NIFFF 2008 - Winners Announced - Sleep Dealer Takes Top Prize

I imagine Michael Guillen should be smiling with this announcement that Alex Rivera's film Sleep Dealer has taken the top prize out here at the 8th Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival. The jury headed by Joe Dante also handed out two special mentions to Let the Right One In and Tokyo!. Despite everything I had read, Tokyo!, exceeded all my dour anthology expectations and to me completely raised the bar on what a great one could be. The Méliès top award went to Let the Right One In, which effectively fuses the childhood bully tale within a vampire framework to offer up a new haunting and equally satisfying journey unlike anything you've experienced. The top Swiss short award went to Pascal Forney's Vincent, le Magnifique, which dazzled audiences and me included, with its dark comedy charm and outlandish bloody magician tale. The Méliès short winner went to Scary, which told the tale of a couple who each keep trying to out scare the other, with results that would make the Coen Brothers laugh. The audience award went to Stephen Chow's CJ7, which more than found a loving home in this lush Swiss lakeside village, with audiences young and old singing its praises.

FULL LIST OF NIFFF 2008 WINNERS:

Prix H.R. Giger « Narcisse » du meilleur film: Sleep Dealer de Alex Rivera (USA/Mexique)
Mention spécial du Jury à Let the Right One in de Tomas Alfredson (Suède) et à Tokyo! de Bong Joon-ho, Leos Carax et Michel Gondry (France/Japon/Allemagne/Corée du Sud)
Méliès d’argent du meilleur long-métrage européen: Let the Right One in de Tomas Alfredson (Suède)
Prix H.R. Giger «Narcisse » du meilleur court-métrage suisse: Vincent le Magnifique de Pascal Forney
Nomination au Méliès d’or du meilleur court-métrage européen: Scary de Martijn Hullegie (Pays-Bas)
Prix H.R. Giger « Narcisse » de la meilleure vidéo d’art: The Counterfeiters de Katia Bassanini
Prix TSR du Public: CJ7 de Stephen Chow (Hong-Kong)
Prix Mad Movies: Om Shanti Om de Farha Khan (Inde)
Prix de la jeunesse: Let the Right One in de Tomas Alfredson (Suède)
Prix Titra Film: Tokyo! de Bong Joon-ho, Leos Carax et Michel Gondry (France/Japon/Allemagne/Corée du Sud)