Imagine Fantastic Film Festival
The Imagine Fantastic Film Festival is a 10-day film festival that takes place from October 26 to November 5, 2022, in the FilmHallen and LAB111 in Amsterdam. It is the largest film festival for the fantastic film in the Netherlands and offers the latest, best, and most special offers in the field of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and related genres. Imagine is all about the imagination! Every year Imagine challenges the public to think through the imagination about the future of people and society.
This year’s program with a country focus, Myths of the World, focuses this year on a mythical city: Hong Kong. Using five films in five genres and from five different decades, Imagine shows what a unique melting pot the city is. The festival features famous Hong Kong Cinema titles such as Pang Hon-Cheung’s heart-pounding Dream Home (2010), a 4K restoration of the ultimate crime thriller Infernal Affairs (2002) by Alan Mak, musical film history with The Wild Wild Rose (1960) by Wong Tin-Lam and much more special cinema history.
The theme Lab Rats! is in honor of the history of LAB111 and the long-standing relationship between fantastic fiction and mad science. It celebrates human experimentation with classic movies, new releases, Q&As, games, art and more. From body horror to bio hacking, Lab Rats! focuses on death, life, and everything in between. Titles that pass by include the science fiction comedy Brian and Charles (2022) by Jim Archer, Peter Strickland with the gastro-horror comedy Flux Gourmet (2022) and the Japanese body horror classic Tetsuo II: The Body Hammer (1992).
The general program features Dark Glasses (2022) by legendary director Daria Argento in the Giallo genre. In addition, witches and models pass by in Lux Æterna (2019) by Gaspar Noë and Imagine screens Ali Abbasi’s Farsi-spoken crime drama Holy Spider (2022) and the long-awaited sequel to South Korean sci-fi thriller The Witch Part. 2 (original title: Manyeo2: Logo) (2022) by Park Joon-Hung.
Imagine sees the fantastic genre as a rich source of thought experiments, often anticipating or reflecting on social and technological developments. In in-depth programs, the festival offers backgrounds, history, and context, and connects fantastic film with current developments in society. It uses the power of the fantastic film that enables you to discover future worlds, develop a different view of reality, explore the unknown and thereby broaden your view.