Well, after five days of rigorous screenings, and countless sleepless nights, the festival’s 70+ films and shorts have been narrowed down to but a select few which have been chosen as winners for this year’s Fantastic Fest Awards!
Winning a Fantastic Fest award not only means your work has a better shot of surviving past the festival, but it also means that you as a filmmaker, are to be faced with a somewhat serious decision. Just because you’ve won an award, doesn’t necessarily mean you get to keep it. A time honored festival tradition dictates that possession of the award is ultimately dependent on your ability to chug a beer from said award, and for big winners like Simon Barrett who penned story for the film You’re Next (winner of 4 awards), this means quite a few pints! So be sure to keep an eye out for that guy as well as the film’s Director Adam Wingard in the future.
My favorite moment of the night came when Naboro Iguchi won the Fantastic Feature Best Director Award for his work in the better-than-Bay robo epic Karate-Robo Zaborgar. It is a film that has completely changed the way I view filmmaking, and proves that you can still make dazzling special effects based pictures with just a 3 million dollar budget. Unfortunately, Iguchi was unable to make the event, but the film’s Special Makeup FX Supervisor, and former Fantastic Fest Award winner Yoshihiro Nishimura was there to accept the award, as well as the free beer!
I was also pleased to see Alejandro Brugués win a runner up award for his hilariously invigorating Directing work in Juan de los Muertos (Juan of the Dead), a film which is easily one of the best zombie movies in years, and most certainly falls within my list of top 5 favorite films of the fest.
Check out the full list of winners below and be sure to keep a sharp eye out for their films over the next year:
AUDIENCE AWARD (Presented by Maxwell Locke & Ritter)
A Boy And His Samurai (Yoshihiro Nakamura)
Runners Up: You’re Next, Juan Of The Dead
AMD & DELL “NEXT WAVE” SPOTLIGHT COMPETITION
Best Picture – Bullhead
Best Director – Michael R. Roskam (Bullhead)
Best Screenplay – Josh MacDonald (The Corridor)
Best Actor – Matthias Schoenaerts (Bullhead)
Best Actress – Jessica Cole (Aardvark)
Special Jury Award for Boldness Of Vision: Beyond The Black Rainbow
HORROR FEATURES
Best Picture – You’re Next
Best Director – Adam Wingard (You’re Next)
Best Screenplay – Simon Barrett (You’re Next)
Best Actor – Sean Harris (A Lonely Place To Die)
Best Actress – Sharni Vinson (You’re Next)
FANTASTIC FEATURES
Best Picture – Milocrorze: A Love Story
Best Director – Noboru Iguchi (Karate Robo Zaborgar)
Best Screenplay – Olafur Egilsson, Grimur Haonarson (Summerland)
Best Actor – Julián Villagrán (Extraterrestrial)
Best Actress – Sawa Masaki (Underwater Love)
GUTBUSTER COMEDY FEATURES
Best Picture – Clown
Best Director – Steffen Haars, Flip Van Der Kuil (New Kids Turbo)
Best Screenplay – Casper Christensen, Frank Hvam (Clown)
SHORT FUSE: HORROR SHORTS
Winner: How To Rid Your Lover Of A Negative Emotion Caused By You (Nadia Litz)
Runner-up: The Unliving (Hugo Lilj)
Special Jury Award for Outstanding Achievement in Special Effects and General Badassery: Brutal Relax (David Muñoz, Rafa Dengrá, Adrián Cardona)
FANTASTIC SHORTS
Best Fantastic Short: Decapoda Shock (Javier Chillón)
Runner-up: All Men Are Called Robert (Marc-Henri Boulier)
Special Jury Mention for Acting: Robert Picardo (The Candidate)
DRAWN AND QUARTERED: ANIMATED SHORTS
Best Animated Short: Last Norwegian Troll (Pjotr Sapegin)
Runner-up: Lazarov (NIETOV)
