Brazil’s Fantaspoa, the largest genre film festival in Latin America, is proud to reveal the first wave of films selected for their upcoming fifteenth edition, running from May 16th through June 2nd, 2019. The celebrated film fest, which takes place annually in Porto Alegre will announce their full line-up, consisting of more than 100 films, on the first week of May.
The whimsical poster for the festival’s 2019 edition pays homage to Lewis Carroll’s Alice, one of literature and cinema’s most memorable fantasy characters, who became an icon of pop culture and psychedelia. The image was drawn by filmmaker Elizabeth Schuch, with a design by Thalles Mourão. Alongside numerous other events and activities, FantasMercado, the film production market for Latin American filmmakers created last year, will have its second edition during the festival.
Twenty in-competition features are being announced today, as well as the festival’s opening and closing night films. Fantaspoa 2019 proudly kicks off with the World Premieres of Deodato Holocaust, a documentary from Brazilian filmmaker Felipe M. Guerra that celebrates the career of exploitation legend Ruggero Deodato as the infamous director turns 80, and Drew Thomas’ incredible new action thriller The Mongolian Connection. Closing out the festival is the World Premiere of the stunning sophomore effort from Greek filmmaker Konstantinos Koutsouliotas, The Fear of Looking Up.
Attending filmmakers will include Fernando Alle, Daniel-Konrad Cooper, Daniel de La Vega, Jordan Downey, Kapel Furman, Rob Grant, Konstantinos Koutsoliotas, Josh Lobo, Justin McConell, Juan Francisco Otaño, Julian Richards, Demian Rugna, Elizabeth Schuch, Koldo Serra, Kevin Stewart, Drew Thomas, and JJ Weber – with many more to be announced.
The first round of fantastic features selected for Fantaspoa 2019 are:
70 Binladens (Koldo Serra, Spain) – Latin American Premiere
A Young Man with High Potential (Linus de Paoli, Germany) – Latin American Premiere
Alive (Rob Grant, Canada) – Latin American Premiere
Dead in a Week: Or Your Money Back (Tom Edmunds, UK) – Latin American Premiere
Deadtectives (Tony West, U.S.) – Brazilian Premiere
Deodato Holocaust (Felipe M. Guerra, Brazil) – World Premiere
I Trapped the Devil (Josh Lobo, U.S.) – Brazilian Premiere
Lifechanger (Justin McConnell, Canada) – Brazilian Premiere
Model Home (Patrick Cunningham, U.S.) – Latin American Premiere
Mutant Blast (Fernando Alle, Portugal/U.S.) – Brazilian Premiere
O Barco (Petrus Cariry, Brazil) – Regional Premiere
Punto Muerto (Daniel de la Vega, Argentina) – Brazilian Premiere
Rebobinado, la Película (Juan Francisco Otaño, Argentina) – Brazilian Premiere
Reborn (Julian Richards, U.S.) – Brazilian Premiere
Starfish (A.T. White, U.S.) – Brazilian Premiere (Our review here)
Tejano (David Blue Garcia, U.S.) – Brazilian Premiere
The Fear of Looking Up (Konstantinos Koutsoliotas, U.K./Brazil) – World Premiere
The Head Hunter (Jordan Downey, Portugal/U.S.) – Brazilian Premiere
The Hoard (Jesse Thomas Cook and Matt Wiele, Canada) – Latin American Premiere
The Russalka (Perry Blackshear, U.S.) – Latin American Premiere
You Have No Idea Who You’re Talking To (Demian Rugna, Argentina) – Brazilian Premiere
Last Sunrise (Wen Ren, China) – Latin-American Premiere (Our review here)
The Mongolian Connection (Drew Thomas, Mongolia) – World Premiere
