'The World's End' to Close Fantasia Film Festival

The Fantasia Film Festival has announced a sampling of the films that will be featured at the Montreal festival from July 18 through August 6.

Edgar Wright’s The World’s End will make its Canadian premiere and will close the festival. The apocalyptic comedy stars Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Rosamund Pike and Martin Freeman and follows five friends’ attempt to complete a pub crawl amidst a robot apocalypse. Wright and select members of the cast will attend.

Polish director Andrzej Zulawski will be awarded the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award, celebrating a career of unconventional and often controversial works. Grotesque and surreal, Zulawski has created numerous breathtaking and cinematic films. The visionary’s most famous works include Possession, La Femme Publique and L’Amour Braque. The latter and his 1996 film Szamanka will be screened in conjunction with the award being given on July 25.

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Horror feature The Conjuring will be screened as part of the Opening Night festivities. Directed by James Wan (Saw and Insidious), the film stars Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson and Joey King.

Film won’t be the only medium screened in Montreal. Fantasia will welcome live theater to its festival lineup, premiering an adaptation of Clive Barker’s play, A History of the Devil. The play runs nearly three hours long and is directed by Jeremy Michael Segal. Three performances will take place on August 1, 2 and 3 at Place des Arts’ Cinquième Salle.

Other notable films being screened at Fantasia are Magic Magic (dir. Sebastian Silva), I’ll Follow You Down (dir. Richie Mehta), Ip Man – The Final Fight (dir. Herman Yau) and Cheap Thrills (dir. E.L. Katz).

The Fantasia Film Festival will showcase at least 100 feature films over its near three-week duration, along with many conferences and parties. Audiences can look forward to many international premieres and numerous Canadian debuts of the best works from this year’s Cannes, Sundance, SXSW, Berlin and Tribeca festivals.

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