MOTELX 2019: MIDSOMMAR, THE LODGE And Local Talent Lead First Wave Titles

MOTELX celebrates its 13th edition from 10 to 15 September with special guest Ari Aster, director of Hereditary and Midsommar

 

The Lisbon International Horror Film Festival returns to Cinema São Jorge from 10 to 15 September. MOTELX’s first Friday the 13th in its 13-year history and Alien’s 40th anniversary will be celebrated with special screenings, and the Festival welcomes Ari Aster for the Portuguese premiere of one of the year’s biggest independent releases, Midsommar. 

 

Lisbon, 16 July 2019: MOTELX – Lisbon International Horror Film Festival announced today the first highlights of its 2019 edition, one in which the mythical number 13 will take centre stage.

 

Headlining the first wave of confirmations is Ari Aster’s Midsommar, in what will be its Portuguese premiere. The instant pagan horror classic follows last year’s sensation, Hereditary, and currently stands as the biggest indie opening of the year in the United States. Rolling Stone named it “the scariest movie ever to be shot in blinding sunlight”. Aster will appear at the Festival to present his new film and a special screening of Hereditary. 

 

Other highlights include the return of the Soska sisters, also known as Twisted Twins, with a remake of the Cronenberg classic Rabid; John Andreas Andersen’s apocalyptic The Quake; The Lodge, by the directors of the acclaimed Goodnight Mommy; and Fatih Akin’s first horror film, The Golden Glove, a serial killer story which became one of the Berlinale’s talking points.

 

MOTELX 2019 brings the world premiere of Faz-me Companhia, a feature-length Portuguese horror movie by the young director Gonçalo Almeida, who won the MOTELX Award for Best Portuguese Short Film in 2017. The Portuguese-language offering also includes A Sombra do Pai, by the Brazilian director Gabriela Amaral Almeida, and two Portuguese slashers in the Lost Room section: “O Construtor de Anjos” (1978, Luís Noronha da Costa) and “Rasganço” (2001, Raquel Freire).

 

To celebrate the alignment of MOTELX’s 13th edition with its first ever Friday the 13th there will be a special screening of Friday the 13th, the 1980 cult movie which brought to the world the iconic Jason Vorhees and led to one of Hollywood’s biggest franchises. Alien fans will be pleased to celebrate its 40th anniversary with Memory: The Origins of Alien, a new documentary by Alexandre O. Philippe, and a special screening of Ridley Scott’s masterpiece with a restored 4K copy. 

 

Short films are at the heart of MOTELX. The MOTELX Award - Best Portuguese Horror Short Film / Méliès d’Argent returns, encouraging the national production of genre cinema with the biggest monetary prize awarded to short films in Portugal, €5,000, and a nomination to the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation’s Méliès d’Or. Meanwhile, director João Pedro Rodrigues (The Ornithologist, Phantom) curates and presents a special screening of Portuguese horror shorts, part of a carte blanche to Portuguese directors promoted by the Portuguese Short Film Agency as part of its 20th anniversary activities. 

 

The Big Bad Wolf programme will cater to the tastes of children and young people with a varied offering that ranges from animated features (The Little Vampire, Happy Family) to monster and movie-making workshops and the ever-popular Paper Chase Game through Cinema São Jorge's backstage rooms.

 

The programme of MOTELX’s 13th edition would not be complete without the many parallel events that run across the six days of the Festival. In addition to the legendary MOTELquiz, MOTELX will host two book launches: Profondo Nero, a title from the Dylan Dog comic series written by Dario Argento (Gfloy edition) and The King in Yellow, the forbidden book by Robert W. Chambers that inspired H. P. Lovecraft and the writers of True Detective. This year’s workshops include edible prop-making with rub-a-duckie studio, and there will be a special effects masterclass by NuBoyana Portugal, a team that worked in the post-production of Hellboy (2019). 

 

The MOTELX Warm-Up events will see parties, concerts and open-air screenings in some of Lisbon’s best-known locations and will take place on 5, 6 and 7 September. Further details will be announced next month, together with the Festival’s complete programme.