Fantasia International Film Festival will be celebrating its 25th edition as a virtual event accessible to audiences across Canada, from August 5 through August 25, 2021.
Fantasia will open with the World Premiere of Julien Knafo’s Brain Freeze, a smart and stylish zombie comedy that tells the tale of an environmental disaster that leads to a fast-spreading virus ravaging a wealthy gated community off the island of Montreal.
Following the World Premiere on August 5th, Brain Freeze will see theatrical release throughout Canada on August 13th from Filmoption International.
The film stars Roy Dupuis (La Femme Nikita, The Rocket), one of Quebec’s leading actors for the past three decades who celebrates his 50th feature with this role, alongside Iani Bédard (Mon Ami Walid). The impressive cast is rounded out by an array of acclaimed figures in Québec cinema, including Marianne Fortier (Aurore), Anne-Élisabeth Bossé (Laurence Anyways), Mylène Mackay (Nelly), Simon-Oliver Fecteau (Bluff), Stéphane Crête (Dans une galaxie près de chez vous), Mahée Paiment (Les Boys), Louis-Georges Girard (Mafia Inc), Claudia Ferri (Bad Blood), and Jean-Pierre Bergeron (Sur Le Seuil).
Equally gorgeous as it is bloody, Brain Freeze presents a clever take on corporate greed, the growing rift between the haves and have-nots and a government in crisis that uses a zombie outbreak to express its truth and succeeds at being both a charming horror comedy, coming-of-age tale, and a story of unexpected friendship in hazardous times.
For the creation of its 25th anniversary poster art, pictured below, Fantasia once again turned to the talents of renowned illustrator Donald Caron. Taking inspiration from Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima’s beloved Lone Wolf and Cub, Caron created a work that not only acknowledges the key role that Japanese culture has played across Fantasia’s history, but also one that hints and honors the upcoming edition’s embrace of Japanese cinema as a core cinematic theme.