Since its inception in 1996, the festival holds its spot as the largest and most influential event of its kind in North America. The three-week festival is one of Canada’s most beloved film festivals and spotlights a fascinating maelstrom of genre films or “B movies”, many of which are low-budget commercial movies and receive less publicity.  This event offers a diverse programming that emphasizes the imaginative cinema that comes from regions such as Asia, Europe and the Americas. Fantasia’s flamboyant offerings range from powerful personal visions to international commercial crowd-pleasers, and many of the titles are rarely seen in North America.