The 29th massive edition of The Fantasia International Film Festival came to a close on the eve of August 3rd with the Canadian Premiere of Genndy Tartakovsky’s FIXED, where the gifted filmmaker and animator was presented with a Cheval Noir career achievement award.

With record-breaking ticket sales and sold-out screenings in a lineup of nearly 120 features, Fantasia also showcased an unprecedented number of short films, with over 200 international titles alongside slews of Canadian works, and hosted nearly 1500 accredited filmmakers, press and industry guests from 49 countries, another record-smasher for the event.

The long-running Canadian fest will be returning for its 30th edition in 2026, from July 16th to August 2nd.

Fantasia also announced its array of Audience Awards:

► BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

Gold: Flush (Dir. Grégory Morin, France)

Silver: Fucktoys (Dir. Annapurna Sriram, United States)

Bronze (Tie): Terrestrial (Dir. Steve Pink, United States) and The Forbidden City (Dir. Gabriele Mainetti, Italy)


► BEST ASIAN FEATURE

Gold: Burning (Dir. Radik Eshimov, Kyrgyzstan)

Silver: Hi-Five (Dir. Kang Hyung-chul, South Korea)

Bronze: I Fell In Love With A Z-Grade Director In Brooklyn (Dir. Kenichi Ugana, Japan)



► BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Gold: Death Does Not Exist (Dir. Félix Dufour-Lapperrière, Canada) 

Silver: I Am Frankelda (Dirs. Arturo Ambriz and Roy Ambriz, Mexico)

Bronze: Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II – The Ashes of Rage (Dirs. Kenji Nakamura and Kiyotaka Suzuki, Japan)

► BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT

Gold: Let’s Settle This! (Dir. Jack Woon, New Zealand)

Silver (Tie): Steak Dinner (Dir. Nathan Ginter, United States) and Skin (Dir. Urvashi Pathania, United States)

Bronze: Check Please (Dir. Shane Chung, United States) and The Nightwalker (Dir. Mark Reyes, United States)


► BEST ASIAN SHORT

Gold: Floor (Dir. Jo Ba-reun, South Korea)

Silver: The Last Ride (Dirs. Yashoda Parthasarthy and Vijesh Rajan, India)

Bronze: Red Spider Lilies: The Ascension (Dir. Koji Shiraishi, Japan)


► BEST ANIMATED SHORT

Gold: Loca! (Dirs. Ion Miyamoto and Yuta Uchiya, Japan)

Silver: Mamiko’s Poop (Dir. Yasuteru Ohno, Japan)

Bronze: Beyond The Trail (Dir. Vab.png, Japan) and Maybe Blue (Dir. Zhou Qian, China)


► BEST CANADIAN FEATURE

Gold: The Undertone (Dir. Ian Tuason, Canada)

Silver: Foreigner (Dir. Ava Maria Safai, Canada)

Bronze: Buffet Infinity (Dir. Simon Glassman, Canada)


► BEST CANADIAN SHORT

Gold: The Sphinx (Dir. Jesse Padveen, Canada)

Silver: Shrimp Fried Rice (Dir. Dylan Pun, Canada)

Bronze: Heirlooms (Dir. Dan Abramovici, Canada)


► BEST QUÉBEC FEATURE

Gold: Messy Legends (Dirs. Kelly Kay Hurcomb and James Watts, Canada)

Silver: Au Pied Du Mur (Dir. Alexandra Elkin, Canada)

Bronze: Anna Kiri (Dir. Francis Bordeleau, Canada)


► BEST QUÉBEC SHORT

Gold: Duchess 17 (Dir. Daly Sonesaksith, Canada)

Silver: Steal My Life (Dir. Annie Wren, Canada)

Bronze: Le Punk de Natashquan (Dir. Nicolas Lachapelle, Canada)


► L’ÉCRAN FANTASTIQUE AWARD

I Am Frankelda (Dirs. Arturo Ambriz and Roy Ambriz, Mexico)

The 29th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival was presented by MELS in collaboration with Concordia University and made possible by the financial support of Telefilm Canada, the Société́ de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC), the Ministère du Tourisme, the Ministère des Affaires municipales et de l’Habitation, the city of Montreal, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, Tourisme Montréal, and the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC).