Date: Monday, August 26, 2008

PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Subject: Kevin Smith to kick off Fantastic Fest

Where: Austin, TX

Fantastic Fest, September 18-25, 2008

Contact:
Tim League
(512) 912-0529
info@fantasticfest.com
www.fantasticfest.com

Fantastic Fest is proud to announce its 2008 Opening Night Gala Film, the U.S. Premiere of Kevin Smith's ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO, screening at the historic Paramount Theater in Austin, Texas on September 18th.

Director Kevin Smith will be live in person to introduce the screening and answer questions after the film.

Following the event, attendees are invited to stay and enjoy the official after-party festivities: the Air Sex World Championships on the grand stage of the Paramount Theater. Think "air guitar" with a bit more sizzle.

About the film:
Lifelong platonic friends Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) look to solve their respective cashflow problems by making an adult film together. As the cameras roll, however, the duo begin to sense that they may have more feelings for each other than they previously thought.

Tickets go on sale for the opening night film at noon CST, Saturday, August 30th and will be available online at www.fantasticfest.com, by phone at 1-866-4GET-TIX or at the Paramount Theater Box Office in Austin, Texas. Admission to this show is included for Fantastic Fest badge holders.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno opens in theaters everywhere on October 31.

Important Festival Dates:
Important dates have been announced for the 4thAnnual Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.

Thursday, September 4, 2008: Final content and schedule announced
Thursday, September 18, 2008: Festival begins
Saturday, September 20, 2008: 2009 Festival Badges go on sale

For more information about Fantastic Fest, please visit our official website, www.fantasticfest.com

About the Festival:
Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the United States featuring over 100 films from over 30 countries. The event highlights the best new sci-fi, horror, fantasy and genre films, as well as choice classic and obscure cult titles from all over the world. The festival director and head programmer is Tim League (Alamo Drafthouse Cinema), with additional programming by Harry Knowles (Ain't It Cool News), Todd Brown (Twitchfilm.net), Blake Ethridge (Cinema is Dope), Zack Carlson (Alamo Drafthouse Cinema) and Lars Nilsen (Alamo Drafthouse Cinema). Fantastic Fest is a supporting member of the prestigious Melies European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation and a founding member of the North American Fantastic Festival Alliance. Fantastic Fest is sponsored in part by Gamecock Media, AMD, Fosters, Fox Home Entertainment and CITY OF EMBER.

PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Where: Alamo Drafthouse Cinema South Lamar, Austin, TX

Fantastic Fest, September 18-25, 2008

Contact:
Tim League
(512) 912-0529
info@fantasticfest.com
www.fantasticfest.com

While much of the attention of Fantastic Fest centers around the new discoveries and premiere feature films, each year we always present a new repertory retrospective. This year we are featuring two classic series: NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD: Ozsploitation Classics and BEHIND THE PINK CURTAIN: Japanese Pinku Films.


NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD: Ozsploitation Classics
This year, Fantastic Fest is dedicated to making everyone we know into giant, committed fans of Ozploitation cinema. That is - the peculiar brand of exploitation films that bubbled to the surface in Australia in the '70s and '80s. Certainly the best known are the MAD MAX films but those didn't emerge in a vacuum. The industry was already pumping out films as rude, tough and resourceful as the primal Aussie himself, kicked out of the British Isles for being ungovernable, forced to carve out a livelihood in the most hostile terrain on earth. While Australia has its share of classic arthouse-worthy fare in the manner of PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK and BREAKER MORANT, it was the cheap action, horror and titty films that really made the Fosters go down easy. (Lars)

MAD MAX
Friday, September 12, 8:30 PM, Republic Square Park Downtown, Free Admission!
Dir. George Miller, 1979, 35mm, 93 min, R
Mel Gibson plays a rogue officer bent on revenge in the most influential apocalyptic masterpiece in film history. Reckless, violent, morally corrupt and totally insane.


ROAD WARRIOR
Friday, September 19, 8:30 PM, Republic Square Park Downtown, Free Admission!
Dir. George Miller, 1981, 35mm, 94 min, R
The sequel to MAD MAX puts the pedal to the metal, then both pedal and metal alike explode in a death-shower of indescribable awesomeness.

(Note: at both of these free outdoor screenings, in addition to the fun onscreen, Chef John Bullington will be serving up classic Australian meat pies, shrimp on the barby and there will be plenty of giant-sized ice-cold Aussie beer to wash 'em down. Also, come prepared, we’re having a Vegemite sandwich eating contest before the film.)

DARK AGE
Wednesday, September 17, Midnight, Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz
Dir. Arch Nicholson, 1987, 35mm, 91 min, NR
The ultimate reptilesploitation movie from down under. As usual in animal attack films, the most dangerous creature ultimately is man. But the 40 foot long crocodile is a real close second. It's up to super cool ranger John Jarratt (WOLF CREEK) to track down the big croc, which is coincidentally venerated as sacred by the Aborigine populace, before a pack of scurvy poachers do. Seriously cool edge-of-your-seat excitement from beginning to end.

RAZORBACK
Thursday, September 18, Midnight, Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz
Dir. Russell Mulcahy, 1984, 35mm, 95 min, R
An enormous, thundering wild boar lays waste to the Australian outback in this bizarre and unexpectedly effective man VS. beast showdown.

MAN FROM HONG KONG with Brian Trenchard-Smith Live in person!
Wednesday, September 24, Midnight, Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz
Dir. Brian Trenchard-Smith, 1975, 35mm, 111 min, R
Possibly the most berserk catalogue of action and violence ever placed on film. An all-out orgy of throat-ripping fights, explosions, car chases, crossbows, mustaches, hang-gliders and everything else good in life. Starring former James Bond seatwarmer George Lazenby and Shaw Brothers superstar Jimmy Wang Yu. Stunts by the madman from dingo-land Grant Page (of STUNT ROCK fame), who appears desperate to end it all in a progressively greater and greater aggregation of death-defiance.


TURKEY SHOOT a.k.a. ESCAPE 2000 with director Brian Trenchard-Smith in person!
Thursday, September 25, Midnight, Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz
Dir. Brian Trenchard-Smith, 1982, 35mm, 80 min, R
In a post-apocalyptic world gone wild, a handful of prison camp inmates must run for their life while being hunted for sport!


And of course, the inspiration for the series:

NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD
Sunday, September 21, 5:00PM, Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar
Thursday, September 25, 7:30PM, Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar
Dir. Mark Hartley, 2008, 35mm, 100 min, R
Probably the biggest concentration of explosions, nudity and blood at Fantastic Fest this year. A documentary that traces the secret and not so secret history of Ozploitation.

The NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD retrospective is sponsored in part By Fosters, Magnet Releasing, Simply Australian and the Austin Parks Foundation.

Check out trailers and loads of other goodies for heaps of Ozploitation classics at the Australian NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD website.


BEHIND THE PINK CURTAIN: Japanese Pinku Films
Almost everyone has the same tingling response to the bright, shiny world of Japanese pop entertainment. It tickles the roof of the mouth like ginger-ale. But for hardcore addicts, that's just the gateway stage. The terminal phase is the Japanese pink film. More than just sexploitation movies, they're like the entire culture's autoerotic asphyxiation reveries. Filled with crushing weirdness and experiments on the extreme edge of filmmaking, the pink films provide much greater insight into the nation's character than the mannered civilities of mainstream films, largely due to the fact that young film-makers are given the freedom to go as far out on the chain as they want to, provided they expose the requisite number of naked bodies onscreen. And they must strike a pretty resonant chord since they're still going strong, as evidenced by some of our favorite Fantastic Fest titles of the past few years like UNCLES PARADISE and THE GLAMOROUS LIFE OF SACHIKO HANAI. (Lars)

BLUE FILM WOMAN
Monday, September 22, 10PM, Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar
Dir. Kan Mukai, 1969, New 35mm Print, 80 min, NR (Adults Only!)
A girl avenges her mother's death and family's disgrace by becoming a high class call girl who blackmails her nemesis with a secretly shot film of their encounter. A highly stylized wash of color, wild camera angles and sheer '60s style.

GUSHING PRAYER
Tuesday, September 23, 10PM, Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar
Dir. Masao Adachi, 1971, New 35mm Print, 72 min, NR (Adults Only!)
A young woman, already a jaded sexual veteran, embarks on an odyssey of self-discovery to find out the true reasons for her dissatisfaction and total desensitization. This parable is told in a jagged avant-garde style that must have baffled the target audience of businessmen seeking cheap thrills on their lunch hours.

A LONELY COW WEEPS AT DAWN
Wednesday, September 24, 10PM, Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar
Dir. Daisuke Goto, 2003, Digibeta, 65 min, NR (Adults Only!)
In the Japanese countryside, a young widow, Noriko, lives with her senile father-in-law, Shu, on a farm. He believes his favorite cow is still alive. Noriko pretends to be the cow and lets him milk her every day - a satisfying arrangement for both. Shu's daughter Mitsuko discovers this strange relationship and tries to end it. A very strange and kinky modern pink film from genre superstar Daisuke Goto.

S&M HUNTER
Wednesday, September 24, 11PM, Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar
Dir. Shuji Kataoka, 1986, Digibeta, 59 min, NR (Adults Only!)
An exercise in manga-style outrageousness that is guaranteed to offend everybody. The black clad S&M Roper is a kind of bondage super hero who has a supernatural genius for tying women up in configurations that leave them helplessly aroused. When the all girl gang, The Bombers, kidnap a man for their personal sex

Author and Pink Film expert Jasper Sharp will be in attendance at all screenings to introduce the films and will be signing copies of his book BEHIND THE PINK CURTAIN.

IMPORTANT FESTIVAL DATES:
Important dates have been announced for the 4thAnnual Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.

Thursday, August 21, 2008: Guests and juries announced
Thursday, September 4, 2008: Final content and schedule announced
Thursday, September 18, 2008: Festival begins
Saturday, September 20, 2008: 2009 Festival Badges go on sale

For more information about Fantastic Fest, please visit our official website.
Photo stills and press information about the festival is here.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL:
Fantastic Fest is an eight-day festival of the best n