Spoilers expected a red carpet.

Live, I mean, not even recorded but straight from my living room and broadcasted only on my wi-fi network, this is the 10th anniversary of my unofficial Fantasia Wrap-Up Awards. In case you don’t get it, this is all tongue-and-cheek. These are no real awards, there are no statues and please stop asking for them. That being said, this means exactly as much as the real thing. Actually they might mean even more, since I don’t really have advertisers to appease on this site.

Before we start, let’s do some official business. The actual Cheval Noir for Best Feature went to LES CHAMBRES ROUGE directed by Pascal Plante. Best Director went to Sam H. Freeman & Ng Choon Ping for FEMME. Best Cinematography went to Zelda Adams & John Adams for WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS. You can see the full list at the official site for the Fantasia International Film Festival.

And now, for something completely different, let’s look at the winners of the 2023 Fantasia Wrap-Up Awards! Please keep your speeches short, we don’t have the bandwidth for more than a minute.

The One-Not-To-Be-Missed: WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS directed by John Adams, Zelda Adams and Toby Poser. This one was a close call, but I gotta give it to the Adams by a hair. Runner up: BIRTH/REBIRTH directed by Laura Moss.

The Science Faction: RESTORE POINT directed by Robert Hloz. I didn’t end up with too many real sci-fi features on my list this year except this one. It’s a very clean and smooth film.

The Art Gallery: THE FANTASTIC GOLEM AFFAIRS directed by Juan González y Nando Martínez. This is the case where the style is the substance and very much a part of the story. Runner up: WITH LOVE AND A MAJOR ORGAN directed by Kim Albright.

Bloodfest: BIRTH/REBIRTH directed by Laura Moss. There’s much more depth to this film that gore, but given that it does not shy away from literally showing us an autopsy in process, a lot of people flinched at the visuals. Runner up: WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS directed by John Adams, Zelda Adams and Toby Poser.

Kickstart My Heart: PHANTOM directed by Lee Hae-Young. I didn’t have any action films in my list this year, or so I thought. This one took me by surprise by going from historic epic to guns blazing. Runner up: SHIN KAMEN RIDER by Hideaki Anno.

Happy Fun City: MOLLI AND MAX IN THE FUTURE directed by Michael Lukk Litwak. This was just a delight, funny, silly and smart at the same time and yet even poignant about the present as told by the future. Runner up: RIVER directed by Junta Yamaguchi.

The Mind Bender: RIVER directed by Junta Yamaguchi. In the small Fujiya Inn, server Mikoto (Riko Fujitani) has taken a moment of her day… Okey we recounted enough of that in the review. Perhaps I should have called it the time bender for this year. You gotta see this one to believe it. Runner up: APORIA directed by Jared Moshe.

The All Time Beaver Lifetime Achievement Award: HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS directed by Mike Cheslik. It has survival, action, drama, tragedy, comedy, romance… But the most important thing of all, it has beavers. Hundreds of them. Beaverama. Beaver City. Beaverville. Beaver-it or not, it’s true.

Nostalgia City: SHIN KAMEN RIDER by Hideaki Anno. I’m not a die-hard fan of this particular IP, but the tokusatsu genre in general is very familiar. Extra points for the self-walking bike, minus points for the teenage angst.

The Slowburner: MY ANIMAL directed by Jacqueline Castel. A horror film done slow and methodically increasing the odds of unleashing all hell. Runner up: APORIA directed by Jared Moshe.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS directed by Mike Cheslik. You can’t beat a beaver. Okey, you can but we do love animals here so you better not! Runner up: HOME INVASION by Graeme Arnfield.

I can’t get enough of this festival, and my hope is for all the movies to get the distribution they rightly deserve. But in the same breath, I also would like to call attention to the strike by the WGA (Writers Guild of America) and the SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) as they push for a liveable wage and protections against the existential threat that AI poses to their careers.

I also want to thank the organizers, programmers, projectionists and volunteers of the Fantasia International Film Festival for all their work and effort. Finally, a big salute to my fellow reviewers and all the moviegoers that make this festival the experience that is worth coming back to. See everyone next year. Bon cinéma!

That will do for now.