Austin’s annual genre festival continues to gain clout. This year’s lineup includes a Timothée Chalamet cannibal romance, the Anya Taylor-Joy thriller ‘The Menu,’ and ‘The Banshees of Inisherin.’
Fall film fete are among Hollywood ’s most reliable customs duty . In scenic locus stretching from the canals of Italy to the mountains of Colorado , awards - season dreaming are made and broken , celebrities become couture - adorn tastemakers , and the industry staggers out of its summer smash hit daze . As far as glamour goes , it ’s impossible to compete with the three major player bookending Labor Day — the Venice , Telluride , and Toronto film festivals — but a late - September staple fiber in Austin , Texas , has risen above the clamor .
This year include plenty of awards - friendly showstoppers that have been seethe their way through the fete circle . There’sBones and All , theater director Luca Guadagnino ’s road - trip cannibal romanticism star Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell;The Banshees of Inisherin , a Martin McDonagh dark drollery trigger off chatter for a career - safe Colin Farrell;Decision to Leave , the latest from Korean captain Park Chan - wook;Triangle of Sadness , a class satire starring Woody Harrelson and Harris Dickinson ; andThe Menu , an amusing eat - the - rich thriller picture Ralph Fiennes , Anya Taylor - Joy , Nicholas Hoult , and Hong Chau at an exclusive remote restaurant .
Recently constitute Fantastic Fest director Lisa Dreyer and her programming squad assist many of the glitzier festival that occur prior to September , including Sundance in January and Cannes in May . " We seek to pluck out the best from those big festivals , and then we really seek to find smaller hidden jewel , " she severalise Thrillist . Just likeBones and Allis take a leak its way from Venice to Austin before screening again at next calendar month ’s New York Film Festival ( it get in in theaters November 23 ) , some of those underdogs will go on to bet such genre jamboree as the Brooklyn Horror Festival , Beyond Fest in Los Angeles , and the Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans . Dreyer cite the phratry - inspiredThe Nightmare , the lamia rompBlood congenator , and the Spanish zombie flickThe Elderlyas this year ’s potential jailbreak .
‘Jojo Rabbit’ director Taika Waititi at Fantastic Fest in 2019|Rick Kern/Getty Images
The world - premiere offering are n’t nearly as flash as Fantastic Fest ’s prestigious counterpart — the biggest this go - unit of ammunition isSmile , a Paramount Pictures film that opens September 30 — but it has what A - list fury miss : regional charm . Ticket holders can attend political party , podcast recordings , and award ceremonial in a way they ca n’t elsewhere . " At photographic film festivals , you unremarkably have to awake up at some ungodly hour , go to some ticketing office , or wait in line for time of day , " Dreyer says . " Our fete is so easy for the audience . We ’re all based in one dramatic art . you may hang out in The Highball , which is our attached ginmill , and then 20 minutes before your film start out , they ’ll call out that they ’re seating for your motion-picture show . "
Fantastic Fest also cheer a spiritedness intimate to Austin ’s filmgoing community of interests . You wo n’t see Keanu Reeves debating Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League about tai chi anywhere else . Thathappened in 2013as part of an annual centerpiece yell the Fantastic Debates , a ethnic deliberation often followed by a planned boxing lucifer . ( Sadly , Reeves did n’t partake in the sparring . ) Over the days , League has boxedMichelle RodriquezandXdirector Ti West . Lord of the Ringsco - stars Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan once " beat the diddly out of each other " ( Wood ’s Logos ) after argue aboutWorld of Warcraft .
So - called underground screenings are another Fantastic Fest hallmark . Audience members who attend these do n’t know what they ’re about to see — and commonly it ’s something remarkable . unmistakably , There Will Be Bloodhad its first public covering as a closing - night surprise back in 2007 , after which it went on to win two Oscar . Since then , Paranormal Activity 3 , The Skin I survive In , Goodnight Mommy , Crimson Peak , The Lighthouse , Suspiria , andLast Night in Sohohave been sort choice . So wasSplit . This year ’s will occur on September 25 and September 28 . Dreyer say only she and two other Fantastic Fest staffers fuck what the films are . ( My money is on the mellow - profile October releaseHalloween destruction , partially because director David Gordon Green grow up in Texas and attended college in Austin . )
Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet in ‘Bones and All’|United Artists Releasing
As was the case with the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this calendar month , 2022 will mark Fantastic Fest ’s first right in - individual gathering since the COVID-19 pandemic began . With awide - open Oscar raceand some skepticism surrounding the elitism on display at the more paparazzi - eager festival , further tremendous ascendancy seems possible . " Every year , with our connections and the strength of our festival and the press that it gets and the deals that are made out of it , the bigger titles and the studios are coming to us more and more for those types of premiere , " Dreyer says . " We have sex to give our interview the first tone at films that are going to be extremely relevant to the cultural conversation at large . "
Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League and actor Keanu Reeves at Fantastic Fest in 2013|Gary Miller/FilmMagic
