Fantastic Fest 2010 Announces First Batch Of Films

While festivals in the winter and spring get all of the press, Tim League and the crew from Austin have put together a real destination fest for lovers of fringe cinema… or, just damned good cinema.

Fantastic Fest has been serving up incredible flicks for film geeks from around the world since 2005. The lineup is just starting to take shape, and it already looks like another banner year. With the inclusion of Cannes head-scratcher “Rubber,” the weird factor has, amazingly, been turned up to 12.

The full details, along with passes as they become available, are available online at FantasticFest.com. You should also follow their Twitter feed, as they’ll have late-breaking info first.

Here’s the list of films released today that’ll be part of Fantastic Fest 2010:

• Bedevilled (2010)
  Director: Cheol-soo Jang, South Korea, 115 minutes
  If you beat, brutalize, dehumanize and torment a country girl for her entire life, take note: when she reaches the breaking point, you’d best hide the farm implements.
• Corridor (2009)
  Directors: Johan Lundborg & Johan Storm, Sweden, 80 min
  Lonely medical student Frank is pleased with his flat, a quiet place to focus on his coming exams. But when he meets the girl upstairs, his peace and quiet, his sanity and his possibly even his life become jeopardized.
• The Dead (2010)
  Directors: Howard J. Ford and Jonathan Ford South Africa, 100 min
  After his plane crashes in the South African bush, Rob Freeman (SAVING PRIVATE RYAN) joins forces with Prince David Osei (a superstar actor in his native Ghana) to cross the vast desert by any means necessary. A daunting task under normal circumstances becomes particularly challenging after the zombie apocalypse.
• Gallants (2010)
  Directors: Derek Kwok & Clement Cheng, Hong Kong, 98 minutes
  The funniest, most ass-kicking, hard-rocking, pedal-to-the-metal movie of the year. It’s COCOON with kung fu! (New York Asian Film Festival)
• Golden Slumber (2010)
  Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura, South Korea, 139 minutes
  Last year, Yoshihiro Nakamura’s FISH STORY saved the world from certain annihilation and became the word-of-mouth hit of the festival. This year, Nakamura’s back with another ode to the human connection, GOLDEN SLUMBER, a brain-melting thriller send-up that’s two parts THE BIG CHILL, three parts BOURNE IDENTITY and a million parts awesome. (New York Asian Film Festival)
• Ip Man 2 (2010)
  Director: Wilson Yip, Hong Kong, 108 minutes
  It’s a rousing Canto-fable, a Hong Kong empowerment movie , a return to old school martial arts filmmaking with AVATAR-era production values, and on its opening weekend in Hong Kong it beat IRON MAN 2 at the box office like a redheaded stepchild. (New York Asian Film Festival)
• Life and Death of Porno Gang (2009)
  Director: Mladen Djordjevic, Serbia, 90 minutes
  Adult movie director Marko steals money from his mobster producer Cane to create his masterpiece: an experimental black and white erotic horror film. When the film bombs and he can’t repay his boss, he slips away with the cast and crew to produce live porno-theater in the Serbian countryside. Then it gets weird.
• Outrage
  Director: Takeshi Kitano, Japan, 109 minutes
  Takeshi Kitano is back in classic form, directing and starring in the genre God intended for him: a ruthless, bloody and very violent yakuza crime thriller.
• Rammbock
  Director: Marvin Kren, Germany, 59 minutes
  Hoping to rekindle the sparks with his ex-girlfriend, Michael makes a surprise visit to her apartment in the city. Bad timing. As luck would have it, this is also the same day the zombie outbreak hits Berlin.
• Red Hill
  Director: Patrick Hughes, Australia, 95 minutes
  On his first day on the job as a rural Australian constable, Shane Cooper (TRUE BLOOD star Ryan Kwanten) has a daunting assignment: face off against an escaped-convict Aboriginal tracker whose current prey is the entire Red Hill police department.
• Rubber
  Director: Quentin Dupieux, France/USA, 85 minutes
  Quentin Dupieux (the real name of legendary DJ Mr. Ozio) has directed my hands-down favorite film of Cannes 2010. Robert, a very disgruntled psychokinetic automobile tire explodes the heads of birds, beasts and humans alike on a high-desert killing spree like no other.
• Sound of Noise
  Directors: Ola Simonsson and Johannes Stärne Nilsson, Sweden, 102 minutes
  Musical terrorists have launched a full-scale musical attack using the city – its buildings, its machinery and its ceaseless noise – as their instrument. The group’s leaders are the “Bonnie and Clyde of underground rock,” hell-bent to dismantle the harmony of the world with their anarchic performances.
• The Violent Kind
  Directors: The Butcher Brothers, USA, 95 minutes
  What starts as a biker bash gone awry first gets unfathomably bloody before finally transcending into truly bizarre territory.