Created in 2005, Fantaspoa - International Fantastic Film Festival of Porto Alegre was the pioneer festival dedicated to bringing fantastic films to Brazil. Beginning as small repertoire festival, with 20 films in 2 screening rooms and a duration of six days, in its 4th edition, Fantaspoa extended its festival to 17 days, using 4 screening rooms and exhibiting over 150 films. Since that year, the curatorial team has kept this format: 150 films, with a small share of repertoire and homage screenings and the best of fantastic films made around the globe in the last 3 years.

Fantaspoa 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 a total of around 20 awards in the different sections of the festival, as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award, that was already presented to some of the greatest auteurs of the fantastic genre, such as Luigi Cozzi, Lamberto Bava, Ruggero Deodato, Claudio Simonetti, Stuart Gordon, David Schmoeller, Frank Henenlotter, Lloyd Kaufman and Simon Boswell.

Each year the festival welcomes more than 50 guests, that participate in Q&A's after the screenings, bringing together audience and filmmakers. This initiative, as well as the development of workshops and lectures, fostering the study, diffusion and production of cinema in Brazil.

Over its 10 years, Fantaspoa became the biggest genre festival in Latin America and the main film event in the city of Porto Alegre and is now a reference for several artists as one of the most convivial festival experiences and a great window of exhibition for fantastic films in Brazil.

Go to Fantaspoa International Fantastic Film Festival official site