Sitges 2010: BURIED Wins Prestigious Melies D'Or

Every year the European Federation of Fantastic Film Festivals gives a pair of awards - the Golden Melies - to the best European Fantastic Films of the year with one prize going to a feature and the other to a short. And it has just been announced that this year's prizes are going to Rodrigo Cortes' Buried and Chema Garcia Ibarra's The Attack of the Robots From Nebulon Five. Here's the official announcement:

BURIED wins the 2010 Méliès d'Or Award - Best European Fantastic Film

The 2010 Méliès d'Or Award - for Best European fantastic film went to BURIED a Spanish thriller starring Ryan Reynolds. The award was handed out at the Méliès d'Or award ceremony during the 43rd Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival in Spain on the evening of October 14th 2010, with director Rodrigo Cortés in attendance.

BURIED:
Paul Conroy is not ready to die. But when he wakes up 6 feet underground with no idea of who put him there or why, life for the truck driver and family man instantly becomes a hellish struggle for survival. Paul has only 90 minutes to be rescued before his worst nightmare comes true.

Previous Méliès d'Or winners include among others; Let The Right One In/Låt den Rätte Komma In by Tomas Alfredson (Sweden), Martyrs by Pascal Laugier (France), The Day of the Beast/El Dia de la Bestia by Alex de la Igelsias (Spain), The Nameless/Los sin Nombre by Juame Balagueró (Spain), Possessed/Besat by Anders Rönnow-Klarlund (Denmark), The Green Butchers/De Grönne Slagtere by Anders Thomas Jensen (Denmark), Princess by Anders Morgenthaler (Denmark), Adam's Apples/Adams Aebler by Anders Thomas Jensen (Denmark) as well as Code 46 by Michael Winterbottom (UK).

In existence since 1996, the Méliès d'Or Award is a unique competition: it is the only film competition organized between collaborating film festivals in Europe. The competition is open to both features and short films.

Nine European feature films competed for the 2010 Méliès d'Or - Best European Fantastic Film. These films have all won a Méliès d'Argent at one of the affiliated members of the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation during the 2010 cycle. The competing films were:

THE DOOR (Anno Saul, Germany, 2009)
Méliès d'Argent winner at Brussels Intl. Fantastic Film Festival (Belgium)

AMER (Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani, Belgium/France, 2009)
Méliès d'Argent winner at Espoo Ciné Intl. Film Festival (Finland)

HEARTLESS (Phillip Ridley, UK, 2009)
Méliès d'Argent winner at Fanomenon - Leeds Intl. Film Festival (United Kingdom)

THE CHILDREN (Tom Shankland, UK, 2008)
Méliès d'Argent winner at Trieste - Scienceplusfiction (Italy)

BURIED (Rodrigo Cortés, Spain, 2010)
Méliès d'Argent winner at Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival (France)

STRIGOI (Faye Jackson, UK, 2008)
Méliès d'Argent winner at Neuchâtel Intl. Fantastic Film Festival (Switzerland)

TRANSMISSION (Roland Vranik, Hungary, 2009)
Méliès d'Argent winner at Imagine: Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival (The Netherlands)

THE ECLIPSE (Conor McPhearson, Ireland, 2009)
Méliès d'Argent winner at Sitges Intl. Film Festival of Catalonia (Spain)

RED, WHITE & BLUE (Simon Rumley, UK, 2010)
Méliès d'Argent winner at Lund Intl. Fantastic Film Festival (Sweden)


PRESS RELEASE - 2010 Méliès d'Or Winner

The Short Film Méliès d'Or 2010 - Best European Fantastic Short Film went to:
EL ATAQUE DE LOS ROBOTS DE NEBULOSA 5 (Chema García Ibarra, Spain, 2008) THE ATTACK FROM THE ROBOTS FROM NEBULOSA 5

Short film nominee for a Méliès d'Or at Espoo Ciné Intl. Film Festival (Finland)
The Méliès d'Or Competition for features is organized by all the affiliated members of the Federation. Each competition cycle takes approximately one year and is organized in two stages. In the first stage, each participating festival organizes a competition during its event, at the end of which a European film is awarded with a Méliès d'Argent, a silver award. This film is automatically nominated to take part in the Méliès d'Or Competition. Once all the affiliated members have awarded their own Méliès d'Argent, a federation festival is appointed to host the Méliès d'Or Award Ceremony.

With the organization of a Méliès d'Or competition, the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation intends to highlight the quality and originality of European genre cinema and to guide, promote and support the production of the genre film in Europe and the world.

The European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation also sees itself as a solid network of festivals, facilitating the circulation of film and information between its members. Today counting 20 film festivals from 14 countries, including supporting members in Asia (PiFan) and North America (Fantasia, ScreamFest & Fantastic Fest), each one functioning as a national antenna to promote European genre film, the Federation aims to become an important, even essential, pole in the cultural and economic circuit of European fantastic cinema.

For a list of all the competing short films and information on the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation and the Méliès d'Or please visit www.melies.org