Nicolas Cage will pick up this year’s Cheval Noir Career Achievement Award at Fantasia.
“He is one of the most individualistic and captivating screen presences in the last 40 years. Beyond his unique charisma, the kinds of atypical characters he’s been drawn to and what he can bring to them is so special and rare,” artistic director Mitch Davis told Variety.
“Audiences lose their minds when he goes to these energetically extreme places: ‘Vampire’s Kiss’ was my first experience with that and I was absolutely floored. But they are also transfixed by the quiet, textured qualities he brings to more somber characters. He’s a one-of-a-kind treasure in American film.”
Throughout the years, Cage has been embracing genre cinema, admitted Davis. And it has embraced him back.
“He’s someone who sincerely loves cinema and has always embraced genre storytelling. I wish he could have been in the room for our ‘Mandy’ screening several years ago. My ears are still ringing,” he said.
Cage’s film “Sympathy for the Devil,” directed by Yuval Adler, will also be shown.
“There is something wonderful about awarding him the year after we gave John Woo this same trophy and it’s especially nice to be doing it while world-premiering a film as strong as Yuval’s.”
The Canadian fest has also revealed its third and last wave of new titles, starting with closing film “We Are Zombies” from Quebecois collective RKSS (François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell). It is set in a society where zombies, referred to as “living-impaired,” no longer have the urge to eat flesh.
“They really are family here. The film is high-energy and fun, but for me, it’s all about the idea of them world-premiering new work in front of their first audience, at the festival they grew up in,” he added.
Hippo
Other new additions include Mark H. Rapaport’s “Hippo,” executive produced by Danny McBride, David Gordon Green and Jody Hill – “think ‘90s Todd Solondz with a nightmare Wes Anderson aesthetic,” tease the organizers – Lim Sun-ae’s “Ms. Apocalypse” or Mary Dauterman’s “Booger” about lost cats, grief, and millennial despair.
In “New Life,” John Rosman will deliver a “thriller that doubles as an unexpected emotional powerhouse,” while other world premieres include “Eight Eyes” by Austin Jennings and Hei Yau Lin’s “The Moon, Sky and You.”
The audience will also get to see the likes of “Unmask the Phantom,” with “Squid Game” star Park Hae-soo, Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s “perfectly calibrated queer thriller” “Femme” and Irish “chaos comedy” “Apocalypse Clown,” as well as discover the whole story behind the infamous “The Star Wars Holiday Special,” now dissected in “A Disturbance in the Force.”
Finally, Amanda Nell Eu’s will bring her Cannes winner “Tiger Stripes,” about a teenage girl coming of age in a small Malaysian village in a rather unusual way.
“The audience reactions to the film have been brilliant so far. I’m so grateful that a lot of people are able to connect with the story, but also able to enjoy the fun and playful aspects of it,” she said.
“I have always had a sense of humor when it comes to genre films, it helps me deal with a lot of serious issues that are important to me. It was always my intention to have the audience feel the emotions of my characters and their very real struggles, but then to push it to the max with the use of genre and to have fun with it.”
The full program here: https://fantasiafestival.com/en/
Ms. Apocalypse
