Held in the legendary venue that is the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas's Fantastic Fest has garnered a reputation for being one of the world’s premier genre gatherings, welcoming a rabidly enthusiastic audience alongside a healthy dose of industry names. The unveiling of the 2026 programme for the festival, which runs from 17-24 September, has revealed some eagerly awaited blockbuster fare (including a gala screening for the new Resident Evil reboot directed by Zach Cregger [Weapons], and the first US outing of two episodes of Prime’s new adaptation of Carrie) alongside world premieres for a number of more esoteric genre offerings.

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The festival will play host to the world premiere of the dark Swedish drama Adult Supervision, in which director Alex Schulman follows three fathers who offer to chaperone their children on a school trip. But whilst there, they discover that they might not have outgrown teenage power dynamics, and things soon promise to take a darker turn. Also bowing for the first time is Luka Marčetić’s Girl in the Night (see the news), a Slovenian absurdist comedy in which a man who – after stealing the bicycle of the local vigilante – soon finds himself dragged along into her nocturnal adventures. Also screening as a world premiere, Óscar Martín’s Upiro (Spain) follows a girl who, after being sent to a remote monastery to atone for her sins, finds a place plagued by a mysterious blood disease linked to a supernatural being.

Polish director Agata Trzebuchowska – known chiefly as an actress for playing the lead in Paweł Pawlikowski’s Ida – will present the world premiere of her feature debut, Sick, in which things spiral out of control in more ways than one when two siblings are tasked with caring for their ailing grandma.

The French film No Way Down (directed by Mohamed Chabane and Théo Jourdain) comes with echoes of The Raid as four friends enter a sealed tower which has become an urban legend after a series of unexpected disappearances, and they soon discover that they must fight for their lives (see the news). Finnish director Ilja Rautsi – whose delightfully titled shorts including Helsinki Mansplaining Massacre and Night of the Living Dicks have proven popular on the circuit, not only for their boldness but also for their underlying strain of social satire – will unveil his debut feature, Red Snow, a Finnish-Estonian-Swedish co-production that sees a vampire posing as Santa Claus invade the home of a family whose rebellious teenage daughter wants only one thing: to become a vampire herself and escape her miserable life. Fellow Finnish helmer Markus Lehmusruusu will see the international premiere of his film The Squirrel (Finland/Germany/Netherlands/Sweden), a sci-fi flick in which a toy designer developing robotic companion dogs rescues an injured squirrel, setting him on a journey of self-discovery and societal rebellion.

Other previously aired films set to screen at the festival will include Bob Colaers’ Attack on Paradise (Belgium/Netherlands), an energetic action-thriller fresh from a recent screening at Canada’s Fantasia; 3 Weeks After (Serbia/Bulgaria/Italy/Croatia/Luxembourg) by Miroslav Terzić, which unspooled for the first time at this year’s edition of Karlovy Vary; and Nikias Chryssos’ Bloody Tennis (Germany), hot on the heels of its premiere at Locarno. Bertrand Mandico’s Cannes entry Roma Elastica, starring Marion Cotillard, will also receive its first North American outing. The festival also promises a “world premiere” of Quentin Dupieux’s Full Phil - despite the fact that said film premiered at Cannes, a new cut of the Kristen Stewart- and Woody Harrelson-starrer will be seen by Fantastic Fest audiences for the first time.