The mammoth Fantasia Festival has come to an end and you know what that means: prizes! Who's getting the hardware this year? Ahem ...
Swedish vampire picture Let The Right One In was the clear winner, taking home the jury award for Best Picture while also netting nods for Best Director and Best Photography. A surprising - and VERY gratifying - choice was Miki Satoshi winning best script for Adrift In Tokyo while Rule of Three and Shadows in the Palace took home Best Actor and Actress, respectively, and the jury awarded a special prize to Adrift In Tokyo's duo of Jô Odagiri and Tomokazu Miura. In the First Features category Koen Mortier's Ex Drummer edged out Nacho Vigalondo's Time Crimes and John Bergin's From Inside, all three of which I truly adore.
Check out all the rest of the winners in the official announcement below the break!
Ubisoft presents Fantasia 2008
ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL EDITION OF FANTASIA
Montreal, Tuesday July 22nd, 2008 As the 12th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival draws to a close, the festival team is very proud to highlight the success of this year's cinematic celebration. The enthusiasm of Fantasia's audience translated into a record number of sold-out screenings and an increased involvement of the film fans in the festival.
The many high points of the festival included the red-carpet premiere of TRUFFE as the festival's opening film; the extremely popular premieres of HOME MOVIE, IDIOTS AND ANGELS, MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN, 4BIA, REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA, TOKYO GORE POLICE, LE TUEUR and WHO IS KK DOWNEY?, hosted by many members of their casts and crews; the 8 World Premieres and numerous
North-American Premieres; the 70 directors, producers, actors and other film industry members who came from the four corners of the globe to present their films to the legendary Fantasia audience; the first edition of the Fantastique Week-end du court-métrage québécois, which included a selection of conferences and staged events; the Fantasia à la belle étoile evenings at the Parc de la paix near the Société des Arts Technologiques (SAT); as well as the Kung Fu, Gangster, etc. exhibition at the Cinémathèque québécoise. This combination of events contributed to making Fantasia once again one of
Canada's most popular cinematic events.
We are also happy to announce that two films concluded distribution deals right after their screenings at Fantasia. After the two sold-out World Premiere screenings of HOME MOVIE, several bids were made on the film: IFC Entertainment acquired US rights for IFC's Festival Direct Video On Demand and DVD rights, and Anchor Bay picked the film up for Canadian DVD distribution. Also benefiting from two sold-out screenings for its Canadian Premiere, ADRIFT IN TOKYO was acquired for Canadian distribution by the new distribution company Evokative Films.
THE OFFICIAL JURY PRIZES OF THE 12TH EDITION OF THE FANTASIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
FEATURE FILMS OFFICIAL COMPETITION
The jury of the official Feature Films competition was presided by Pierre-François Legendre (Actor) and composed of John Anderson (Film Critic, Variety, Film Comment), Martin Bilodeau (Editor-in-Chief, Mediafilm.ca), Frédéric Ouellette (Scriptwriter), Podz (Director) and Jérôme Rougier (Acquisitions Executive and Theatrical Marketing Manager, Wild Bunch Distribution).
BEST FILM
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN - Tomas Alfredson (Sweden)
BEST DIRECTOR
Tomas Alfredson LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (Sweden)
BEST SCRIPT
Satoshi Miki ADRIFT IN TOKYO (Japn)
BEST PHOTOGRAPHY
Hoyte Van Hoytema LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (Sweden)
BEST ACTOR
Ben Siegler - RULE OF THREE (United-States)
SPECIAL MENTION OF THE JURY
The duo of actors composed of Jô Odagiri and Tomokazu Miura - ADRIFT IN
TOKYO (Japan)
BEST ACTRESS
Jin-hie Park SHADOWS IN THE PALACE (South Korea)
FIRST FILMS OFFICIAL COMPETITION
The jury of the official First Films competition was presided by Douglas Buck (Director) and composed of Maurice Devereaux (Director), Marianne Farley (Actress), Tim League (Director, Austin Fantastic Fest and Founder, Alamo Drafthouse Theatres) and Rafaël Ouellet (Director, Editor and Photography Director).
GOLD AWARD
EX-DRUMMER - Koen Mortier (Belgium)
SILVER AWARD
TIMECRIMES - Nacho Vigalondo (Spain)
BRONZE AWARD
FROM INSIDE - John Bergin (United-States)
INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILMS OFFICIAL COMPETITION
The jury of the official International Short Films competition was presided by Gerald Potterton (Director, Producer and Animator) and composed of Anna Feder (Director, Boston Underground Film Festival), Frédérick Durand (Autor, Journalist and Musician), Don May Jr. (President, Synapse Films) and Helen Faradji (Film Critic and Editor-in-Chief, 24IMAG).
BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT- Ex-Aequo
WITH A LITTLE PATIENCE - Laszlo Nemes (Hungary)
I LOVE SARAH JANE - Spencer Susser (Australia / United-States)
BEST ANIMATION SHORT
THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF MISTER HOLLOW - Rodrigo Gudiño et Vincent Marcone
(Canada)
SPECIAL MENTION FOR AN ANIMATION SHORT
YELLOW STICKY NOTES - Jeff Chiba Stearns (Canada)
QUEBEC SHORT FILMS OFFICIAL COMPETITION
The jury of the official Quebec Short Films competition was presided by Rémi-Pierre Paquin (Actor) and composed of Simon Beaudry (Artistic Director, BOS Agency), Louis-Philippe Hénault (Advertising and Music Video Director), Charlotte Laurier (Actor and Director), Kim Nguyen (Director) and We Are Wolves (Musicians).
BEST SHORT FILM
À MÈRE ET MARÉES Alain Fournier
BEST DIRECTION
Mathieu Denis CODE 13
BEST ACTING
Claude Despins PAPILLONS NOIRS
SPECIAL PRIZE OF THE JURY
LASTRONAUTE Christian Laurence
DIY QUEBEC OFFICIAL COMPETITION
The jury of the official DIY Quebec competition was presided by Yan England (Actor and Director) and composed of Eric Lavoie (Editor) and Claudine Sauvé (Photography Director).
BEST DIY FILM
1888 Simon Bérubé
BEST DIRECTION
Simon Lehembre CHEVEUX BLANC
SPECIAL PRIZE OF THE JURY
SUPERHUMAN Dagan Taylor
PUBLICS PRIZES
As it has now become tradition, Fantasias audience had the chance to vote for its favourites of the fest.
BEST ASIAN FILM
Gold TOKYO GORE POLICE - Yoshihiro Nishimura - Japan
Silver - SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO - Takashi Miike - Japan
Bronze - 4BIA - Youngyooth Thongkonthun, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Parkpoom
Wongpoom, Paween Purikitpanya Thailand
BEST EUROPEAN, NORTH OR SOUTH AMERICAN FILM
Gold - LET THE RIGHT ONE IN - Tomas Alfredson Sweden
Silver [REC] - Jaume Balagueró et Paco Plaza Spain
Bronze Ex-equo
PIG HUNT - James Isaac United-States
MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN - Ryuhei Kitamura United-States
BEST ANIMATION FILM
Gold IDIOTS AND ANGELS Bill Plympton United-States
MOST INNOVATIVE FILM
Gold REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA Darren Lynn Bousman United-States
Silver [REC] - Jaume Balagueró et Paco Plaza Spain
Bronze LA ANTENA - Esteban Sapir Argentina
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Gold I THINK WERE ALONE NOW - Sean Donnelly États-Unis
BEST SHORT-FILM
Gold TREEVENGE - Jason Eisener Canada
Silver SUPERHUMAN - Dagan Taylor Quebec
Bronze ROJO RED - Juan Manuel Betancourt - Colombia
SÉQUENCE AWARD
The Séquences Award jury, composed of Dominique Bouchard, Pascal Grenier and Ismaël Houdassine, unaimously decided to award the prize to THE SPARROW by Johnnie To.
LÉCRAN FANTASTIQUE AWARD
The LÉcran Fantastique Award was attributed to the film VIKAREN (THE SUBSTITUTE) by Ole Bornedal.
the sponsors and partners of the 12TH EDITION OF THE FANTASIA INTERNATIONAL
FILM FESTIVAL
This 12th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival would not have
been possible without the support of its sponsors, partners and advertisers.
We would particularly like to highlight the contribution of presenting and
associate sponsors Ubisoft, Sympatico.MSN, Films Séville and Pepsi Diète
Max. We would also like to thank our partner sponsors HMV, Burger King,
SuperClub Vidéotron, Anchor Bay, Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office
(Canada), Magra Multi Média, Entreprise Vidéo Service, Concept Audio Visuel,
Société des Arts Technologiques (SAT), GURU Boisson Énergie, Les Brasseries
McAuslan, Manhattan Portage, Alliance Films, CV Films, Soundbeat Radio,
Exclaim!, le Festival international danimation dOttawa, Irish Embassy, Le
Réseau Admission, CBS Affichage, MusiquePlus, Z Télé and CJLO.
The success of thge 2008 edition of Fantasia also rested in the financial
support of the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC),
ministère des Affaires municipales et des Régions, Tourisme Québec and Ville
de Montréal.