CPop · Correio do Povo

#369: CPop Especial Fantaspoa: as principais atrações da 22ª edição do festival

·42 min·3 clips

João Pedro describes 'You Are the Movie,' a 60-minute masterpiece where a woman enters a cinema, watches a man's life — and then the man enters a cinema and watches her life back, collapsing the boundary between screen and reality.

1. CPop episode 369 is Correio do Povo's annual Fantaspoa preview, featuring hosts Carlos Corrêa and festival programmers João Pedro Fleck, João Pedro Teixeira, and Nicolas Toncho. 2. The guests are programmers and organizers of Fantaspoa, the 22nd edition of which runs 19 days in Porto Alegre in April 2026 — tied with Fanteija (after its schedule was shortened) as the world's longest genre film festival. 3. The episode previews the full structure, key films, masterclasses, special screenings, and social events of the festival, designed to help Porto Alegre audiences plan their attendance. 4. Fantaspoa became the first non-European festival ever admitted as a permanent member of the Méliès association's Méliès d'Argent award, meaning its prize-winner can compete for the Méliès d'Or in Europe in October. 5. The festival's venues include Casa de Cultura Mário Quintana, Cinemateca Paulo Amorim, Cinebancários (85 seats), and Cinemateca Capitólio (142 seats), plus the Instituto Lingue for masterclasses and training events. 6. All eight training activities — including the film and video-clip masterclasses — are free with advance registration; the Cinebancários sessions went on sale a week early and sold out quickly. 7. The festival received approximately 1,450 film submissions (short and feature combined), reviewing them down to 210 selected titles from more than 40 countries across six competitive categories: Madrugadão (four midnight films), national (seven), Ibero-American (16), low budget (18), international (33), and short films (117+). 8. The opening screening is a 50th anniversary session of Brian De Palma's 'Carrie,' preceded by the world premiere of the short film 'Lickme' by festival art director Elisabeth Schuh, followed by an opening party at Insano Pub with Carrie-themed decoration. 9. The opening costume parade this year includes a 1,000-reais prize for best costume, with a specialist judge, and DJ Armando Fonseca recording each participant's fantasy character and chosen theme song. 10. Key highlights mentioned: Death Gasp 2 (sequel to the 2015 New Zealand metal-zombie film by Jason Lee Haldane, with all seven original cast members); Psychonauts (animated adult feature for the Pedro Ribeiro tribute session, described as award-winning and 'very for adults'). 11. 'You Are the Movie,' directed by the screenwriter of '2 Minutos Andando Infinitos,' is a 60-minute film in which a woman in a cinema watches a man's life, then the man enters a cinema to watch hers, collapsing the film/reality boundary — João Pedro calls it one of the most sophisticated metalinguistic films he has seen. 12. João Pedro breaks his no-favorites rule to name 'The Danger in Pincer Point' by British director Johnny Laird as the film with 'the most enchanting ending of the year' — a near-black-and-white film about a sound engineer bitten by a crab on his 12th floor, sent to Pincer Point island, who becomes entangled in a millenary maritime legend. 13. His second personal favorite is 'Pippin Tolles,' a slasher musical comedy in which a stalker and his target navigate a fully sung absurdist narrative with suggested rather than explicit violence. 14. Nicolas describes 'Madness in the Basements' from Kyrgyzstan: a near-retired 70-year-old writer pressured by his ambitious nephew to produce a crowd-pleasing film starts writing it, and the fictional world materializes on screen until fiction and reality intermingle. 15. The Palestinian short 'The End' (three and a half minutes, live action, allegorical) is described by Nicolas as beautiful and one of his personal favorites, despite being nearly impossible to discuss without giving away its symbolism. 16. A Canadian Inuit film, 'The Wrong Husband' — made by a director from the tribe who left, learned filmmaking, bought equipment, and returned — is called out as an unusual selection: a love story with fantasy tropes filmed inside an isolated coastal community. 17. National highlights include 'Covil' (Vitória Estrada, Porto Alegre), the Paola Oliveira-led 'A Herança de Narcisa,' 'Virtuosas,' and 'Os Infiéis' (out of competition, produced by Tomás Fleck, starring Porto Alegre-based actors Rafael Pimenta and Emilio Farias). 18. Masterclasses include American videoclip director Chris Mars Pileiro (also directing his debut feature 'Apopheniicos' with Sean Gunn) on videoclip-to-feature transition, and special effects artist Kapel Furman on the closing film 'Remanente Voltagem.' 19. The hosts explain that 90-95% of submissions come via Filmfreeway.com, with the remainder arriving through national film agencies (Czech, Brazilian Ancine), festival director recommendations (including the Portugal festival), and direct invitations for known filmmakers. 20. Best for genre-film enthusiasts in Porto Alegre and Brazil planning their Fantaspoa schedule; also useful for international genre-film fans curious about what a leading South American genre festival programs.

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