Montreal’s Fantasia international film festival, the best fest in North America, is getting closer, and a new list of exciting features has been announced for the event, which runs July 19-August 7.

Below are the latest announced titles, joining those previously reported here. First up is an assortment of animated titles that will be part of the newly formed, permanent AXIS section, which will be competing for the rechristened Satoshi Kon Award for Achievement in Animation, named for the late visionary director whose PERFECT BLUE and MILLENNIUM ACTRESS world-premiered at Fantasia:

• ASURA, Keiichi Sato’s part-CG, part-hand-crafted adaptation of Akiyama’s manga about a demonic cannibal child in feudal Japan (Canadian premiere, hosted by producer Yoshiyuki Ikezawa)

• THE KING OF PIGS, a combination of thriller and horror elements with social commentary set in a middle school, by South Korea’s Yeun Sang-ho (Canadian premiere, hosted by writer/director Yeun)

• WRINKLES, a character study of the aged directed by Ignacio Ferreras, based on Paco Roca’s Spanish graphic novel ARRUGAS (Canadian premiere)

• ZARAFA, in which filmmakers Rémi Bezançon and Jean-Christophe Lie tell the hand-drawn tale of a young boy named Maki who flees slave traders with the titular orphaned giraffe (Canadian premiere)

Also part of the Fantasia 2012 lineup:

• ACE ATTORNEY, Takashi Miike’s video-game-based film about literally dueling lawyers (Canadian premiere)

• AFRO TANAKA, Daigo Matsui’s comic study of how the hair can truly make the man (North American premiere)

• THE AMBASSADOR, an exposé of African diplomatic corruption by extreme documentarian Mads Brügger (Quebec premiere)

• BLACK’S GAME, Óskar Thór Axelsson’s Icelandic gangster thriller, executive-produced by none other than Nicolas Winding Refn (North American premiere)

• BONEBOYS, the latest from THE WILD MAN OF THE NAVIDAD’s Duane Graves and Justin Meeks, teaming with TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE co-scripter Kim Henkel on a tale of urban cannibalism (world premiere hosted by Graves, Meeks, Henkel and others; see more on the movie here)

• COLD BLOODED: A female cop faces murderous thugs in a hospital’s isolation ward in Jason Lapeyre’s gritty thriller (Quebec premiere, hosted by Lapeyre)

• DEAD BITE: Joey Boy, frontman of Thai group Gancore Club, directs this horror/comedy in which the band (and bikini babes) confront bloodthirsty natives and zombies on a remote island (Canadian premiere)

• DEAD SUSHI: The latest by Noboru Iguchi, in which a young woman who’s an aspiring sushi chef and a martial artist takes on killer seafood (world premiere hosted by Iguchi and actress Rina Takeda; more details here)

• DRAGON (a.k.a. WU XIA): Martial-arts master Donnie Yen returns in Peter Chan’s saga of a man who earns the wrath of assassins (Quebec premiere)

• EXCISION: Richard Bates Jr.’s medical shocker about a teenager (AnnaLynne McCord) with an unhealthy surgical obsession (Canadian premiere, hosted by Bates and McCord)

• A FANTASTIC FEAR OF EVERYTHING: SHAUN OF THE DEAD’s Simon Pegg plays a neurotic and hopelessly paranoid writer trying to break into movies in Crispian Mills and Chris Hopewell’s horror/comedy (North American premiere)

• THE FOURTH DIMENSION: A collection of shorts by international filmmakers Alexey Fedorchenko, Harmony Korine and Jan Kwiecinski, operating under the rules of a bizarre manifesto drawn up by Vice magazine’s Eddy Moretti (Canadian premiere, hosted by Moretti)

• HIDDEN IN THE WOODS (pictured above): Chilean writer/director Patricio Valladares’ fact-based horror/crime thriller about teen children fleeing their drug-dealing father and being stalked by assorted madmen and murderers. (World premiere, hosted by Valladares)

• LLOYD THE CONQUEROR: A comedy about the world of LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) by writer/director Michael Peterson, starring Brian Posehn, Mike “Bubbles” Smith and Evan Williams (Quebec premiere, hosted by Peterson, Smith and co-Producer Brendan Hunter, followed by a heavy-metal LARP after-party)

• MONDOMANILA: A genre-blending chronicle of slum-dwelling youths by Filipino filmmaker Khavn De La Cruz (Canadian premiere)

• NAKEDNESS WHICH WANTS TO DIE TOO MUCH: The best title in this bunch fronts Hidenobu Abera’s intergenerational, confrontational comedy (International premiere)

• NAMELESS GANGSTER: RULES OF THE TIME: Crime drama about a corrupt customs agent rising to the top of the underworld, starring OLDBOY’s Choi Min-sik and THE CHASER’s Ha Jung-woo (Quebec premiere)

• PLAY DEAD: Teller (of Penn &) directs this performance film showcasing illusionist/sideshow performer Todd Robbins’ recreation of the live midnight spook shows of yesteryear (world premiere, hosted by Teller, Robbins and producers Shade Rupe and Ezekiel Zabrowski)

• SCHOOLGIRL APOCALYPSE: A postapocalyptic combo of female empowerment and zombie thriller (with animated segments) by writer/director John Cairns (North American premiere, hosted by Cairns)

• SLEEP TIGHT: The latest from [REC] co-creator Jaume Balagueró, focusing on an apartment-building doorman dangerously obsessed with a tenant (Canadian premiere)

• STARRY, STARRY NIGHT: Taiwanese filmmaker Tom Lin’s coming-of-age film about a 13-year-old girl who copes with her parents’ impending divorce by escaping into a fantasy world (Quebec premiere)

• THE TALL MAN: A mysterious figure steals the children of an impoverished small town in the latest from MARTYRS director Pascal Laugier (Canadian premiere)

• TOAD ROAD: Jason Banker’s meditation on lost youth and a deconstruction of genre cinema, inspired by an urban legend (world premiere, hosted by Banker)

• UNDER THE BED: A teenager and his younger brother attempt to kill a creature that dwells you-know-where in the latest from THE AGGRESSION SCALE’s Steven C. Miller (World premiere, hosted by Miller)

• THE WARPED FOREST: FUNKY FOREST: THE FIRST CONTACT director Shunichiro Miki creates another strange universe in which bizarre beings coexist with totally normal people (Canadian premiere, hosted by Miki)

• YES WE CAN!: Writer/director Olivier Abbou’s insane comedy about a couple of petty criminals who plot to kidnap Barack Obama’s grandmother, with cinematography by HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN’s Karim Hussain (International premiere, hosted by Abbou—tentative)

There’s even more to come, with the complete schedule to be announced July 11. Stay tuned to this site, and check out the official Fantasia website here. 

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