Fantasia Announces Opening Film ‘Red Rooms,’ Second Wave of Titles: ‘The Audience is Going to Be Left Completely Breathless’
variety.comMarta Balaga Canada’s Fantasia International Film Festival has announced the opening film of its 27th edition: Pascal Plante’s “Red Rooms,” about a high-profile case of a serial killer and the woman (Juliette Gariépy) obsessed with him. “It’s a film of enormous emotional force, unbelievably controlled and smart, with a staggering performance from Gariépy.
Pascal is one of the greatest talents of his generation in Quebec cinema and among the strongest filmmakers in the country right now,” says festival’s artistic director Mitch Davis. “In a sense, it’s an unconventionally grim note to open a festival on.
It’s a profoundly disturbing film. But I know the audience is going to be left completely breathless by it.” “As a Montrealer, I have been a regular festival goer of Fantasia for years now, but it’s the first time one of my features will be screened in their lineup.
I’m honored and humbled that they selected ‘Red Rooms’ to open the festival,” the director tells Variety. His film will world premiere at Karlovy Vary. “The Fantasia crowd is the best, most adventurous and most reactive audience there is: Even if our film is quite insidious and dark, they will bring the ‘festive’ back into ‘festival’!” The festival, running from July 20 through August 9, has also revealed its first and second wave of titles, including several world premieres.
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