Fantasia XXIX: FLUSH, HI-FIVE, FORBIDDEN CITY And More From The Audience Awards

The 29th edition of Fantasia Festival has come to a close and with the Jury awards announced last week, we now have a listing of the Audience Awards which you can read onward below.

A few titles I managed to screen this year made it to the Audience selection too; I’m especially happy to see Hi-Five and The Forbidden City in the line-up, while I do wish I had the time to view some of the other speciality horror titles screened this year. Alas, I’m only one person, as much as I’d like to watch all the movies that come my way, no can do.

Next year will be just as expectantly loaded, I can only presume, and I do hope, and look forward to covering this amazing festival from a virtual capacity. The dates for the 30th edition have been announced as well, so read on below, and thank you for enjoying my Fantasia 2025 review coverage on this end!

THE FANTASIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 
ANNOUNCES AUDIENCE AWARDS FOR ITS 29TH EDITION

Best International Feature (Gold) – Flush (Dir. Grégory Morin)

Montréal, Quebec / 05 August 2025 —The 29th massive edition of The Fantasia International Film Festival came to a close on the eve of August 3rd with the Canadian Premiere of Genndy Tartakovsky’s FIXED, where the gifted filmmaker and animator was presented with a Cheval Noir career achievement award.

With record-breaking ticket sales and sold-out screenings in a lineup of nearly 120 features, Fantasia also showcased an unprecedented number of short films, with over 200 international titles alongside slews of Canadian works, and hosted nearly 1500 accredited filmmakers, press and industry guests from 49 countries, another record-smasher for the event.

The long-running Canadian fest will be returning for its 30th edition in 2026, from July 16th to August 2nd.

Having tabulated thousands of votes from enthusiastic attendees, Fantasia is now very proud to announce its array of Audience Awards:

 

► BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

Gold: Flush (Dir. Grégory Morin, France)

Silver: Fucktoys (Dir. Annapurna Sriram, United States)

Bronze (Tie): Terrestrial (Dir. Steve Pink, United States) and The Forbidden City (Dir. Gabriele Mainetti, Italy)


► BEST ASIAN FEATURE

Gold: Burning (Dir. Radik Eshimov, Kyrgyzstan)

Silver: Hi-Five (Dir. Kang Hyung-chul, South Korea)

Bronze: I Fell In Love With A Z-Grade Director In Brooklyn (Dir. Kenichi Ugana, Japan)



► BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Gold: Death Does Not Exist (Dir. Félix Dufour-Lapperrière, Canada) 

Silver: I Am Frankelda (Dirs. Arturo Ambriz and Roy Ambriz, Mexico)

Bronze: Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II – The Ashes of Rage (Dirs. Kenji Nakamura and Kiyotaka Suzuki, Japan)

► BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT

Gold: Let’s Settle This! (Dir. Jack Woon, New Zealand)

Silver (Tie): Steak Dinner (Dir. Nathan Ginter, United States) and Skin (Dir. Urvashi Pathania, United States)

Bronze: Check Please (Dir. Shane Chung, United States) and The Nightwalker (Dir. Mark Reyes, United States)


► BEST ASIAN SHORT

Gold: Floor (Dir. Jo Ba-reun, South Korea)

Silver: The Last Ride (Dirs. Yashoda Parthasarthy and Vijesh Rajan, India)

Bronze: Red Spider Lilies: The Ascension (Dir. Koji Shiraishi, Japan)


► BEST ANIMATED SHORT

Gold: Loca! (Dirs. Ion Miyamoto and Yuta Uchiya, Japan)

Silver: Mamiko’s Poop (Dir. Yasuteru Ohno, Japan)

Bronze: Beyond The Trail (Dir. Vab.png, Japan) and Maybe Blue (Dir. Zhou Qian, China)


► BEST CANADIAN FEATURE

Gold: The Undertone (Dir. Ian Tuason, Canada)

Silver: Foreigner (Dir. Ava Maria Safai, Canada)

Bronze: Buffet Infinity (Dir. Simon Glassman, Canada)


► BEST CANADIAN SHORT

Gold: The Sphinx (Dir. Jesse Padveen, Canada)

Silver: Shrimp Fried Rice (Dir. Dylan Pun, Canada)

Bronze: Heirlooms (Dir. Dan Abramovici, Canada)


► BEST QUÉBEC FEATURE

Gold: Messy Legends (Dirs. Kelly Kay Hurcomb and James Watts, Canada)

Silver: Au Pied Du Mur (Dir. Alexandra Elkin, Canada)

Bronze: Anna Kiri (Dir. Francis Bordeleau, Canada)


► BEST QUÉBEC SHORT

Gold: Duchess 17 (Dir. Daly Sonesaksith, Canada)

Silver: Steal My Life (Dir. Annie Wren, Canada)

Bronze: Le Punk de Natashquan (Dir. Nicolas Lachapelle, Canada)


► L’ÉCRAN FANTASTIQUE AWARD

I Am Frankelda (Dirs. Arturo Ambriz and Roy Ambriz, Mexico)

 

 

The 29th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival was presented by MELS in collaboration with Concordia University and made possible by the financial support of Telefilm Canada, the Société́ de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC), the Ministère du Tourisme, the Ministère des Affaires municipales et de l’Habitation, the city of Montreal, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, Tourisme Montréal, and the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC).

The festival would like to thank all its private partners, friends of the event, as well as official suppliers, venues, and all participating filmmakers, sales agents, and distributors for their invaluable support.

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