Fantasia Wraps Up and Mind Game Cleans Up.

The Fantasia Festival has come to an end - not to worry, we've still got a few more reviews coming in - which means that it's time to give out the awards and the big winner was Yuasa Masaaki's Mind Game, a film we've been talking up here for quite a while now. Mind Game took the Fantasia awards for best film, best director (shared with Survive Style 5), best script and a special award for visual accomplishment. Best cinematography went to The Taste of Tea, best actor to Choi Min Shik for Crying Fist, and best actress to Kate Greenhouse for The Dark Hours. The Dark Hours, incidentally, just received the best film award at PiFan ... I'm told there will be a new trailer for that one within a matter of days and you'll see it here as soon as it surfaces.

Read on for the complete list of winners in all the Fantasia awards categories ...

Official award list of the 9th edition of the Fantasia International Genre Film Festival:

Best film:
Mind Game (Japan, Yuasa Masaaki)

Best director: Ex æquo
Gen Sekiguchi - Survive Style 5 + (Japan)
Yuasa Masaaki - Mind Game (Japan)

Best script:
Yuasa Masaaki - Mind Game (Japan)
Best cinematography:
Kosuke Matushima -The Taste of Tea (Japan)

Best actor:
Choi Min-sik – Crying Fist (South Korea)

Best actress:
Kate Greenhouse – Dark Hours (Canada)

Special Award – Visual Accomplishment:
Yuasa Masaaki - Mind Game (Japan)

Séquences Award – 50th anniversary

On its 50th anniversary, Séquences associates itself with the team of the Fantasia International Genre Film Festival by creating the Séquences Award for the best film amongst the Asian selections. Mr. Élie Castiel, editor-in-chief of Séquences, was the president of the jury for this prize. The journalists Luc Chaput and Alain Vézina were the members of this jury.

Best Asian Film
Shutter
(Thailand, Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom.)

Even if this film takes back many graphic elements of the Asian horror cinema new wave, its telling manages to captivate with a progressive intrusion of the supernatural in the characters’ universe. This film proposes that horror buffs should now look towards Thailand, instead of Japan, to satisfy their need to get goosebumps.

Special Mention
One Nite in Monkong
(Hong Kong, Derek Yee)

An intimist thriller which lingers on the humanity of its characters, instead of on the stylized violence. A fascinating path for the Hong Kong cinema to follow in these coming years.

Special Mention - Guilty Pleasure
Godzilla: Final Wars
(Japon, Ryuhei Kitamura)

A totally crazy, riotous, great film, with no time out, that doesn’t care about being intelligent, whilst still taking itself seriously. This film is a visual and sonorous orgy, that seduced the jury with its innocence, something that is essential, but that is growing rare in cinema.
The L’Écran Fantastique Award – Fantasia 2005

In the 9th edition of Fantasia International Genre Film Festival, the L’Écran Fantastique Award is awarded to the Japanese film Survive Style 5+, from the director Gen Sekiguchi, screenplay by Taku Tada. With its eccentric scenes and an inventive storyline, which wonderfully mix pure fantasy, freaky comedy and subversive surrealism, this film is a cinematic gem. The L’Écran Fantastique Award also recognizes the incredible performances by actors Tadanobu Asano (Ichi the killer), Hiroshi Abe (Godzilla 2000), Vinnie Jones (Snatch, bientôt X-Men 3) et Yoshi Yoshi Arakawa (Ping Pong), all amazing in their crazy roles.

The L'Écran Fantastique Award acknowledges fantasy, horror or science-fiction feature films produced in 2004 or 2005 and presented during the Fantasia Festival. The prize is comprised of a 6 color-pages article in the coming edition of the magazine, along with a free full-page publicity when the film is released in theatres or on video in France. L'Écran Fantastique, which has existed for more than 35 years, has a monthly print run of 98,000 copies and is distributed in the following territories: France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Canada (Quebec), Morocco and Germany. Its head office is in Paris, the editor-in-chief is Alain Schlockoff and its Canada correspondant is Yves Rivard. L'Écran Fantastique differentiates itself with its high standards in editing and its high-quality visual presentation.

Every year, the members of Fantasia’s audience are asked to express themselves on their favorite films of the edition’s programming. Here are the winners of the Fantasia People’s Choice Awards 2005:

Best Asian Film
Gold Fantasia: Ex æquo
Survive Style 5 + (Gen Sekiguchi, Japan, 2004)
Taste of Tea (Katsuhito Ishii, Japan, 2004)
Silver Fantasia:
Crying Fist (Ryoo Seung-wan, South Korea, 2005)

Bronze Fantasia: Ex æquo
Arahan (Ryoo Seung-wan, South Ko, 2004)
Godzilla – Final Wars (Ryuhei Kitamura, Japan 2005)

Best European / North-South American Film
Gold Fantasia: Ex aequo
El Lobo (Miguel Courtois, Spain, 2005)
Trouble (Harry Cleven, Belgium/France, 2004)
Silver Fantasia:
Devil’s Rejects (Rob Zombie, U.S., 2005)
Bronze Fantasia:
Night of the Living Dorks (Matthias Dinter, Germany, 2004)

Best Animation Film
Gold Fantasia:
Mind Game (Yuasa Masaaki, Japan, 2004)
Silver Fantasia:
A Place Promised in Our Early Days (Makoto Shinkai, Japan, 2005)
Bronze Fantasia:
Live Freaky! Die Freaky! (John Roecker, U.S., 2004)

Most Groundbreaking Film
Gold Fantasia:
Survive Style 5 + (Gen Sekiguchi, Japan, 2004)
Silver Fantasia:
Mind Game (Yuasa Masaaki, Japan, 2004)
Bronze Fantasia:
Taste of Tea (Katsuhito Ishii, Japan, 2004)

Best Short Film
Gold Fantasia:
Kakurenbo (Shuhei Morita, Japan, 2005)
Silver Fantasia:
Flat Life (Jonas Geirnaert, Belgium, 2004)
Bronze Fantasia:
Redrat: La Rata Retobada (Guillermo Kloetzer, Uruguay, 2004 )