Fantastic Fest 2011 Announces Second Wave of Film Programming

Fantastic Fest 2011 Announces Second Wave of Film Programming

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Fantastic Fest is proud to announce the second wave of programming for the seventh edition of Fantastic Fest, happening September 22-29 in Austin, Texas. The second wave includes seventeen new World, North American & US premiere films, plus info on Fantastic Fest's signature events and contests that make it one of the most unique festival-going experiences in the world. Tune in next week for more amazing 2011 content to be announced!

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100816/FFLOGO)

Fantastic Fest is also proud to announce Kristen Bell in her official new role as Fantastic Fest Director. As GM of the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar she has been a constant presence at Fantastic Fest and has overseen most of the festival operations for the last several years. Commenting on Kristen's new role, Fantastic Fest co-founder Tim League said, "I have served as the director of Fantastic Fest for the past six years and will continue to be very deeply involved as the festival Creative Director, overseeing programming, curation, event strategy and of course the all-important hosting of parties and events. We are all excited to have Kristen assume this expanded role at the festival and look forward to working with her to continue to improve what is undoubtedly my favorite eight days of the year."

EVENTS & CONTESTS

100 BEST KILLS

One of the greatest long-running traditions of Fantastic Fest is the 100 BEST KILLS PARTY, where we sit in a theater together and turn the spotlight on the Grim Reaper of movieland as he disembowels, detonates and decapitates again and again and again. We're not watching for character development or thematic resolution or any of that garbage; just the most life-defying acts of human extermination in film history. We need your help to make 2011 s 100 BEST KILLS the most mayhem-congested homicide-fest of all time. Just submit your optimum kills to us and the show's best murder-slinger will receive 100 DVDs and Blu-rays from Fantastic Fest as well as partners including Blue Underground, Well Go USA, and others. Submission details here - http://www.fantasticfest.com/blog/2011/08/now-accepting-100-best-kills-entries/

FANTASTIC FEST BUMPER CONTEST

It's that time again! Every year Fantastic Fest hosts a bumper creation where we invite YOU to create the most outrageous video that you can come up with. We use as many entries as we can and put them on screen at the start of each screening. The theme this year is "Altered States" - feel free to interpret that how you wish and go in our bumper any direction you can imagine. Go here for additional submission rules and deadline - http://www.fantasticfest.com/blog/2011/08/2011-altered-states-bumper-contest/

FEATURE FILM PROGRAMMING

MOVIES ON FIRE: HONG KONG ACTION CLASSICS- presented by AGFA

The amazing Grady Hendrix of the famous New York Asian Film Festival will join us and introduce four surprise 35mm screenings of classic Hong Kong grindhouse gems (most not available on DVD) from Hong Kong's exploitation heyday of the late 80's and early 90's, these movies are cinematic crystal meth: cheap n'crazy, they'll spoil you for everything else. Designed to play to rowdy audiences who threatened mayhem if they weren't delivered a dose of gonzo delirium every five minutes, they have a total disregard for three-act structure, Hollywood plotting and the lives of their stuntmen. Get ready to burn!

AARDVARK (2010)
Texas Premiere
Director Kitao Sakurai live in person
Director: Kitao Sakurai, Japan, 80 minutes
Larry (AARDVARK's blind-since-birth protagonist) has an innate curiosity that lands him smack in the middle of a bizarre criminal underworld replete with mixed martial arts, intrigue, murder and pillow humping.

BLIND (2011)
US Premiere
Director - AHN Sang-hoon, Korea, 111minutes
A blind woman narrowly escapes from the clutches of a serial killer. When he circles back to get rid of any witnesses, the woman must rely on her other acute senses to identify and outwit the killer.

CALIBRE 9 (2011)
World Premiere
Director Jean-Christian Tassy & Producer Axel Guyot live in person
Director:Jean-Christian Tassy, France, 84 minutes
A city planner becomes strangely linked to a gun possessed by the soul of a dead hooker.

THE CORRIDOR (2010)
US Premiere
Director Evan Kelly live in person!
Director: Evan Kelly, Canada, 100 minutes
Five friends stay in a remote cabin for the weekend and uncover a supernatural anomaly in the woods.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL (2011)
US Premiere
Director Nacho Vigalondo and Producer Nahikari Ipina live in person
Director: Nacho Vigalondo, Spain, 90 minutes
A man wakes in a strange apartment after a long night of drinking. When his unfamiliar bedmate tries to usher him out, they both discover that spaceships are hovering over Madrid.

HEADHUNTERS (2011)
US Premiere
Director: Morten Tyldum, Norway, 100 Minutes
Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie) is good at two things: hiring people and stealing from them. He'll risk it all when he meets a former mercenary who owns a painting worth millions.

THE INNKEEPERS (2010)
Director Ti West live in person
Director: Ti West, USA, 101 Minutes
Luke and Claire work the desk at a quaint, failing hotel. On their last night, these two amateur ghost-hunters try to capture definitive proof that their workplace is haunted. THE INNKEEPERS kicks off a Ti West retrospective at the Alamo Drafthouse sponsored by the Austin Film Society.

LET THE BULLETS FLY (2010)
Regional Premiere
Director: Jiang Wen, Hong Kong, 132 minutes
The highest grossing domestic Chinese release ever, LET THE BULLETS FLY features the hilarious and bloody antics of a band of thieves traveling by train in this 1920s-set western satire. Writer/Director Jiang Wen stars opposite screen legend Chow Yun-Fat.

MELANCHOLIA (2011)
Regional Premiere
Director: Lars von Trier, Denmark, 130 minutes
The man who brought us Fantastic Fest hit ANTICHRIST creates a very different type of genre film - an incredibly personal science fiction story about the end of the world.

MICHAEL (2011)
US Premiere
Director: Markus Schleinzer, 96 minutes
Setting the record for the darkest of character studies, Markus Schleinzer's compelling and surprisingly humorous directorial debut follows five months in the lives of a pedophile and the ten-year-old boy he keeps in the basement.

PASTORELA: A CHRISTMAS PLAY (2011)
World Premiere
Director: Emilio Portes Castro, Mexico, 90 minutes
Fantastic Fest again hosts another untraditional Christmas movie; this time Santa Claus is out and Satan is in. When Chucho (Joaquin Cosio) loses the beloved role of Satan in the town's Christmas play and tries to reclaim the part, all hell breaks loose and an epic battle between good and evil begins.

PENUMBRA (2011)
World Premiere
Director Adrian Garcia Bogliano and Producer Andrea Quiroz live in person
Director: Adrian Garcia Bogliano and Ramiro Garcia Bogliano Argentina, 85 minutes
A beautiful young woman is trapped in her apartment with a nervous realtor and an expanding cast of unsettling characters in the latest from the director of COLD SWEAT.

SLEEP TIGHT (2011)
US Premiere
Director Jaume Balaguero live in person
Director: Jaume Balaguero, Spain, 102 minutes
The location is familiar (a vertical shaft Barcelona apartment building) but the story is markedly different in Jaume Balaguero's (REC; REC 2) solo feature debut. Lonely doorman Cesar must do whatever is necessary to keep the neighbors from uncovering his dark, disturbing obsession for his favorite resident Clara.

SNOWMAN'S LAND (2011)
US Premiere
Director:Tomasz Thomson, Germany, 95 minutes
Tomasz Thomson's SNOWMAN'S LAND is a bleak comedic thriller from Germany about an over-the-hill hit man who gets sent to the remote snow-covered wilderness to handle a job that may be his last.

THE SQUAD (2011)
World Premiere
Director: Jaime Osorio, Columbia, 107 minutes
Haunted by memories of their last mission, a feuding special ops unit is tasked to uncover the mystery of what happened at a desolate military base in this tense and claustrophobic South American thriller.

SUMMERLAND (2010)
North American Premiere
Director:Grimur Hakonarson, Iceland, 85 minutes
Oscar and Lara have an entirely normal family other than the fact that Oscar runs a haunted house in their basement and Lara speaks with elves.

YOU'RE NEXT (2011)
US Premiere
Director Adam Wingard live in person
Director: Adam Wingard, USA, 95 minutes
From the team behind the Fantastic Fest award-winning film A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE, YOU'RE NEXT traps a family inside secluded mansion in the middle of nowhere. Outside the home is a group of animal-masked killers who take a stab at making sure none of them leave alive.

For the latest developments visit the Fantastic Fest Facebook & Twitter.

Film stills available here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/30464229/ff2011-secondwave.zip

About Fantastic Fest

Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world. In years past the festival has been home to world premieres of THERE WILL BE BLOOD, APOCALYPTO, ZOMBIELAND and RED while the guest roster has included such talent as Mel Gibson, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Ryan Reynolds, Karl Urban, Josh Hartnett, The RZA, Dolph Lundgren, Jemaine Clement, Paul Rudd, Bill Pullman, Paul Thomas Anderson, Kevin Smith, Jon Favreau, George Romero, Darren Aronofsky and Mike Judge. Fantastic Fest also features world, national and regional premieres of new, up-and-coming genre films. The festival has launched and propelled the buzz for international genre hits like THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE, MONSTERS, TIMECRIMES and TROLLHUNTER. Fantastic Fest is held each year at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema on South Lamar in Austin, Texas. The Alamo Drafthouse was named the best cinema in America by Entertainment Weekly and features food and drink served to your seat without any disruption of the movie experience.

During his Keynote Address at the International film Festival Summit in Las Vegas, Variety president and publisher Charlie Koones listed Fantastic Fest in a list of "10 Film Festivals We Love," a list which included industry heavy-hitters such as Cannes, Toronto and Telluride. We've also been named as one of the "25 coolest film festivals" and the "25 film festivals worth the entry fee" by Moviemaker Magazine.

Our Partners

Presenting Sponsor Ambhar Tequila is returning as the official tequila of Fantastic Fest. A variety of delicious tequila cocktails will be featured at festival parties taking place at The Highball throughout the week, curated by Alamo Drafthouse Beverage Director Bill Norris. FEARnet is also returning as a Presenting Sponsor. This year, they are the exclusive sponsor of our new outdoor-tented pavilion.

We are proud to announce new partnerships with fellow Texas brands Shiner Beer and Well Go USA Entertainment as Presenting Sponsors. Shiner will be the official beer of this year's festival, with Shiner specials offered throughout the week. Well Go USA Entertainment will present the Japanese content at this year's festival, including our annual Japanese Karaoke Party.

Fantastic Fest partners with Fandango, the nation's leading movie ticketing destination, for exclusive video content, showtime info and ticketing for this year's festival. Fandango will be a one-stop shop for all things Fantastic Fest -- daily interviews, plus video and photo content from the largest genre festival in the United States. Additionally, Fandango will be the exclusive showtime and ticketing partner for all Fantastic Fest screenings that are available for advance purchase via its online and mobile sites.

About Alamo Drafthouse

The Alamo Drafthouse is a lifestyle entertainment brand with an acclaimed cinema-eatery, the largest genre film festival in the United Sates and an online collectible art store. Named "the best theater in America" by Entertainment Weekly, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema has built a reputation as a movie lover's oasis not only by combining food and drink service with the movie-going experience, but also introducing unique programming and high-profile, star studded special events. Alamo Drafthouse Founder & CEO, Tim League, created Fantastic Fest, a world renowned film festival dubbed "The Geek Telluride" by Variety. Fantastic Fest showcases eight days of offbeat cinema from independents, international filmmakers and major Hollywood studios. The Alamo Drafthouse's collectible art boutique, Mondo, offers breathtaking, original products featuring designs from world-famous artists based on licenses for popular TV and Movie properties including Star Wars, Star Trek & Universal Monsters. The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is expanding its brand in new and exciting ways, including the launch of Drafthouse Films, a new film distribution label and plans to extend its theaters and unique programming philosophy to additional markets across the United States. More information about Alamo Drafthouse franchise opportunities are available on the official website.

For more details regarding Fantastic Fest, contact festival publicist Brandy Fons, at brandy@fonspr.com. For more information, visit www.fantasticfest.com.

CONTACT: Brandy Fons
PHONE: (310) 809-8882
E-MAIL: brandy@fonspr.com

SOURCE Fantastic Fest

Photo:http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100816/FFLOGO
http://photoarchive.ap.org/
Fantastic Fest

Web Site: http://www.drafthouse.com

-------
Profile: intent