Starting on 16 July, the Fantasia Film Festival returns for another outstanding year of new and classic genre cinema. If you can make it to Canada – or if you’re already there – this is one of the most unmissable events of 2026. This latest edition seems particularly exciting, and FictionMachine plans to bring you reviews of all the films that it can over the coming month. Let’s break down some of the highlights.

Animation
One of my great loves in cinema is animation, and there is a raft of interesting new releases coming in this year’s festival. I’m excited at the prospect of Ina Yukimitsu’s Cocoon: One Summer of Girlhood (link), commissioned by Japanese broadcaster NHK to commemorate the anniversary of the end of World War II. French comedy Blaise (link) is coming to the festival off a veritable wave of acclaim at Cannes. Priscilla Kellon’s Papaya (link) looks hugely imaginative. There’s also the regular stack of innovative and eye-popping shorts that appear each year.

New Japanese Film
Fantasia always seems to host some of the most interesting new Japanese films each year. In 2026 I’m most excited that there are two new features by Joji Hideo: Beasts Clutching at Straws (link) and Nameless (link), as well as dancing yakuza comedy Break Free (link), Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s The Samurai and the Prisoner (link), and Uchida Eiji’s action flick Tokyo Burst: Crime City (link).

European Horror
There are always some great horror films out of Europe as well: these regularly fail to make it as far south as my native Australia, so it’s tremendous to see them showcased here. This year’s selection includes Andrea Corsini’s Ferine (link), Nicolas Winding Refn’s Her Private Hell (link), and Hanna Bergholm’s Nightborn (link).

Documentaries
One thing I have learned in previous years is not to sleep on Fantasia’s outstanding series of documentaries. This year I’m most interested in Maya Annik Bedward’s Black Zombie – a historical analysis of the origins of the zombie genre – and Nakamura Yu and Yoshida Kazuki’s The Origin of Ultraman – a star-studded tribute to Japan’s iconic pop culture hero. Another intriguing title, and a good indicator of how wide Fantasia’s remit is, is The Seoul Guardians: a film about South Korea’s brief martial law crisis in 2024. It’s directed by Cho Chul-young, Kim Jong-woo, and Kim Shin-wan.

Retrospectives and Guests
Each year brings special retrospectives and celebrations of key filmmakers, and in 2026 Fantasia is honouring Japanese horror filmmaker Shimizu Takashi and animator Don Hertzfeldt. That includes new work by both directors as well.

As with previous years I’m going to endeavour to review a range of featured films, to give those of us who can’t make it a chance to find out about films to look for in the coming months.