The Fantastic Film Festival 2024 marks its fifth edition, promising a spectacle of the weird, wonderful, and wholly unexpected. Among the 24 feature films, you’ll find nine from France including from renowned French directors Luc Besson and Gaspar Noé.
Director: Luc Besson
As a child, Douglas was abused by a violent father who literally threw him to the dogs. Instead of attacking him, the dogs protected him. Traumatized, and leading a life on the margins of society, completely isolated except for the company of his dogs, Douglas descends into murderous madness.
One of the most outrageous films of the year, this delightfully dark mix of Taxi Driver, Beethoven and even Home Alone features an incredible lead performance from Caleb Landry Jones (Nitram) as a man broken by trauma, disability and rejection, but held together by a deep passion for Shakespeare, Edith Piaf and exacting brutal vengeance alongside a four-legged army.
Enter The Voice / Soudain le vide (2019)
Country: France/Japan
Director: Gaspar Noé
Oscar is an American drug dealer living with his sister in Japan. Killed during a drug bust, Oscar’s spirit enters the astral plane. His journey through life after death takes him back to the past and through the present neon club scene of Tokyo after dark.
Gaspar Noé, a true outlaw filmmaker, cemented himself as the leading voice the of New French Extremity movement with his most challenging and exhilarating film: a hallucinatory meditation on life, death and rebirth, shot entirely in the first person. Described by Noé as a “psychedelic melodrama”, Enter the Void is a powerful, transcendent and immersive cinematic experience like no other.
The film is accompanied by an adaptation of the original score (which was a soundscape made in collaboration between Noé and Thomas Bangalter’s of Daft Punk fame) from Sydney-based Filipina-Australian electronic music producer Corin, a leading figure in performance art and sound design for theatre and club spaces.
Director: Saïd Belktibia
Life is far from easy for Nour, who is navigating the challenges of single parenthood while earning a risky living as a smuggler of exotic flora and fauna. In hopes of a better future for her son, she creates a mobile app that connects clients with mystical marabout healers. At first, it seems like they’re on the path to success, but after a patient’s consultation devolves into tragedy, Nour faces a backlash of extreme violence that threatens her son’s life and her own.
A riveting feature-length chase starring Golshifteh Farahani (Paterson) and Denis Lavant (Holy Motors, Beau Travail), Hood Witch’s thrills are packed with social commentary, offering a refreshing take on the ways in which social media can fuel the flames of outrage. It’s one woman against the world in this strong directorial debut from a promising talent.
Country: Switzerland, France, Nigeria
Director: C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi
Language: West African Pidgin (English subtitles)
In the oceanside village of Iyi, the revered Mama Efe acts as an intermediary between the people and the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata. When a young boy is lost to a virus, Efe’s devoted daughter Zinwe and skeptical protégé Prisca warn Efe about unrest among the villagers. With the sudden arrival of a mysterious rebel deserter named Jasper, a conflict erupts, leading to a violent clash of ideologies and a crisis of faith for the people of Iyi.
Nigeria’s third-ever Oscar entry, this potent modern fable from C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi deploys vivid, monochromatic black-and-white cinematography, rich sound design, and a hypnotic score in a folk-futurist style, both earthy and otherworldly, to depict a pitched battle between opportunistic militants promising technological progress and a matriarchal spiritual order living in fragile harmony with the ocean.
Mami Wata transports us to a place that seems both suspended in time and perhaps running out of time as the threats of modern life wash upon its shores.
Director: Jérémie Périn
In the 23rd century, a private detective and her android partner are hired by a wealthy businessman to hunt down an infamous cybernetics hacker. On Mars, they venture deep into the heart of the planet’s capital, discovering a web of intrigue involving brain farms, corruption and a girl’s disappearance that may reveal a truth about robots that could revolutionise society.
Mars Express fuses the science fiction neon noir of Blade Runner with the sleek animation of mind melters like Ghost in the Shell and Paprika to reach for new philosophical insight into our relationship with technology, without ever compromising the excitement of its race-against-the-clock pacing.
Director: Quarxx
Nathan wakes up on a cold, desolate mountain road, unsure how he got there. He’s not alone though. Other tortured figures emerge around him, similarly perplexed by their strange situation. When two mysterious doors suddenly appear on the road, they soon realise that a moment of divine judgement is upon them.
A macabre spin on Dante’s Inferno and Milton’s Paradise Lost, multi-disciplinary director Quarxx pushes us through a series of increasingly twisted fantasies, delving into the darkest recesses of the human experience to construct this multi-textured existential fantasy. His signature spin on visceral horror, peppered with surprising moments of comedy, conjures a disturbing but deeply profound vision of madness, sin, suffering and the terror of our own mortality.
The Deep Dark / Gueules Noires
Director: Mathieu Turi
In 1956, a crew of hardened coalminers are forced to escort a professor on an expedition into a cave one thousand meters beneath the surface. Trapped by a landslide and with no way out, they unseal an abandoned crypt, uncovering a godlike creature of Lovecraftian horror that reveals the true purpose of their mission.
Evoking horror classics like The Thing and The Descent, this claustrophobic creature feature grows more tense and intriguing as director Mathieu Turi delves deeper into the catacombs, crafting the kind of subterranean thriller that feels lost to time. The Deep Dark is the kind of creature feature that would always catch your eye at the video store as a kid, and somehow lived up to your most horrific hopes.
Director: Adrien Beau
Lost in a hostile forest, the Marquis d’Urfé, a noble emissary of the King of France, finds refuge in the home of a strange family whose patriarch, away at war, returns in the form of the vampiric Vourdalak.
Based on A.K. Tolstoy’s classic gothic novella, a proto-vampire story preceding Stoker’s Dracula by 50 years, The Vourdalak is a refreshing depiction of the iconic horror monster that is unafraid to embrace its gothic roots. Reminiscent of old school Jean Rollin and Hammer Horror, with authentically vintage 70s vibes, The Vourdalak is just as dreamy as it is scary.
Vincent Must Die / Vincent doit mourir
Director: Stéphan Castang
Random strangers have suddenly started attacking Vincent with murderous intent in this nerve-shredding, ground-breaking movie riding the new wave of French horror. Vincent’s existence as a completely unremarkable man is overturned, and as things spiral violently out of control, he is forced to change his life completely.
An apocalyptic, bodysnatching, zombified horror-comedy-romance (yes, you read that right), this devilish genre mash-up is as outrageous as it sounds, but at its core is a wickedly clever satire of our collective capacity for anger and selfishness in the modern world.
After premiering at Cannes Critics’ Week and snatching up two top prizes at Sitges, Vincent Must Die might just make you want to shove a pencil in a co-worker’s eye.
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KEY INFO FOR FANTASTIC FILM FESTIVAL 2024
WHAT: Fantastic Film Festival 2024
WHERE: Melbourne and Sydney
WHEN: 17 April – 10 May 2024
HOW: Purchase your tickets via the links above.
Multiple ticket passes can be purchased here for Lido in Melbourne and here for the Ritz in Sydney
HOW MUCH:
There are a variety of ticket options.
Single tickets for non-special events
- Adult $25
- Concession $19.50
- Lido, Ritz & Thornbury Picture House members $18.50
- Groups of 20 or more $16 per person
Special Events:
- Opening Night — Adult $35 / Concession $29 / Members $28
- Closing Night — Adult $38 / Concession $34 / Members $33
Fantastic Film Festival 2024 Passes
- 5 film pass $85 ($17 per ticket)
- 10 film pass $155 ($15.50 per ticket) (not available at Thornbury Picture House)
- VIP film pass $255 (Valid for 1x redemption on every film. Includes Special Events) (not available at Thornbury Picture House)
Which films do you want to see at Fantastic Film Festival 2024?
For more events with links to France and the Francophonie happening in Australia this month, check out our What’s on in April
