Fantasia International Film Festival 2010: Early Annoucement

Some Fantasia 2010 Film Festival special events have been announced. Fantasia Festival 2010, like all the Fantasia Festivals, is “North America’s premiere (and largest) genre film festival. It usually takes place in the month of July, in the city of Montreal. It is a place where distributors come to pick up genre films from around the world for North American release, and where fans come from all over North America to see films that normally would not even be screened on the Art House or repertory circuit for fear of low turnout.” Among the special events at 14th annual Fantasia International Film Festival will be a screening of The Complete Metropolis.

the complete METROPOLIS will be screened as a special gala event at the 3000-seat Wilfred Pelletier theatre in Place des Arts on July 28. For this special night, internationally renowned silent film composer Gabriel Thibaudeau is writing a new score for the feature, which he will perform with a 13-piece orchestra live at the screening.

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Gabriel Thibaudeau had this to say of his new experience with The Complete Metropolis.

For the last 22 years I have been resident pianist and composer for the Cinematheque québécoise. METROPOLIS is one of the first films I played to. Writing a new score for this film represents, for me, a long cherished dream. The film’s modern feel and visual treatment lends itself well to experimentation and is a pure joy to create sound for!

A lifetime achievement awards will be presented to Ken Russell

in celebration of his astoundingly unique and bravely provocative visions.  On the night of his ceremony, we will screen a rare 35mm print of his explosive and still-controversial 1971 masterpiece THE DEVILS. This notoriously powerful film, which remains unavailable on DVD anywhere in the world, stars Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave, and featuring art direction by Derek Jarman. Russell will be in town for a week and our special “Devils’ Night” award presentation will kick off a massive retrospective of his filmography split across Cinematheque Quebecoise and Cinema Du Parc.

A dual lifetime achievement award will be presented to animation duo Don Bluth & Gary Goldman,

the creative duo behind such animated modern classics as THE SECRET OF NIMH, AN AMERICAN TAIL and ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN. Bluth and Goldman share a unique story in animation cinema. Beginning their groundbreaking work with Disney, they created their own independent studio in 1973, which lead to numerous collaborations with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, a detour in the video game world with the DRAGON’S LAIR series and a dozen imaginative feature films. To celebrate this event, the Fantasia Film Festival will screen the prehistoric tale THE LAND BEFORE TIME, the unforgettable classic that lives in the imagination of a generation of cinephiles. Our audience will also have a chance to meet the filmmakers during a special panel on animation.

The international premiere of Stuart Gordon & Jeffrey Combs‘ critically acclaimed Edgar Allan Poe stage play will take place at this year’s festival. Their

acclaimed one-man play NEVERMORE: AN EVENING WITH EDGAR ALLAN POE, which features Combs in a breathtaking performance as the legendary author[…]A spellbinding recreation of the public recitals that Poe regularly performed in the years before his death, based on reviews and reports of his actual appearances, NEVERMORE premiered in Los Angeles in July 2009 and was originally slated to run for four weeks.  Critical raves and mass audience draws saw the run extended to nearly six months.

The above is “but an early tease-taste of what Fantasia has lined up for Montrealers this summer, released to tide you over until we announce our full line-up of over 100 feature films in mid-June. ”  The 14th annual Fantasia International Film Festival takes place in Montreal July 8 – July 28, 2010.