A fatal year for Fantasia

Fantasia organizers are having trouble believing it themselves: the immensely successful film event, which would have been seven years young, has been called off this summer. “We’re incredibly disappointed,” one of the event’s programmers, Mitch Davis, told the Mirror. “But we have no choice.”

Things started to look dire a couple of months ago, when the Imperial cinema’s air conditioning broke down. Because of the building’s age, the repairs will cost $300,000 and take several weeks. The building’s owners (who are in fact the organizers of the World Film Fest) stated that they wouldn’t be able to guarantee the venue for Fantasia. Rather than risk having to put their screenings on in smaller, inferior cinemas, organizers decided to call it a day until 2003.

“We’re going to come back, better than ever,” insists Davis. “Still, I can’t help but be very sad about our having to have made this call.” :

—Matthew Hays