Takashi Miike’s Shield of Straw to open Fantasia film festival

Takashi Miike’s Shield of Straw, which screened in competition at Cannes, is to open the 17^th edition of Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival (July 18 - August 6).

Miike’s crime thriller receives its North American premiere at Fantasia and continues the long relationship between the director and festival.

Last year, Fantasia opened with Miike’s For Love’s Sake and the festival’s 1997 screening of Fudoh marked the first time a film by the director had ever been shown in North America.

The festival will also host the world premiere of 24 Exposures, from mumblecore director Joe Swanberg. The film stars Adam Wingard as a fetish photographer whose models begin to turn up dead while Simon Barrett plays a cop tasked with investigating him.

Wingard and Barrett are the director-screenwriter duo behind You’re Next and A Horrible Way To Die. Fantasia will also host the Quebec premiere of You’re Next.

Events at this year’s festival include Rated X: A Night with Bryan Singer, in which the X-Men and Usual Suspects director will participate in an hour-long discussion.

UK composer Simon Boswell will also visit the festival to talk about scoring for film-makers including Alejandro Jodorowsky, Dario Argento and Danny Boyle.

Quebec Cinema will also be celebrated at Fantasia with the world premiere of Robert Morin’s Les 4 Soldats (The Four Soldiers); world premiere of giallo pastiche Discopatch, marking the directorial debut of comedian Renaud Gauthier; Eric Falardeau’s Thanatomorphose; and Stobe Harju’s Imaginaerum.

After announcing the first wave of titles last week, including closing film The World’s End, a second wave of features have now been announced. These include:

009 Re: Cyborg (Japan)
Dir: Kenji Kamiyama
North American Premiere

Animals (Spain)  
Dir: Marçal Forés
Quebec Premiere

Antisocial (Canada) 
Dir: Cody Calahan
World Premiere.

Bad Milo (USA)  
Dir: Jacob Vaughan
Canadian Premiere

Big Ass Spider! (USA) 
Dir: Mike Mendez
Quebec Premiere
Hosted by Mendez and producers Patrick Ewald and Travis Stevens.

Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium)
Dir: Felix Van Groeningen
Canadian Premiere

The Dead Experiment (Canada)
Dir: Anthony Dixon

The Dirties (Canada)
Dir: Matt Johnson
Quebec Premiere
Hosted by Johnson, co-writer Josh Boles and actors Owen Williams and Krista Madison.

The Demon’s Rook (USA)
Dir: James Sizemore
World Premiere
Hosted by Sizemore and his gang of DIY magicians and maniacs

Hello, My Dolly Girlfriend (Japan) 
Dir: Takashi Ishii
International Premiere

How To Use Guys With Secret Tips (South Korea)
Dir: Lee Wonsuk
Canadian Premiere

I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow (Japan) 
Dir: Yuichi Fukuda
International Premiere

Machi Action (Taiwan) 
Dir: Jeff Chang
North American Premiere

Missionary (USA)
Dir: Anthony DiBlasi
World Premiere
Hosted by DiBlasi

Oxv: The Manual (UK-Australia) 
Dir: Darren Paul Fisher
World Premiere
Hosted by Fisher

Plus One (USA)
Dir: Dennis Iliadis
Canadian Premiere

The Resurection Of A Bastard (Netherlands) 
Dir: Guido van Driel
International Premiere

Saving General Yang (Hong Kong)
Dir: Ronny Yu
North American Premiere

Secretly Greatly (South Korea)
Dir: Jang Cheol-soo
Canadian Premiere

Sweetwater (USA)
Dirs: Logan Miller, Noah Miller
Canadian Premiere

Uzumasa Jacopetti (Japan)
Dir: Moriro Miyamoto
North American Premiere

The full line-up of more than 120 films will be revealed on July 9.