Eye Candy

Austin, Texas' Fantastic Fest is one of a number of North American and European film festivals that I've long considered to be the hallowed epicentres of genre fandom. I don't know if I'll ever make it to a Sitges, FrightFest, Fantasia, Midnight Madness, Toronto After Dark or Fantastic Fest, but I do know that as I read the programs for these legendary events each year I'll be filled with envy (and the usual longing for a bank account with more than three figures in it).

It's not all painful blue balls and a drool covered keyboard though, because every year Fantastic Fest does give me one thing that I can really appreciate... a nifty poster. Be it Kaiju, Cthulhu or tentacled alien demons, each year's poster is guaranteed to make me peer closely at my laptop screen and murmur "rad" under my breath.

I love the continuing motif of the cyclopean eye, but that in every other way each design is completely distinct from the others, both in illustrative style and palette. My favourite up to this point was the '09 poster featuring a very fucked up looking psychedelic demon... but I think this year's Mayan apocalypse design is the coolest yet.

Here's every FF poster going back to 2006, just in case you missed any. I couldn't find one for '05, the fest's inaugural year. Apologies to the artists for the lack of credits, it's late and I can't be bothered doing the research.