Just a few days left till Imagine Fantastic Film Festival 2024 kicks off. We can’t wait! Tickets can be booked through the schedule on our website, and we’ll keep you updated on all there is to see through our social media channels. In the meantime, here are some highlights and new titles.
Late addition to the programme: Bird
We don’t mind films coming in last minute if they’re as good as Bird, a modern fairytale directed by Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank, American Honey). Starring Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski next to newcomer Nykiya Adams, Bird is about twelve-year-old Bailey who lives in a derelict squat in North Kent with her single father Bug and her brother Hunter. Bailey loves birds, spending all of her free time on the roof of an apartment block. Here, she gets lost in her thoughts as she looks out over the city.
Festival theme: 1984 Re:Imagined
Seize control the future through the lens of the past.
George Orwell’s dystopian vision still feels eerily relevant today, 40 years after 1984. By ‘Re:Imagining’ 1984 this year, we’re continuing Orwell’s mission of discussing the issues of today, whilst also inviting artists and filmmakers to use the power of speculative fiction to reflect on possible (dystopian) scenario’s for the future. Are you in?
Films and specials in this programme
- Classics: 1984 (Michael Radford, 1984), The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974), Decoder (Muscha, 1984), Fahrenheit 451 (François Truffaut, 1966)
- New releases: Artificial Justice (Simón Casal, 2024)
- Specials: Filmconcert Algöl with a live theremin score by Wilco Botermans; Dystopia in Denial Video Essay by Peet Gelderblom; Afrotopia talk with Felwine Sarr and a screening of Crumbs.
- Podcast: In three new episodes of Imagine’s very own podcast, we’ll focus on this year’s festival theme 1984 Re:Imagined, going beyond the dystopian diagnoses of George Orwell. We will invite a wide array of voices to a speculative discussion about the viable alternatives for our futures. The third and final Episode will be recorded live during the festival, on October 30th. Come by!
Guest of Honour: Phil Tippett
We’re very proud of this year’s Guest of Honour, director / animator / visual effects wizard Phil Tippett! Tippett will be receiving a well-deserved Career Achievement Award at Imagine, and he will be joining us on stage for a Career Talk on Friday the 25th about his decades of work on films like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Star Wars and Jurassic Park. Tickets for this talk are available through the button below. For an even deeper dive into Tippett’s biggest inspirations and his own contributions to fantastic cinema, we’re screening stop motion classic The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers – which Tippett created the arachnids for – as well as his own masterpiece Mad God. A documentary about him – Phil Tippett: Mad Dreams and Monsters – is also part of the programme. Tippett will be introducing most of these screenings himself.
Interfaces of Reality
Another year, another awesomely interactive VR/Expanded programme at Galerie Beeldend Gesproken! In this year’s Expanded programme Interfaces of Reality, we have highlights such as Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom, the first ever VR/Interactive Gundam film, Uncanny Valley with LIVE actors that you will join you in VR all the way from the USA, and Tulpamancer where AI and VR join forces to haunt you. But that’s now all! We have a awesome range of other titles that go from weirdly funny to abstract.
Exhibition & games
Besides films, VR and events, Imagine showcases art that fits our festival themes, created by artists we love. The festival also offers visitors the chance to immerse themselves in fantastic games. In 2024, the basement of LAB111 hosts Post-Apocalyptic Big Brother, a dystopian video installation which is part of our 1984 Re:Imagined theme, as well as Interfaces of Reality: The Exhibition, a collection of iconic vintage computers and games such as Tetris, Duck Hunt an Quake. This exhibition is a collaboration with the HomeComputerMuseum in Helmond.
The installation and the games are both free of charge.
