If you are a fan of horror or genre films in general, you’ve probably heard about Fantastic Fest. The yearly film festival in Austin, Texas celebrates genre films and those weird movies you can’t help but love. To help celebrate its 20th anniversary, we’re excited to do 20 days of the women who made it possible.
Fantastic Fest is, for many, the best film festival of the year. I went for my first time in 2024 and was so angry I couldn’t stay the entire festival. It made me fall in love with Austin as a city and, in the grand scheme of festivals, it just feels like a celebration of movies and what we love about going to the theaters. And they’ve had some pretty kick ass ladies as part of the celebration.
To kick off our celebration, we’re celebrating the festival director: Lisa Dreyer. As part of the celebration, the team who helps bring Fantastic Fest to us each year celebrated Dreyer by writing a quick note about their director. “Lisa is passionate about supporting radical new voices and boundary-pushing projects, the weirder and wilder the better! Fun fact–Lisa has been with the festival since 2018. She started as a volunteer on the pre-screening team and worked her way up to features programmer before being named Festival Director in 2022.”
Dreyer has given us some great films in the festival as a result. Last year, Fantastic Fest had the A24 film A Different Man with Sebastian Stan there with a secret showing of his film The Apprentice that night. Which is part of the fun of the festival as a whole! If you want to just go into a movie without any idea of what is to come, then the secret films are for you. But even if you are a more structured person, women like Dreyer makes sure that you’ll have something to enjoy.
Check back here on The Mary Sue every day leading up to Fantastic Fest to see a spotlight on a “fantastic” woman who has helped make the best film festival possible.
(featured image: Fantastic Fest)
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