinator.

Fantasia: More fun than ever on the big screen

It's that wonderful time of year when film fans gather, reunite, and share unique moments in front of the big screen as genre films unfold — funny, terrifying, mysterious, sometimes all at the same time. There's no doubt that Fantasia is a place where everything is possible, a kaleidoscope of the themes and imagination that animate the planet, which has never been so animated…

Once again, the public is invited to attend this major event in genre cinema, and L'Écran Fantastique is responding by renewing its partnership and awarding the prize for Best Genre Feature Film presented at the festival for the 18th year running. Time flies…

While we wait to find out which film will win this award, dozens from all over the world (and sometimes even from elsewhere, you might think) will be jostling for position on the screen. May the best film win, of course, but let the others also be seen and appreciated for what they are, and what they arouse in us: a passion.

And let's not forget that the films shown deserve to be seen on the big screen, and that in any case, not all of them will end up on streaming platforms — film fans, take your seats!

Yves Rivard
Prix L’Écran Fantastique

yrmedia@videotron.ca