Operation Avalanche
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Fantasia Festival, we present a film series in the image of this now-unmissable event: eclectic and exhilarating. These works, which have shaped the festival’s history over the years, reflect the variety of its programming – from cult classics to hidden gems, from masters of genre cinema to the audacious fringes of arthouse film, charting a fantastic journey across eras, styles, and cultures.
The films presented in September will be announced in August.
CIA agents go undercover at NASA to investigate whether a Russian spy is operating there. They then decide to stage a moon landing. A daring mockumentary that brilliantly recreates the visual style of the 1960s, Operaton Avalanche portrays the first trip to the moon as a monumental hoax orchestrated by the intelligence agencies.
Matt Johnson
Matt Johnson is a Canadian director, writer, producer, and actor. He first attracted accolades for his low-budget independent feature films, including The Dirties (2013), which won Best Narrative Feature at the Slamdance Film Festival, and Operation Avalanche (2016). He achieved acclaim and commercial success with his third feature film, BlackBerry (2023), which follows the rise and fall of the famous phone. The film premiered in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, and went on to win several awards including the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award from the Toronto Film Critics Association and a record-setting 14 Canadian Screen Awards from 17 nominations. Johnson is also known for directing, co-creating and co-starring with Jay McCarrol in the 2007-2009 docufiction sitcom web series Nirvana the Band the Show, its 2017-2018 television adaptation, and the 2025 feature film Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie.
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