Austin’s greatest genre film festival just revealed its 2026 program, and it might be the best lineup in years.
Fantastic Fest runs September 17–24 at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, Texas. This year’s 21st edition hosts 73 features and episodic projects, including 35 World Premieres.
Opening and Closing Night
The festival opens with Lionsgate’s creature feature Beware Boiúna, a medical mission in the Amazon goes horribly wrong when a colossal ancient serpent awakens to reclaim her domain. Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil screens the same night in a gala presentation. On the other end, Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer close the festival with The Swallow, a brutally efficient creature feature about rebellious teenagers terrorized by a sentient, quicksand-like sludge.
The Big Ones
Mike Flanagan returns to preview the first two US episodes of his Prime Video Carrie series, starring Summer H. Howell as Carrie White, ahead of its October 7 premiere. Victorian Psycho, starring Maika Monroe and Jason Isaacs, makes its North American Premiere. Body horror Bloody Tennis, starring Helena Zengel and Tom Hanks, premieres alongside it.
Shudder’s The Cycle, Jordan Downey’s World Premiere starring Deborah Ann Woll, follows a woman unraveling her father’s dark past after his body surfaces 36 years after he went missing. Adam Egypt Mortimer’s psychedelic horror Pathetic Fallacy, starring Kid Cudi, Jessica Rothe, Travis Fimmel, and Natasha Lyonne, also world-premieres here. So does What Happened to Doris?, Heather Graham’s film based on the real haunting that inspired The Entity. And Joko Anwar’s Ghost in the Cell, described as a blood-soaked fusion of supernatural horror, prison thriller, martial arts, and political satire, makes its North American Premiere.
Beyond the Films
Fantastic Pitches returns with a $100,000 grand prize judged by Gore Verbinski and Catherine Hardwicke. Restorations of Blood Feast (1963), Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), and Hell House (2001) are also on the program, alongside Martin McDonagh’s Venice-debuted Wild Horse Nine starring Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich.
Festival Director Lisa Dreyer promises, “I guarantee we have the next batch of breakout directors in our lineup, and you’ll discover them first at Fantastic Fest.”
Last year this festival launched Obsession. It’s now closing in on $500 million worldwide. September 17 can’t come fast enough.
