AUSTIN, TEXAS: This year's Fantastic Fest, a hearty wallow in horror, sci-fi, martial arts, and other forms of genre mania, kicks off today and runs through the 28th. This year's line-up of feature films include Tokyo!, an omnibus film featuring segments directed by Michel Gondy, Bong Joon-Ho, and Leos Carax; boundary-pushing shockers ranging from the infamous Deadgirl (which tested the limits of the Toronto Film Festival's Midnight Madness venue) to the lovable Jack Brooks Monster Slayer, starring Robert Englund; Your Name Here, a sci-fi fantasy starring Bill Pullman as a fictionalized version of Philip K. Dick; and documentaries on gimmickmeister William Castle, the renegade roots of the Australian film scene, and the efforts of a 12-year-old filmmaker named Emily Hagins to craft her own zombie flick. Local coverage of the event kicks off in earnest with Austin Chronicle reporter Joe O'Connell's visit with the talent behind the homegrown Bigfoot movie Wild Man of the Navidad.
VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA: The 11th Annual Antimatter Film Festival kicks off tomorrow and runs through September 27. The aritstically ambitious festival has long been established as perhaps the biggest showcase for short films in North America; this year marks a sort of breakthrough for the degree to which they've stepped up their list of features, but a glance at the crowded schedule their dedication to the underappreciated world of short cinema remains heroically undiminished.
