The Fantasia Film Festival is officially over and we here at Sound On Sight will always remember it as the year of brilliant first time features with the likes of Bellflower, Absentia, Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark, You Are Here, Beyond The Black Rainbow, Attack The Block and Retreat, to name a few. The final audience numbers are yet to be confirmed, but Fantasia estimates it has welcomed more than 100,000 audience members in the past three and a half weeks. 150 international directors, actors and producers came to present their films and we had a great time meeting new faces and drinking the nights away with some of the filmmakers. I can’t stress how fun the festival is and highly I recommend our international readers who love genre cinema to one day travel here to Montreal, and check it out.
This year’s fest opened big with the Canadian premiere of Red State by director Kevin Smith. This was only the first in a long line of sensational special events that took place over the course of the festival including the homage to the John Landis (American Werewolf In London), marked by the presentation of Fantasia’s new trophy “Le Cheval Noir.” It’s not everyday I have a chance to meet Mr. Landis but I was fonruntate enough to sit down with him for about an hour and discuss his newest film Burke And Hare, as well as talk about the film industry in general.
Mirroring the strong launch, the festival closed with the Canadian premiere of Guillermo del Toro’s Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark. Unfortuantely Del Toro was forced to cancel his trip here at the last minute, but was kind enough to send us a video introduction for the screening.
The 15th anniversary programming featured more than 85% of premieres (114 out of a total of 134 feaures). Among this impressive selection from more than 25 different countries were 19 world premieres, including Chris Sivertson’s Brawler, Carl Tibbetts’ Retreat, Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Tree, the hotly anticipated 7-filmmaker/4-country omnibus film The Theatre Bizarre, Steven Quale’s Final Destination 5, Filip Tegstedt’s Marianne, Yudai Yamaguchi’s Deadball and Jesse T. Cook’s Monster Brawl.
The festive atmosphere of Fantasia’s 15th edition will live on for several directors whose films were picked up at the festival. Jason and Brandon Trost are celebrating their new deal with Drafthouse Films (an affiliate of the Alamo Drafthouse chain of cinemas) for the distribution of The FP. Pat Tremblay, the Montreal filmmaker of Hellacious Acres: The Case of John Glass, is also celebrating his new contract for a theatrical, DVD and VOD release in the United States with The Collective and Bloody Disgusting Selects. Several other titles launched at the festival are currently in negotiations for acquisition.
The juries have finished deliberating on this year’s competitions and have announced the following winners: Their tastes seem to differ than ours, but I do stand by many of their picks especially Clown and Milocroraze: A Love Story. To see our staff’s picks, here over to this link. In the meantime, here are the winners from this year’s festival.
From the press release:
Feature Film Jury
President: Alexandre Franchi, with Gilles Esposito, Lee Joon-ik, George Mihalka, Steven Schneider and Tom Vick
Cheval Noir Award for Best Film: Clown by Mikkel Nørgaard
“This charmingly subversive take on fatherhood features excellent ensemble acting with deft and seamless direction. So wrong and shameless in so many ways that it was a real blast to watch.”
Best Director: Yoshimasa Ishibashi, Milocrorze: A Love Story
Best Screenplay: Park Hoon-jung, The Unjust
Best Actors: Hwang Jeong-min and Ryoo Seung-beom, The Unjust
Best Actress: Norie Yasui, Love & Loathing & Lulu & Ayano
Special Mention to Vampire, “for its original and contemplative take on suicide and our society’s fascination with the vampire myth.”
Special Mention to the short film I Love You in The Theatre Bizarre, “for crafting a realistic yet macabre drama with the density of a feature film.”
First Feature Jury
President: Jason Eisener, with Jephté Bastien, Alexandre Fontaine-Rousseau and Greg Newman
New Flesh Award for Best First Feature: Bullhead by Michaël R. Roskam
“A compelling, dark story of personal tragedy with one of the best performances of the year by Matthias Schoenaerts. This is a film that has balls!”
Special Mention to Love, “for the resourcefulness and unwavering determination by a Director to realize his unique vision”.
Animation Jury
President: Marcel Jean, with Jean-François Lévesque and Heidi Taillefer
Best Animated Feature Film: Surviving Life
“A singular piece of work, both funny and profound, that shows a great spirit of invention for a filmmaker with a 40-years career.”
Best Animated Short Film: Bobby Yeah
“For its dense and coherent universe, full of surprises, that confronts our fears in a captivating way, and for its exceptional technical command.”
Special Mention to Crépuscule, “For its bold address of sexuality in animation.”
International Short Film Jury
President: Buddy Giovinazzo, with John Fallon, Sylvain Houde and Charlotte Selb
Best International Short: The Suicide Tapes
“A minimalistic, powerful, dread filled film with an unsettling performance by Jeremy Childs.”
Special Mention to The Unliving, “A visually stunning and visceral film that was so well rounded that it should be a feature.”
Quebecois Short Film Jury
Catherine Beauchamp, Dino Tavarone, Caroline Morin
best Director: alexandre richard, Bonne Journée
Best Film: Carolyne Rhéaume, La Barricade
Best Actress: Charlotte Laurier, Coup Sauvage
Best Actor: Mathieu Dufresne, Bonne Journée
Best Screenplay: Caroline Renaud, Maternel
Jury’s Choice: Kim St-Pierre, Vodka Canneberge
Best Photo: Eric Morin, Opasatika
Quebecois DIY Short Film Jury
Julie Brisson, Karl Filion, Géraldine Charbonneau
Best Film: Fuck That, Lawrence Côté-Collins
Best Screenplay: Corte, Radnath Gagnon
Best Director: Emanuel St-Pierre Beaulieu, Un Film Avec Brigitte Bardot
Best Actor (Male & Female): Maxime Desjardins, Gueule De Bois
Jury’s Choice: Vivre A 35 milles A L’heure, Jean Marc E. Roy, Philippe David Gagné, Dominic Leclerc
AQCC Prize – International Section
Martin Gignac, Claudia Hébert, Nicolas Krief
AQCC Prize: (TIE) Super and Superheroes
“For two films that perfectly capture the Zeitgeist of our age and that present elaborate reflections on one of the biggest Americans trends, the AQCC Jury has awarded its best international film prize, in a tie, to the fiction film Super by James Gunn and to the documentary Superheroes by Michael Burnett, two strong and complementary works.”
Séquences Prize – Asian Section
President: Pascal Grenier, with Pierre-Alexandre Fradet and Christina Stojanova
Séquences Prize: Heaven’s story
“For the density of the universal themes it explores, for its singular approach to the motif of vengeance and for its structured mise-en-scène and its carefully captured images, the Séquence Prize for Best Asian Film goes to Takahisa Zeze’s flowing film, Heaven’s Story
L’Écran Fantastique Prize
Yves Rivard
L’Écran Fantastique Prize: Detention
“For its contagious energy, its capacity to generate gags and comic situations based on concepts stemming from horror movies (slasher films) and science fiction.”
Audience Awards
Best Asian Feature:
(GOLD, TIE) 13 Assassins and Cold Fish –
(SILVER) Milocrorze: A Love Story –
(BRONZE) Don’t Go Breaking My Heart
Best European or American Feature:
(GOLD) Attack the block –
(SILVER, TIE) Burke and Hare and Bellflower –
(BRONZE) Innkeepers
Best Canadian or Quebecois Feature:
(GOLD) The Corridor
(SILVER) Vampire
(BRONZE, TIE) Monster Brawl and The Divide
Best Animation Feature:
(GOLD) Redline –
(SILVER) Legend Of The Millenium Dragon
(BRONZE) El sol
Best Documentary:
(GOLD) Art/Crime
(SILVER) Superheroes
(BRONZE) Last days here
Most Innovative Feature:
(GOLD) Milocrorze: A Love Story
(SILVER) The Woman –
(BRONZE) Love
Guru Prize for the Most Energetic Feature:
(Gold) Bangkok Knockout
(SILVER, TIE) Milocrorze: A Love Story and Detention
(BRONZE) The FP
Best Short Film:
(GOLD) Legend of the Beaver Dam
(SILVER) Night Fishing
(BRONZE) Bobby Yeah