Fantastic Fest Offshoots Coming to New York, Denver, and San Francisco

When people ask me what’s the best film festival, I always give them two answers. Number one is Cannes because c’mon, it’s Cannes. It’s the biggest and most important festival, and it’s in the most beautiful and glamorous setting in the entire world. But number two for me, ahead of much bigger festivals like Sundance or Toronto, is Fantastic Fest, the Alamo Drafthouse’s weeklong celebration of international genre cinema. Here’s how it works: At Fantastic Fest, you spend day after day bouncing around a giant multiplex surrounded by hundreds of likeminded cinephiles, watching anywhere from three to five movies from all over the world, ranging from vintage Turkish comic-book movies to modern Japanese horror, with occasional breaks for live podcasts, karaoke, or a party where everyone gets tattoos. It’s just pure fun.

For various reasons (don’t have kids, guys) I haven’t been able to go to Fantastic Fest for several years. So this news is incredibly exciting for me and other losers who are parents or can’t afford a trip down to Austin. For the first time, Fantastic Fest is coming to us. Drafthouse patrons in Brooklyn, Denver, and San Francisco will be getting an abbreviated “satellite” version of Fantastic Fest the weekend of September 29. Here are the film lineups so far in each city (the press release claims additional titles are coming next week):

It won’t be the same as the full Fantastic Fest experience, but I will take what I can get. Tickets go on sale Wednesday September 7 at 1PM eastern, with a limited number of San Francisco badgets on sale today at 3PM.