This year’s Fantasia Festival will open with Ari Aster‘s latest feature, Eddington.
Eddington screens at Fantasia following its debut at Cannes last month. The thriller/black comedy is set in May 2020 and stars Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, Clifton Collins Jr., and Amélie Hoeferle.
Phoenix plays small-town Sheriff Joe Cross in the eponymous New Mexico town, where he challenges Mayor Ted Garcia (Pascal) as the Covid pandemic is creating high tension. There’s a backdrop of fake news and collective anxiety.
Aster directed and produced Eddington alongside Lars Knudsen under their Square Peg Banner. The film marks Aster’s fourth feature after the widely acclaimed Hereditary, Midsommar, and Beau Is Afraid.
Elsewhere at Fantasia, the 2025 Canadian Trailblazer award will be handed to filmmaker George Mihalka. Mihalka’s credits include the 1981 slasher My Bloody Valentine, Bullet To Beijing (1996), and La Florida (1993). Mihalka will give a masterclass at the festival.
Other titles set to screen include Every Heavy Thing, the latest feature from Mickey Reece, and two new titles from Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Miike. They are Blazing Fists, in which two teenage hoodlums aim for better lives for themselves, and fighting in the ring is how they’ll get there. The film’s cast features J-pop superstar Gackt and MMA fighter Mikuru Asakura, who appears as himself. The festival will also screen Sham. Inspired by a true story, it follows the surreal legal and media battle of a teacher falsely accused of violence against a student.
Fantasia Festival runs from July 16 – August 3.
