SLASH Filmfestival Announces Full Lineup of 12th Edition

The SLASH Filmfestival, Austria's biggest and most popular destination for fantastic cinema, has announced the full lineup of its 12th edition, which is bookended by Julia Ducournau’s Titane on opening night and Valdimar Jóhannsson’s Lamb on closing night.

For eleven days straight (running from September 23 until October 3), the festival will be home to an eclectic range of the year’s most exciting genre cinema, including festival highlights such as Ben Wheatley’s In the Earth, Sion Sono’s Prisoners of the Ghostland, George A. Romero’s posthumous The Amusement Park, and Banjong Pisanthanakun’s spine-chilling The Medium.

Taking center stage amid current sensations is a celebration of all that came before with an expertly curated Folk Horror retrospective, courtesy of director and scholar Kier-La Janisse, whose Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched will also receive its Austrian premiere during this year’s SLASH.

SLASH is equally thrilled to continue championing short films with a two-part Fantastic Shorts competition that sees a total of 16 shorts vying for audience votes and the most popular short taking home a cash prize of 1000 EUR.

Highlights of Fantastic Shorts - Chapter I include Michael Shumway’s ode to living your best life, even in post-apocalyptic end times (The Last Queen on Earth), and the ultimate coping with COVID mental health fantasy (Girl With a Thermal Gun). Chapter 2 celebrates the value of artistic expression (Lucid) amid hauntings both literal (Trouble, Inheritance, Don’t Go Where I Can’t Find You) and more figurative (The Archivists, The Following Year).

The festival is pleased to premiere the works of more directors with breakout potential in two out-of-competition packages: Monochrome Madness - full of shorts that make functional use of their black-and-white aesthetic - and a sequel to last year’s Dark Delicacies, a collection of fantastic shorts that center on the strange intersection of passion, control and feeding, proving there’s truth to the German expression “love goes through the stomach”.

SLASH is proud to present the first of what will become an annual spotlight on filmmakers the festival believes have a very bright future ahead of them. This year's Fantastic Futures focus is on Joséphine Darcy Hopkins.

For more information about the festival’s feature film competition, events, and guests be sure to visit the official website.

Below you'll also find the short film trailer, created by editor and filmmaker Joana Gil-Rico.