Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore genre film fans, and distributors, who take advantage of the eclectic line up to select domestic and international films for release across North America. By virtue of the reputation developed over the last 15 years, this festival has been described as perhaps the "most outstanding and largest genre film festival in North America". Overview The history of the Fantasia Festival has roots in the Asian Film scene in Montreal. Beginning in 1996 where it screened Asian films from Hong Kong and Anime from Japan, the festival later expanded its international repertoire and screened genre films from all across the world. Since this time many world and international premieres have featured at Fantasia fest, including Shaun of the Dead, Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Midnight Meat Train, Dread, The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Uzumaki. Among the many North American premieres have included Ringu, Inglourious Basterds, Thirst, We Are What We Are, Visitor Q and Night Watch. The organizers present a number of awards at the conclusion of each annual festival, including the Barry Convex Award for best Canadian film premiering at the festival. History 1996–2010 Fant-Asia 1996 (inaugural festival) Fant-Asia 1997 Some of the films featured were Perfect Blue, Drunken Master II, Stagefright, El Dia de la Bestia, Henry, A Gun for Jennifer, Tromeo and Juliet and Cutting Moments. Fant-Asia 1998 Fantasia's Toronto edition premiered at the Bloor Cinema. Fantasia International Film Festival 1999 The 1999 edition of Fantasia was the only one that used the ex-Centris facilities. This year also featured the second Toronto edition. FanTasia 2000 The 2000 edition of Fantasia featured the debut of the Just For Laughs film festival, Comedia, as a selection of comedy films were shown with the regular Fantasia fare. This was also the final year that a Toronto edition of the festival was presented. FanTasia 2001 The 2001 edition was the last held in the Imperial Cinema. It was also the last time the festival was jointly held with Comedia. FanTasia 2002 (missed year) Fantasia 2002 was cancelled due to problems with the Imperial Cinema. The air conditioning system was broken, and it could not be fixed in time for Fantasia. Indeed, the theatre was