This year's Imagine Film Festival Amsterdam had an extraordinary fine line-up of genre movies, resulting in an audience appreciation which was considerably higher than in other years. Films compete at the festival for the SyFy Silver Scream Award, based on audience ratings, and I remember previous editions of the festival where films were slaughtered and booed, and the rating cards weren't so much torn, as totally ripped in half over the lowest possible score. Not so this year, where almost every film got a pretty decent rating from Joe Public. One screening even broke records, but more about that later.
The Imagine Festival is always pretty open about its audience ratings, and you can see the whole list on their website. Note that there are many films on there that we at ScreenAnarchy liked a lot, but still ended up in the bottom half of the festival. This doesn't mean these films were apparently not so good, instead it is a testament of just how many crowdpleasers there were this year in the program. Kudos to the festival programmers of course, and it also says something about the amount of good genre films, out currently in the festival circuit.
Here is a closer look at the top 15 highest rated films in the list, and ending up on it proved to be no mean feat this year.
After several historical locations with grotesque, crumbling or grotty charm, the Imagine Film Festival Amsterdam settled last year in the brand new, almost too-clean Eye building. Thankfully this hasn't changed the festival into a hipster party, as it takes more to scare off the hardcore visitors than wide open spaces and increased accessibility. The atmosphere is still there, you're just not constantly wondering anymore how quickly you'd be trampled to death if someone yells "Fire!"
Voting is done through cards everyone receives at the entrance of each screening, and you vote by tearing the card a little at the rating of your choice. A score of one means hopeless, two is bad, three is mediocre, four is good, and a score of five means excellent. All ratings are counted, and the averages stretched to fit a scale of ten.
Ratings are often brutal at Imagine Festival, its audience known for being outspoken and unforgiving. That means a high rating here is nothing to be sneezed at, so flip through the next slides to see the top 15 highest rated films of this year's Imagine Film Festival.
15: Beauty and the Beast (7.8)
The opening film of the festival proved to be a hit with the audience, and is currently a successful wide release in The Netherlands. Looking at who plays the beauty and who plays the beast, you'd imagine not much effects would be needed, but Christophe Gans has pulled open all registers here.
Shelagh loved the look but had issues with the story, and you can read her review here.
14: Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon 3D (7.9)
This film was arguably the most fun I've had in cinemas in months. It is ridiculous beyond belief, but also sumptuous and wild. Give Tsui Hark a new toy (3D in this case) and rest assured he'll do something special with it. This film easily beats the last three Pirates of the Caribbean films, and would do that even with two arms tied behind its back. Review coming up soon!
13: Why Don't You Play in Hell? (7.9)
Sion Sono is back in batshit-crazy mode, and we all love him for that. Why Don't You Play in Hell? takes the vile specter of reality television and pushes it past its breaking point.
12: The Zero Theorem (7.9)
Not everyone is a big fan of Terry Gilliam's latest, but it played surprisingly well at Amsterdam. Terry Gilliam and the Imagine Festival, including its audience, have always been big friends though, and as far as I know every film of his has been well-received here, even those less liked in other corners of the world.
Our Patrick Holzapfel liked it, but had problems with it when he saw the film in Venice.
11: Patema Inverted (8.0)
The Imagine Festival is one of the few events in The Netherlands which allows you to see Japanese animation in a theater, so rest assured the fans flocked to Amsterdam. The story of two gravity-crossed young lovers holding on for love and dear life, Patema Inverted was very well received.
9: Filth (8.1)
A corrupt cop played by James McAvoy screws, snorts, cheats and deceits himself to the top. And this happens in such a hilarious fashion, that this adaptation of Irvine Welsh' novel lands at the ninth place of this festival. Haven't seen it yet, but I'm definitely planning to!
8: The Pool (8.2)
Strong word of mouth and strong reviews accompany this Dutch horror-thriller. Two families camp near a forest pond on their holiday, but a malignant force makes them succumb to rot and insanity. Expect a review soon...
7: The Wind Rises (8.2)
Whether it's really Hayao Miyazaki's last feature as a director or not, The Wind Rises was of course THE anime to watch at this festival. And the old master did not disappoint, basically showing all his strong sides and non-apologetically his weaker ones as well. As a love story, this couldn't be any simpler, banal even. As a question on whether everything should sometimes be sacrificed for your talent, including the lives of many others, it's a masterpiece. Miyazaki confronts us with his hopes, successes and doubts, and maybe even with the reasons for him to stop.
Christopher O'Keeffe reviewed the film and was stunned by it.
6: Wu Xia (8.3)
This film was a bit of an odd-one-out, considering its age. In most countries, Peter Chan's historical martial arts detective thriller is already available on DVD, either under its own name or under the hopelessly generic moniker Dragon. But in The Netherlands we hadn't seen it yet, and the audiences loved it to bits.
Hugo called it gorgeous and glorious when he saw it three years ago, and indeed urged everyone to go see it on a big screen. So, well done Imagine!
5: Coherence (8.3)
This film belongs to the Primer subgenre of science-fiction-for-which-you-need-a-bloody-flipchart, so you might think it wouldn't be much of an audience darling. Coherence did pretty damn good in Amsterdam, though, although in another world it probably didn't? Ehm...
4: La Danza de la Realidad (8.5)
Alejandro Jodorowsky received a lifetime achievement award at this year's Imagine Festival, and though he had to cancel his planned visit, audiences could see his hallucinogenic and highly autobiographical film La Danza de la Realidad.
3: Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (8.9)
What works best against an army of organized Nazi zombies? Allied Forces zombies of course! The few surviving members of the first film are hunted by their almost indestructible German foes, but they manage to get Russian undead to join the fray. With hilariously bloody results, and the audiences in Amsterdam loved it.
2: The Raid 2: Berandal (9.2)
Two years ago, the first The Raid won the audience award at the Imagine Festival, so expectations were high for its sequel, especially since all reviews coming from the US were glowing.
Ryland reviewed it at Sundance and called it the most epic martial arts action film ever made.
Also, because of the colonial past of The Netherlands, there are a lot of people with Indonesian roots living here, and they turned up in droves. Thankfully The Raid 2: Berandal did not disappoint, and ended with almost the exact same score as its predecessor. Which in all other years would have made it win the festival again, but...
1: Jodorowski's Dune (9.3)
For a while it looked like the award winning documentary would end in second place, but its last screening was part of a fantastic double-bill with a 70mm print of David Lynch's Dune. Have I mentioned already I love this festival? A better fit with its intended audience could not be expected, as the whole venue was filled with fans of Herbert's book, Lynch's film, and the whole Dune mythology. This particular screening got the highest individual rating in the history of the Imagine Festival, and combined with the other stellar scored screenings this pocketed the film yet another audience prize: the SyFy Silver Scream Award!