About Fantasy Filmfest

FANTASY FILMFEST has long evolved into the cinematic mainstay in Germany. Under founder and executive director Rainer Stefan a gathering of underground film fans in Hamburg 21 years ago has since turned into a mainstream film festival and one of the largest, most sought after and prestigious genre events worldwide.

The festival tours 8 cities in August and September: Munich, Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Frankfurt, Cologne, Dortmund, Hamburg and Berlin.

FANTASY FILMFEST 2008 will take place from August 12th until September 10th. The Opening Night Premiere and Gala used to traditionally take place in Munich. However, 2008 marks the beginning of a new direction: The festival will open in Berlin, then it will proceed to run in two cities concurrently for 8 days at a time and finally wrap in Stuttgart and Munich.

Approximately 75 full length features and a number of short films are presented each year. Most of them German premieres, many are World or European premieres. Features from 19 countries participated in FANTASY FILMFEST 2007. The FRESH BLOOD AWARD 2007 – the Audience Award for best debut feature went to Belgian Koen Mortier’s cult classic in-the-making EX DRUMMER.
Many of today’s well-known genre hits and modern classics such as SIN CITY, SAW, DISTURBIA, AMÉLIE, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, DAYWATCH, FINAL DESTINATION, HELLBOY, KISS KISS BANG BANG as well as DELICATESSEN and PULP FICTION have premiered at FANTASY FILMFEST.

In addition to an annual selection of the best short films the genre has to offer, the festival presents animation, black comedy, science fiction and a program of the best pan-Asian films in FOCUS ASIA. Directors such as Takashi Miike, Ryuhei Kitamura, Andrew Lau and the Pang brothers have long been introduced to Germany through FANTASY FILMFEST, and titles such as THE EYE, ICHI THE KILLER, OLD BOY, SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE, CASSHERN, GODZILLA: FINAL WARS, JU-ON and MUSA are part of the German landscape now.

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