Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the United States, and it happens every September at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2005 by Tim League, the festival runs eight days and packs in more than 100 films — horror, sci-fi, fantasy, action, and the kind of weird international cinema that never gets a domestic distributor. If you are a geek who treats film as seriously as any other fandom, Fantastic Fest belongs on your calendar.
What Is Fantastic Fest?
Fantastic Fest launched out of the Alamo Drafthouse’s DNA — a love of weird movies, cold beer, and audiences who actually give a damn. Tim League built it from a small curated event into a globally recognized festival that draws filmmakers, distributors, critics, and obsessive fans from every continent. The programming team watches hundreds of submissions and selects titles that push genre boundaries rather than play it safe.
The South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse is the heart of the festival, with multiple screens running simultaneously from morning to midnight. Badge holders move between auditoriums, catch surprise shorts before features, and collide with directors in the lobby. It is not a red-carpet affair — it is a mosh pit for cinephiles, and that is the whole point.
For Austin’s geek community, Fantastic Fest is the film equivalent of what PAX is to gaming. It draws a crowd that understands genre deeply, argues about Giallo in line, and treats a late-night Japanese gore film with the same respect as an awards-season drama. You can find more of Austin’s geek calendar over at our Austin Geek Guide.
What Kind of Films Screen at Fantastic Fest
Horror anchors the lineup every year. Fantastic Fest has premiered films that went on to define the decade — The Witch, Hereditary, and The Raid all screened here before most of the country had heard of them. The programming skews international, pulling from South Korea, France, Spain, Argentina, and Japan with regularity.
Sci-fi and fantasy fill out the slate with both studio acquisitions and micro-budget independents. A film about a sentient deep-sea creature shares a day with a big-budget action import from Hong Kong. Cult cinema gets serious real estate too — retrospective screenings of grindhouse classics and 35mm prints of films that never got a proper theatrical run.
Documentary programming runs alongside the narrative features. Docs about underground artists, extreme athletes, and subculture communities show up because Fantastic Fest understands that real life is often stranger than horror fiction. Short film blocks give emerging filmmakers screen time between the features, and the quality bar is high.
The festival also runs Fantastic Arcade, a curated indie game showcase that brings the interactive side of genre storytelling into the same building as the films. It connects the festival to Austin’s broader geek ecosystem and gives game developers a platform inside one of the most respected genre festivals on earth.
Badges, Pricing, and How to Get In
Fantastic Fest runs a badge system, not individual ticket sales. The two main tiers are Fantastic Badgeholder and Premium. Fantastic Badgeholder gives you access to the general screening queue — you show up, you get in if seats are available. Premium bumps you to priority access for most screenings and guarantees you seats at a wider range of programming.
Badge prices change year to year, but Fantastic Badgeholder has historically landed in the $200–$300 range for the full festival run. Premium badges run higher and often sell out fast. Watch the official Fantastic Fest website and their social accounts — badges drop with limited warning and the desirable tiers disappear within hours.
The rush line is real. Even without a premium badge, showing up early to a screening puts you in line for unsold seats. The community around Fantastic Fest is knowledgeable about which films will sell out (anything from a known director, anything generating buzz on horror forums) and which screenings you can walk into without sweating.
If you are planning a full Texas convention and festival season, our Texas Con Calendar tracks Fantastic Fest alongside every other major geek event in the state.
The Alamo Drafthouse Experience
Fantastic Fest exists inside the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, and the venue shapes everything about how the festival feels. The Drafthouse model — food and drinks served to your seat throughout the film — means you are not rushing to concessions between screenings. You order a burger and a beer at 11 PM before a midnight horror film, and it arrives before the opening credits finish.
The theaters at South Lamar are designed for serious film watching. The screens are large, the sound systems are calibrated properly, and the Drafthouse enforces a strict no-talking and no-phone policy that the Fantastic Fest crowd does not need to be reminded about. These are people who flew from Berlin to see this movie — they are not here to scroll Instagram.
The lobby and bar area becomes a festival social hub. Filmmakers hang out between Q&As. Critics type up reviews at tables covered in empty glasses. Fans corner directors for conversation that goes deeper than a standard press junket allows. The Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar has the physical layout and the culture to make that kind of access feel natural rather than awkward.
Harry Knowles, the founder of Ain’t It Cool News, was part of the original Fantastic Fest DNA. Austin’s film criticism and fandom community grew up intertwined with the festival, and that history gives the event weight that newer festivals cannot manufacture.
Panels, Events, and Secret Screenings
Fantastic Fest programs events alongside the films, and the events are often where the most memorable festival moments happen. Director Q&As follow most screenings, and the questions from a Fantastic Fest audience are not softballs. These are fans who watched a filmmaker’s entire back catalog before flying to Austin.
Secret screenings are a genuine festival institution. Announced at the last minute with no title revealed, secret screenings draw the most dedicated badge holders — people willing to commit two hours to something unknown based purely on trust in the programmers. Past secret screenings have included world premieres of films that became genre touchstones.
The Bad Movie Night event takes a different angle, celebrating gloriously failed films with crowd participation energy borrowed from Rocky Horror. Fantastic Debates put critics and filmmakers on stage to argue about genre topics — whether a specific film is good, whether a subgenre is dead, whether a franchise deserves another entry. The debates get heated in the best way.
Fantastic Fest also connects to the Texas Halloween and horror convention circuit. If you come for the festival and want to extend your genre event calendar, Texas Frightmare Weekend in Dallas is the logical next stop — same audience, same love of practical effects and vintage horror. Check our full event guide at SXSW and Austin Events for the broader Austin festival landscape.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Fantastic Fest in Austin?
Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the United States, held annually at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2005 by Tim League, the festival focuses on horror, sci-fi, fantasy, action, and cult cinema from around the world. It draws filmmakers, distributors, critics, and dedicated genre fans for eight days of screenings, Q&As, and events.
When does Fantastic Fest take place?
Fantastic Fest runs every September, typically spanning eight days at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar on South Lamar Boulevard in Austin. The exact dates shift year to year, so checking the official Fantastic Fest website in late spring gives you the best lead time for planning travel and badge purchases. Austin’s September weather is still warm, so plan accordingly if you are attending outdoor events between screenings.
How much does a Fantastic Fest badge cost?
Fantastic Fest uses a badge system with two main tiers: Fantastic Badgeholder and Premium. Fantastic Badgeholder badges have historically priced in the $200–$300 range for the full eight-day festival. Premium badges offer priority access to more screenings and sell out faster, often within hours of going on sale. Badge sales open with limited advance notice, so following Fantastic Fest on social media is the best way to catch the drop.
What kind of movies screen at Fantastic Fest?
Fantastic Fest programs horror, sci-fi, fantasy, action, cult cinema, and international genre films across its eight-day run. The festival has premiered films like The Witch, Hereditary, and The Raid before wider release, and it consistently surfaces the best new horror and genre cinema from South Korea, France, Japan, Spain, and Argentina. Documentary programming, short film blocks, and retrospective screenings round out the slate.
Is Fantastic Fest related to the Alamo Drafthouse?
Yes — Fantastic Fest was founded by Tim League, who also founded the Alamo Drafthouse cinema chain, and the festival is hosted entirely at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar location in Austin. The Drafthouse’s food-and-drinks-to-your-seat model runs during festival screenings, and the venue’s culture of serious, respectful film watching aligns directly with Fantastic Fest’s audience. The two are deeply intertwined in Austin’s film and geek culture history.
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