Autumn is upon us and so too is movie awards season. The unofficial opening of this window for accolades is typically marked by the launch of two major film festivals in early September, the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), both of which concluded within the past month.  

But there’s another annual film festival in September that doesn’t get the same kind of glamourous press coverage for being a bellwether of Oscar hopefuls and yet, it’s no less influential in its own unique way. I am speaking of the genre film festival, Fantastic Fest, organized annually by Alamo Drafthouse, the national movie theater chain known best for its  love of film, exceptional dine-in experience and zero-tolerance policy for talking and texting distractions during the feature presentation. Full disclosure: I am currently an employee of Alamo Drafthouse but that doesn’t make these statements any less true. 

Celebrating its 20^th anniversary in 2025, Fantastic Fest was held at Alamo Drafthouse’s flagship location, the South Lamar, September 18-25th, in Austin Texas. Billed as the largest genre film festival in the United States, Fantastic Fest has a rich history of world premieres, secret screenings and special events, all of which are curated by movie-lovers for movie-lovers.

Fantastic Fest’s Origin Story
Tim League, founder and current Executive Chairman of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, first conceived of Fantastic Fest in 2005. His vision was to create a multi-day film festival that celebrated the best of horror, science-fiction and fantasy. He endeavored to shine a light on little-seen independent and foreign films of these oft-overlooked genres, while also premiering hotly anticipated, genre-based studio fare. World premieres, US premieres and, indeed, Texas premieres have historically made up the bulk of the programming, which has grown to include short films, retrospective screenings and surprise screenings complete with filmmaker and talent participation.

Lisa Dreyer, Festival Director for Fantastic Fest, has been instrumental in its success in recent years, “I started in 2018 as a volunteer on the screening team, then progressed to being the festival director in 2022,” said Dreyer. “I love how passionate our audience is about film, they are real cinephiles and not afraid to check out new things and champion new filmmakers. Our team is completely dedicated to making the fest the best possible for our audience, and we have a ton of fun working together to bring the fest to life.”

Future cult classics such as “Wolf Creek,” “Human Centipede” and “Color Out of Space” all premiered at Fantastic Fest in years past. Movies that would go on to be big box office hits, like “John Wick,” “Zombieland,” “Smile” and “Terrifier 2” also all premiered there. Mirroring Alamo Drafthouse’s own commitment to spreading love and appreciation of cinema, Fantastic Fest quickly grew from its meager beginnings to one of the most truly fan-focused, “regular folks welcome” gatherings this side of Comic-Con.

Attendance to Fantastic Fest comes via purchasing an entry badge, of which there are several different tiers to choose from. The top-level tier, Cult Member, gets the attendee early access to reserve film tickets for the entire festival, entry into all the parties and special events, plus a collection of merchandise and goodies. From there, perks and access shrink based on the attached price tag but in any case, one must act fast because all manner of badges often sell out quickly (usually months in advance).

It doesn’t just stop at movie screenings. The event has also become renowned for its outlandish events and stunts. What other film festival features “Star Wars” themed drinking competitions or “Opening Night” pajama parties? There are trivia contests, karaoke throwdowns and even boxing matches (“Fantastic Debates” as they are officially known) that pit folks with differing viewpoints on a particular subject against each other in the ring (Google it and you’ll see Tim League losing a bout to “Fast and Furious” actress Michelle Rodriguez in 2010 over whether or not “Avatar” deserved to win an Academy Award for Best Picture). It’s not all hijinks and shenanigans though, as Fantastic Fest is also fertile ground for hosting informative and intimate film panels and discussions featuring the likes of Tim Burton, Vince Vaughn and Leonard Maltin, among others.

What the 20th Anniversary Delivered
For the 20^th anniversary this year, Fantastic Fest programmers put together a potent lineup of films, including studio pictures like the anticipated sequels Universal and Blumhouse’s “Black Phone 2,” Lionsgate’s “The Strangers – Chapter 2,” Stage 6 Films and Screen Gems’ “Sisu: Road to Revenge,” and even A24’s buzzy psychological comedy-drama, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” starring Rose Byrne in a brilliantly gutsy performance as a mother dealing with an inordinate amount of escalating stress.  

“Our programming team starts watching movies in January, in preparation for the year,” explained Dreyer. “We travel to various film festivals like Cannes and Berlinale to meet with sales agents and distributors to secure great films for the festival.”

Of course, there were many more titles on tap that audiences weren’t yet familiar with as well as four scheduled “Secret Screenings”, which were Mike P. Nelson’s “Silent Night, Deadly Night,” Gore Verbinski’s “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia.” Previous editions of these screenings have included such (future) Oscar winners as “There Will Be Blood,” “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “Gravity,” as well as other high-profile surprises like “Apocalypto,” “Split” and “Saltburn.” 

Additionally, many independent films are also featured in the line-up. Championing indie filmmakers and their passion-projects are always a priority for Alamo Drafthouse.

“We also get films submitted directly to us from filmmakers through Filmfreeway,” said Dreyer, referring to the film festival submission website. “We watch every single film submitted to us! Then our team of programmers has weekly conversations to discuss what will work best for our audience, to ensure we bring the very best genre films to Austin, Texas!”

This year’s festival opened with the world premiere of “Primate” from Paramount and director, Johannes Roberts (“Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City,” “47 Meters Down”). Scheduled for theatrical release on January 9, 2026, “Primate” is a gory horror film starring Johnny Sequoyah and Oscar-winner Troy Kotsur about a family trying to survive the night when their pet chimpanzee contracts rabies and goes on a killing spree.

Closing night featured the world premiere of IFC and Shudder’s “Whistle,” directed by Corin Hardy (“The Nun”). In this supernatural horror film starring Dafne Keen, a group of high school friends stumble upon an ancient, cursed Aztec death whistle, that summons their individual death destinies to come for them. IFC and Shudder have partnered successfully on many previous occasions (“The Babadook,” “Late Night with the Devil,” “In a Violent Nature”) with original, below-the-radar films catering to the horror crowd.

A Community-based Festival
When asked about the selection process for the immersive events and activities that are featured at the festival from year to year, Dreyer explained, “We have so many creative people in our network, from drag queens, to podcasters, to musicians, and they often approach us to pitch ideas based on our yearly themes. We love tapping into our community to bring wild and fun events to the fest.” 

For this year’s 20^th anniversary edition, the community feel was on full display, with highlights such as a celebration of the seminal horror anthology series “Masters of Horror” (also marking its 20^th anniversary), a medieval drag show, a ghoulish book fair (“Ghoulish Books”), a fundraiser for The Transgender Film Center and a new program called Fantastic Pitches, aimed at supporting burgeoning filmmakers with $100,000 in funding and access to a global distribution deal.

Dreyer elaborated on the latter, “This year we launched Fantastic Pitches, where we partnered with a new genre distribution label, Chroma. The winning pitch received 100k in funding for their film, and a guaranteed world premiere at the next Fantastic Fest. So, we cannot wait to premiere the winning film and continue growing Fantastic Pitches and our support for emerging filmmakers.”

As Fantastic Fest celebrates 20 years of bringing the best in genre films to Austin, Dreyer shared her favorite memory from festivals past:“There are too many to count, but I really loved when we presented Park Chan-wook with a lifetime achievement award, right after he had won Best Director at Cannes for “Decision to Leave.” Some of our team dressed up in spandex wrestling outfits and presented him with a huge wrestling belt, he was totally surprised – it was pure Fantastic Fest – we are serious about film and also serious about doing things in a fun way!”