The world premiere of Canadian director André Forcier’s Ababouiné will close out this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival.

The genre film festival announced its final wave of titles on Wednesday (July 3), with films from Steven Kostanski, Jeffrey St. Jules and Sam McGlynn are among the Canadian titles making their world premiere for the 28th Fantasia International Film Festival.

The complete lineup includes more than 125 features and over 200 shorts, including premieres of several Canadian features as part of the Septentrion Shadows program. The Festival runs from July 18 through Aug. 4 in Montreal.

Ababouiné is directed by Forcier, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jean Boileau, Laurie Perron, François Pinet-Forcier and Renaud Pinet-Forcier, based on the story by Forcier. Set in the 1950s, the film follows a rowdy group of kids who goes to war against the Catholic Church, which rules their Quebec neighborhood.

The film is produced by Linda Pinet and Louis Laverdière of Les Films du Paria in association with Roger Frappier of Max Films. Filmoption International is the distributor.

Fantasia’s organizers are also presenting Forcier with its Prix Denis-Héroux, the festival’s award for exceptional contribution to the development of Quebec genre cinema.

The other Canadian films bowing at the fest include the world premiere of FX artist and director Steven Kostanski’s Frankie Freako! (pictured), which follows a nerdy man who gets lured by a 1-900 TV ad to party with a strange creature called Frankie Freako.

The film is produced by Hanger 18 Media, with Kostanski, Melanie Murray, Pasha Patriki serving as producers. Raven Banner is handling Canadian distribution and international sales, with Shout! Studios on board as the U.S. distributor.

Also world premiering is The Silent Planet from Canadian writer-director Jeffrey St. Jules (Bang Bang Baby), set in the future the film tracks two prisoners on a penal colony planet (Elias Koteas and Briana Middleton) who discover they have an unexpected connection, and they mine more than minerals as a horrible truth is revealed. The sci-fi is produced by Andrew Bronfman’s of Good Movies and Mark O’Neill of Panoramic Pictures, with Quiver Distribution on board as the distributor.

Previously announced Canadian world premieres at Fantasia include Scared Shitless from writer Brandon Cohen and director Vivieno Caldinelli, about a father-son plumbing duo who must tackle a monster in an apartment buildings sewage system, and writer-director Lowell Dean’s (Wolfcop) Dark Match, starring wrestling legend Chris Jericho in a horror-thriller set in the world of small-time wrestlers.

The Septentrion Shadows lineup also sees the North American premiere of the American-Canadian feature The G from writer-director Karl R. Hearne, produced by Hearne and José Lacelle. The story follows a septuagenarian seeking revenge against a treacherous guardian. Starring character actor Dale Dickey (Hell of High Water), the film tackles elder abuse through a thriller lens.

Other North American premieres include Self Driver, the first feature from director Michael Pierro, produced by Pierro and Kire Paputts, about a Toronto rideshare driver who gets an opportunity to make more money with a mysterious and demanding app; and Sunburnt Unicorn from Canadian animator Nick Johnson, executive producer Colin Curwen and producers Nick Johnson and Patrick Wilding.

Having its Canadian premiere is writer-director Naomi Jaye’s Darkest Miriam, a romantic-thriller about a librarian, set in Toronto’s Allan Gardens and based on the novel The Incident Report, produced by Julie Baldassi and Brian Robertson.

Included in Fantasia’s Retro Classic program lineup are two Canadian features that have been restored in 4K by Canadian International Pictures. The Rubber Gun, the 1977 feature set against Montréal’s 70s drug scene from writer Stephen Lack (Scanners) and director Allan Moyle (Pump Up the Volume); and director Gerald Potterton (Heavy Metal) 1971’s Tiki Tiki, the story of an easy-riding, film-directing ape and a multimillion-dollar contraption called the FMM 70, the world’s first all-purpose, rocket-propelled, flying movie machine. The latter film is part of Telefilm’s Canadian Cinema Reignited program.

As part of this year’s program, Fantasia is honouring American filmmaker Mike Flanagan with its 2024 Cheval Noir career award. Flanagan is no stranger to the horror genre, and brought his indie debut feature Absentia to the Montreal fest in 2011 for its Canadian debut.

Image courtesy of Filmoption International