Fantastic Fest

I'm so tired. But I'm a bit tense. only two days left, and I can feel the start of Post-Fest Depression wanting to rear its ugly head. But there's two full days left...

That's how one of my 2009 Fantastic Fest Daily Dispatches started. It brings me right back to the fest. This is it, the final entry in our Fantastic Fest Flashbacks (we've already covered 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008). How the fest has grown. I'm looking at the screening schedule and it's now two columns of small fonts filling the page. So much to do and not enough hours to do it. The 2009 lineup ranged fromhorror-lite targeted to a younger audience like The Vampire's Assistant and Under the Mountain to the shocking Antichrist, and every possibility in between and around them. Literally something for everyone, Fantastic Fest 2009 seemed about as big as it can get, although we already know this year will be even bigger.

The opening-night film, Gentlemen Broncos, may not have been an audience favorite, but everyone seemed to enjoy the opening-night Party with cast and crew at the newly opened and not quite finished Highball, another venture by the intrepid Tim and Karrie League. The Battle Stag from the film could be seen in the Highball throughout the fest, and post-fest everyone was sad to see it leave. Other gala films screening at the Paramount had a stronger response, including Zombieland, which made everyone happy with a particular cameo from a 2008 Fantastic Fest alum, not to mention the Austin mention. I'm still regretting missing Survival of the Dead, but with so much to cover, and knowing how crazy downtown was with a UT home game and the Pecan Street Festival over the weekend, the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar was the place to stay for me. And guess what? Same thing is going to happen this year on Saturday; there's a UT home game and the Old Pecan Street Festival again on Saturday night.

Fantastic Fest has just announced another batch of films in its 2010 lineup, including another gala screening with special guests, a few sequels and remakes, and a variety of genre films from around the world. The fun starts in less than a month.

The gala screening -- which means it plays at the Paramount and has a red carpet beforehand -- is the U.S. premiere of Stone, which stars Edward Norton, Robert De Niro and Milla Jovovich. It's a drama about a parole officer trying to decide whether a murderer has truly reformed. Edward Norton will be here in Austin for the Friday, Sept. 24 screening as well as director John Curran.

The world premiere of 30 Days of Night: Dark Days, the sequel to 30 Days of Night, heads up an impressive list of other movies slated for next month's festival. There are films from Argentina, Hong Kong, Spain, Korea, Thailand, Japan, Mexico and of course the United States. Ong Bak 3, the remake of I Spit on Your Grave, the 1960 South Korean film The Housemaid and its 2010 remake, Adam Green's Hatchet II ... there's a lot of interesting stuff here. A full list of the announced films with descriptions, including which filmmakers will be at the fest, is available after the jump.

Fantastic Fest runs from September 23-30 this year, right here in Austin, primarily at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar but with gala screenings at the Paramount, and a few screenings and events in other venues around town. The fest has already announced its opening-night film, Let Me In, to be followed by a gala screening of Buried.

By 2008, after three fantastic years (2005, 2006, 2007), Fantastic Fest was no longer a fledging fest. There were definitely growing pains as the fests popularity grows. And why wouldn't it? The fest was based at the best theater in the world with world-class cinema that was well, fantastic on so many levels.

My favorite part about 2008 was the special online screenings, with a mix of shorts and features available for online viewing through B-Side. It made it possible to see more films that I would have otherwise. I got to see the disturbingly entertaining documentary; I Think We're Alone Now, profiling two Tiffany stalkers. Yes, that Tiffany, and yes, it was a recent documentary.

I love the docs at Fantastic Fest, they're very interesting, and I hope to see more. That's not to slight the Austin-based documentary about our youngest auteur, Emily Hagins, Zombie Girl: The Movie. Emily is currently working on her third feature film, My Sucky Teen Romance (which deserves kudos for the best title this year). And then there was Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! a doc about Australian filmmaking in the late 70s through the 80s, which played along with the Ozploitation film program featuring some of the same, from Mad Max to Turkey Shoot.

TO: Fearless Slackerwood Contributors

FROM: Most Fabulous Editor

SUBJECT: Newly announced Fantastic Fest 2010 opportunities

Folks, we've just received a press release from Fantastic Fest about another movie they've added to the lineup -- Buried, which stars Ryan Reynolds as a guy who wakes one morning to find himself, well, buried, and has to figure out where and why and how to get out. Reynolds and director Rodrigo Cortes will be in attendance at the screening, which will take place on opening night at the Paramount after Let Me In. Of course a couple of us will cover the red carpet, and I'm looking for especially good photos of Ryan Reynolds ... and yes, this is one of those occasions where you can send the best close-ups directly to me. Especially if he's a bit sweaty in the Texas heat. Ahem. Okay.

But that's not why I'm contacting you right now. In addition to the splashy gala screening during Fantastic Fest, Rolling Roadshow is holding a special screening of Buried in Austin on Saturday, September 18 called "Rolling Roadshow for One." I'd like it if you all would immediately head over to the Facebook invitation page for this event and sign up, even though only four people will be selected for the screening. I figure if all of you sign up, we have a good chance of someone being picked, and then we can get a review posted right on time for this movie as well as a fascinating feature about this unique Rolling Roadshow event.

Jenn's been taking us back in time to the early days of Fantastic Fest: 2005 and 2006. I'm switching on the time machine for 2007, a big year for the festival. The fun kicked off with a badge pick-up party outside in the back parking lot of Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar, with odd pinatas and a machine that aimed bloody spatters at willing victims and some interesting mechanical devices courtesy of Dorkbot Austin. This was the first year FF started using "traditional" badges, as I recall.

From a movie news point of view, 2007 was the year that surprised everyone when There Will Be Blood had its first public screening ever as a secret screening at the festival. I remember going to NYC the next year and hearing a PR rep fuss that "Can you believe? They screened it in Austin!" Of course all important movies should screen in New York and LA first, not the flyover.

In addition, 2007 was a big year for me because of Southland Tales. I realize a lot of people dislike this movie. I can't say I loved it, but I thought it was interesting -- my review refers to it as "a fascinating mess." It reminded me of some kind of alternative art exhibit where you admire the originality and the talent without actually wanting to take it home and put it on your wall, or even see it again. But "fascinating" and "extraordinary" were enough for the publicity folks, who asked me if I minded if they pulled those quotes from my review and attributed them to me in the publicity materials for the film. This is why we own the Southland Tales DVD: it's the only one with my name on the cover. I am by no means a quote whore, but it was an amusing experience for me.

Got your attention, huh? Brownie points if you can name the film that prop on the left is associated with. Hint, it screened at Fantastic Fest 2006.

Last week we started the Fantastic Flashbacks, a five part series looking back at the first five years of Fantastic Fest, starting with year one. Today, let's remember 2006, when the fest extended to its now-usual week of films and events.

There were quite a few celebrities at Fantastic Fest 2006, kicking off with R. Lee Ermey for Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, so you know they played his "Take Your Ass Out" Alamo promo. And you know the crowd went wild. Ermey may be a badass on the screen, but he was an absolute sweetheart to the many fans talking to him before the film in the lobby. He wasn't the only celebrity on hand; there were many geekgasms over the presence of Darren Aronofsky, and even though Mel Gibson's presence seemed like a PR opportunity to soothe over his first foot-in-mouth debacle, the special rough-cut screening of Apocalypto -- the first of the ever-popular "secret screenings" at Fantastic Fest -- was worth it.

That's not to say they were the only "names" there. Lucky McKee, the director of May, was there with his new film, The Woods, along with May's leading lady, Angela Bettis, who directed McKee in her film, Roman (which would make a great companion film to May, but that's another post).

Fantastic Fest screened so many films this year, it was impossible to see them all. Like the occasionally tepid Beowulf and Grendel with a then not well known Gerard Butler. He wasn't there, but it's entertaining to remember a film before he was well known.

First among the bigger films is Severance -- for the buzz alone. The tagline says it all: "Another bloody office outing." This team building retreat plays well as a survival horror and for black humor. The cast is fantastic and the script smartly takes sudden turns when little moments look predictable. I ended up seeing this three more times at fests and special screenings and I'm still annoyed it didn't do better in theaters. It was like I was stalking the film, but honestly I wasn't. If you've ever worked in corporate cubefarms with soul sucking lights and bizarre policies and even stranger people, well, it hits home.

Last month I started getting nostalgic for Fantastic Fests Past as I was de-cluttering and packing for a move. And while it is only July, fans of the festival are already getting excited for the 2010 edition, with two more months to go. If you're on Twitter or Facebook and live in Austin, you probably saw an explosion of tweets anticipating -- then commenting on -- the first round of films announced for the 6th annual Fantastic Fest last week. Seems like a perfect time to reminisce about the first five years of Fantastic Fest to me. Let's start at the logical place ... Year One, October 2005.

The inaugural year of Fantastic Fest was a sparse program compared to later years -- only four days long, and just two screens at a time for films and special events. There weren't distinct programs yet, other than a retrospective of post-apocalyptic films from around the world, starting a tradition of popular retrospectives that get some attendees as excited as the new releases. With a heavy representation of Asian horror, it's no surprise in later years that trend would continue.

Buying a VIP badge got you all sorts of goodies, mostly stuffed in a SXSW bag. We had the coolest badges ever in 2005, though -- these padded deals with a little flashlight in them, very helpful for reading the black with tiny white font programs.

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You all know what I mean when I say "Fantastic" news tidbits, right? Fantastic Fest is in September and we should be receiving -- and publishing -- regular updates on the lineup, special guests, and whatever other treats the festival has in store for us this year. But there's some other Austin film news, too, so I thought I'd take the lazy way out -- er, I mean the convenient way for readers, that's it -- and combine it all into one nice newsy package.

• As I mentioned, Fantastic Fest announced 13 films in their 2010 festival lineup yesterday. If you are a Fantastic Fest fanatic, you probably already know this. I noticed people on Twitter exclaiming that they'd been constantly refreshing the festival website page while eagerly anticipating the news. Nearly all these films are from other countries: Sweden, France, Serbia, Australia, South Africa, Hong Kong and Japan. I don't know much about most of them -- I saw Ip Man at Cinemapocalypse last year and liked it enough that I'd watch Ip Man 2, and The Violent Kind premiered at Sundance this year. IndieWire has the best discussion of the films so far, which isn't a lot ... but it's been pointed out to me that most of these films are North American premieres so U.S. writers don't know a lot about them yet.
• Speaking of Fantastic Fest, one of my favorite movies from the 2009 festival is now available on DVD and Netflix Watch Instantly: the animated surreal Belgian film A Town Called Panic (Panique au village). Go find this and watch this immediately. Here's my review from Cinematical.
• Jenn Brown and I really enjoyed the locally shot feature The Happy Poet at SXSW this year (Jenn's review). The filmmakers just let us know that they're showing the film in San Antonio this Saturday night at Unit B (with a bike ride downtown afterwards to a Q&A session). Hot dogs are also involved, naturally.

Could the next Marko Zaror be staying at your place in September?

One my favorite things about Austin's festivals, and Fantastic Fest in particular, is the camaraderie. There's a tremendous feeling of community, and it's common for out-of-towners to stay with locals, especially since most of their waking time will be spent around the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar.

Cut to last month when some friends of mine -- other Fantastic Fest veterans -- noticed that the Fantastic Fest website didn't include anything about housing. We found something about hotels, but nothing else. We talked about Butt-Numb-a-Thon and how one person in particular who has a guest room had a great time hosting an international guest for BNAT, and was thinking it would be fun to host someone else for Fantastic Fest.

That made me think about  how Alamo and Fantastic Fest staffers have often hosted visiting filmmakers on tight budgets -- one year a call went out looking for housing options for some shorts filmmakers from Colombia. So I passed on the suggestion to Jill, the Guest Manager for Fantastic Fest, and guess what? Now you can host a filmmaker yourself.

One of the most iconic devices in horror films is a maniac terrorizing a local town, the worst of which is one who preys on children. But what if the urban legend turns out to be real? 

Filmmakers Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio explore a real-life horror story of a boogeyman legend come to life in Cropsey, a movie about a series of murders centering on an abandoned state institution on Staten Island, New York, the suspect, the victims, and perceived versus actual guilt.

The "Cropsey" urban legend is so pervasive in the Hudson River valley region of New York, even people in outlying areas are familiar with it. Details change, but the core is the same: there's a maniac, he's armed, and he hunts kids. From a time when it was still common for kids to spend hours on their own without adult supervision, such cautionary tales kept some of us who were old enough to leave our own yards to be just a little more careful. On July 9, 1987, Jennifer Schweiger disappeared, and suddenly the boogeyman was real.