Talk to film festival regulars — the sales agents, critics, producers and general hangers-on that don’t just do one a year, but hit up virtually every major festival — and they’ll often tell you that their favorite destination isn’t Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Sundance or TIFF, but Fantastic Fest in Austin. Set up by Drafthouse founder Tim League and now in its twelfth year, it nominally specializes in genre fare — horror, sci-fi, crime etc.
But from very early on — Paul Thomas Anderson world-premiered “There Will Be Blood” there back in 2007 — it’s refused to be constrained by that definition, and has screened a fascinating selection of programming while reportedly providing some of the best parties around. The 2016 installment is creeping up, and a new programming announcement has provided further reasons to check the festival out.
One of the bigger moments might well prove to be the premiere of the first episode of HBO’s much-anticipated, long-delayed series “Westworld.” Co-created by Jonathan ‘brother of Chris’ Nolan, this new adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel, with an all-star cast including Anthony Hopkins, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Thandie Newton and Ed Harris, has had a troubled route to the screen, but a recent trailer really amped us up for it, so we’re intrigued to see if it can live up to the network’s hopes to be the next “Game Of Thrones.”
Meanwhile, Nacho Vigalondo’s “Colossal,” with Anne Hathaway as a woman whose hard-partying ways might have caused a giant monster to attack Seoul, will close the festival — look for our review of that from TIFF in the next day or two. And excitingly, RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan will be performing a live-score of kung-fu classic “The 36th Chamber Of Shaolin.” Other highlights include J.A. Bayona’s “A Monster Calls,” Andre Ovredal’s “The Autopsy Of Jane Doe” and Morgan Spurlock’s ick-umentary “Rats.”
These join a terrific slate also including “Arrival,” “The Bad Batch,” “Elle,” “The Handmaiden,” “Toni Erdmann,” “American Honey” and “Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children” to name but a few. It all kicks off in Austin on Sept 24th, and you can peruse the full line-up over at the official site.