Unless you like sleep, because I’m filling my evenings with fantastic cinema for the next 10 days. The Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival (AFFF) has started and to celebrate it’s 25th anniversary (or for whatever unfathomable reason) is has been rebranded to Imagine. Personally, I feel that “Imagine” doesn’t convey what the festival is as well as “Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival”. But then again, most people misunderstood the “fantastic” part anyway, so maybe it’s for the better.

Another strange change is the selection of films that will be shown this year. More than half of it is horror, a return to a program that you might have seen a decade ago at this festival. Personally, I don’t mind. But it do seem to break away from the policy they chose in the past few years, trying to draw in a public that’s interested in fantastic film in general, not just horror. I would have liked to see a little more anime and fantasy, but we’ll make do with tons of horror and some nice sci-fi.

Watch this space for reviews!