The unlucky numbered 13th edition of the Fantasia Film Festival turned out to be a lucky year after all. With it’s diverse line-up of high selection standards, the festival attracted more than 90 000 fans this year and saw 40% of its 195 screenings completely sold out.
With such eminent titles that had previously premiered at Cannes such as THIRST from South Korea’s Park Chan-wook, LASCARS from the French creative team of Emmanuel Klotz and Albert Pereira Lazaro and of course Quentin Tarantino’s INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, and wonderful discoveries such as SANS DESSEIN from Quebec’s own Deadcat Films, Yang Ik-june’s BREATHLESS and Nicolas Alberny and Jean Mach’s 8th WONDERLAND, Fantasia has one again demonstrated the energy and variety of genre cinema. Of course, we can’t think back on this year’s festival without mentioning the extravagant Sion Sono’s LOVE EXPOSURE, the experimental À QUELLE HEURE LE TRAIN POUR NULLE PART from Robin Aubert, the metaphysical Kanji Nakajima’s THE CLONE RETURNS HOME, as well as several American indie films, to name a few Dominic Murphy’s WHITE LIGHTNIN’ and David Russo’s THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF LITTLE DIZZLE.
The special screening of INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS hosted by actor Eli Roth concluded this remarkable 13th edition brimming with such great moments as the celebration of 100 years of Hong Kong cinema, the exciting midnight screening of Lee Demarbre’s SMASH CUT with Sasha Grey in attendance, and the well deserved bestowing of a Lifetime Achievement Award to José Mojica Marins (alias Coffin Joe).
Here is the list of the prizes handed out at this years Fantasia Film Festival.
Jury Prizes – Feature Films
Best Feature Film: BREATHLESS – Yang Ik-june
Jury Special Prize: LOVE EXPOSURE – Sion Sono
Best Male Performance: YANG IK-JUNE (Breathless)
Best Female Performance: HIKARI MITSUSHIMA (Love Exposure)
Best Director: DAVID RUSSO (The Immaculate Conception of Little
Dizzle)
Best Screenplay: NICOLAS ALBERNY & JEAN MACH (8th Wonderland)
Best Cinematography: HIDEHO URATA (The Clone Returns home)
Technical prize: IP MAN
Special mention for best Direction of Child Actors: TOM SHANKLAND (The
Children)
Jury Prizes – First features
Best First Feature: WHITE LIGHTNIN’ – Dominic Murphy
Special mention: Debut performance of actor ELINE KUPPENS (Left Bank)
Jury Prizes – International Short Films
Best Live-Action Short Film: HOLD YOUR FIRE – Wes Benscoter
Best Animated Short: THE CONTROL MASTER – Run Wrake