Fantaspoa is an international

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theater, cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent ...

held annually in

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, ; , ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian Federative units of Brazil, state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of roughly 1.4 million inhabitants (2022) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, 11th-most p ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. Established in 2005, it focuses on genre cinema, including

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

and horror, and showcases both feature-length and short films, with a focus on Portuguese and Spanish language productions.

History

Fantaspoa was founded in 2005, and has the following official sections: Short Film Competition (subdivided into live-action/animation and national/international); Ibero-American Feature Film Competition and International Competition. The festival also have special sidebars that change from edition to edition, such as animated feature films, documentaries, zombie films, panorama, among others. Each edition, the festival grants around twenty awards in the different sections, as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award, that has been presented to some of the greatest auteurs of the fantastic genre, such as Luigi Cozzi,

Lamberto Bava Lamberto Bava (born 3 April 1944) is an Italian film director. Born in Rome, Italy, Rome, Bava began working as an assistant director for his director father Mario Bava. Lamberto co-directed the 1979 television film ''La Venere d'Ille'' with his f ...

Ruggero Deodato Ruggero Deodato (; 7 May 1939 – 29 December 2022) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. His career spanned a wide-range of genres including Sword-and-sandal, peplum, Comedy film, comedy, Drama (film and television), drama, P ...

, Claudio Simonetti,

Stuart Gordon Stuart Alan Gordon (August 11, 1947 – March 24, 2020) was an American Filmmaking, filmmaker, theatre director, screenwriter, and playwright. Initially recognized for his provocative and frequently controversial work in experimental theatre, Go ...

, David Schmoeller, Frank Henenlotter,

Lloyd Kaufman Stanley Lloyd Kaufman Jr. (born December 30, 1945) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. Alongside producer Michael Herz, he is the co-founder of Troma Entertainment film studio, and the director of many of their featu ...

and

Simon Boswell Simon Boswell (born 15 October 1953) is an English film score composer, conductor, producer and musician. His body of work includes over 100 credits. He was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Original Television Music for the drama s ...

. Fantaspoa is the only

South American South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

festival to be a member of the Méliès International Festivals Federation, and stands alone, outside of Europe, in awarding the prestigious Méliès d'Argent for Best European Short Film.

Reception

Described by '' Variety'' as the largest genre film festival in

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

, Fantaspoa has also been included in the following lists: * 2025 – ''

MovieMaker ''MovieMaker'' is a magazine, website and podcast network focused on the art and business of filmmaking with a special emphasis on independent film and film festivals. The magazine is published on a quarterly basis, and is known for the annual l ...

–'' "Top 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee" * 2025 ''–'' ''

Dread Central Dread Central is an American website founded in 2006 that is dedicated to horror news, interviews, and reviews. It covers horror films, comics, novels, and toys. Dread Central has won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Website f ...

–'' "The 90 Best Genre Film Festivals on Earth" * 2024 – ''

–'' "Top 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee" * 2023 – ''

–'' "The 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World" * 2023 – ''

–'' "Top 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee" * 2022 ''–'' ''

–'' "Best Horror Festivals in the World" * 2021 ''–'' ''Dread Central'' ''–'' "Best Horror Festivals in the World" * 2021 – ''

'' – "50 Best Genre Fests in the World" * 2019 – ''

'' – "30 Bloody Best Genre Fests in the World"

References

External links

*{{official website, https://www.fantaspoa.com
Fantaspoa
on

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

Fantasy and horror film festivals

History

Reception

See also

References

External links