Vampire Mockumentary ‘I Love Paris’ Takes Top Honors at 2026 Fantasia Film Festival Audience Awards
The French-Australian vampire mockumentary "I Love Paris," directed by Nicky Murphy, won the top audience award for best international feature at the 2026 Fantasia International Film Festival, while Masanao Kawajiri's "Cherry and Virgin" took the audience prize for best animated feature. The festival, held in Montreal from 16 July to 2 August, announced these audience choice winners after its juried awards had already been revealed, capping off one of the genre film world's most closely watched annual events.
Other notable audience award recipients included "Bruised Sky" (UK) for best international short, "Anymart" (Japan) for best Asian feature, and "The Last Jiangshi" for best Asian short. Canadian and Québécois productions were also honoured, with "Unholy Night" winning best Canadian feature and "Tight Lettuce" taking best Québec feature, while "The Seoul Guardians" from South Korea won best documentary.
- "I Love Paris" wins best international feature audience award at Fantasia
- Festival ran 16 July–2 August 2026 in Montreal
- Awards followed earlier juried prizes; multiple categories honoured
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I need Fantasia audience awards from 16 Jul – 2 Aug 2026, best animated feature 'Cherry and Virgin', French-Australian mockumentary. Genre film festival held in Montreal.
Fantasia Film Festival is one of the largest genre film festivals in the world, held annually in Montreal, showcasing horror, science fiction, fantasy and cult cinema from independent and international filmmakers. Alongside its main juried prizes, the festival runs audience choice awards, decided by the votes of people who actually attended screenings rather than by a panel of judges. These honours are seen as a measure of which films connected most with ordinary festival-goers.
The 2026 edition ran from 16 July to 2 August and featured entries from around the world, including France, Australia, Japan, the UK, Canada, Quebec and South Korea. A mockumentary is a fictional film shot in the style of a factual documentary, often for comic or satirical effect; combining that format with a vampire story places "I Love Paris" in a long tradition of genre films that blend horror with comedy. Winning best international feature at Fantasia is considered a significant boost for a smaller, independently produced film seeking wider distribution and attention.