They’re back! The annual rampage of genre filmmakers, industry, and fans through the cinemas and social hubs of Montreal has begun, as the Fantasia International Film Festival opens its 30th edition on July 16 with Nicolas Winding Refn receiving the Cheval Noir Career Achievement Award before hosting the Canadian premiere of his sumptuously visceral, trope-defying thrill ride “Her Private Hell,” a Neon titl.
Refn emerged on the scene in 1996 with his influential feature debut “Pusher,” marking Mads Mikkelsen’s first big screen role, and ‘Pusher 3” had its North American premiere at Fantasia in 2006. His new feature, his first in a decade, hits North American big screens July 24.
“Returning to Fantasia 20 years after the ‘Pusher’ trilogy and receiving this award feels like stepping from black-and-white into color,” Refn tells Variety before the festival. “It’s a reminder that the journey is still unfolding—and it’s only getting better from here.”
Over 18 days, Fantasia unleashes an omnivorous global selection of 119 features and 400 shorts in an array of core and sidebar sections, and hosts Frontières, its convivial four-day co-production market and networking event, which has grown into a must-attend branded genre market destination at Cannes and Berlin and is also launching editions in Tokyo and Toronto this year. It’s also become an important spawning ground for Fantasia’s own programming.
