PiFan 2014: Three Awards For DEAD SNOW 2 As THE DARK VALLEY Takes Top Prize

Pierce Conran, Contributor; Seoul, South Korea (@pierceconran)

Team ScreenAnarchy is very sad that PiFan is over for this year as it was another terrific edition featuring a great lineup. However, not everyone could win come closing night and in the end it was the Austrian western The Dark Valley that took home the top prize. Also prevailing on the evening was Tommy Wirkola's Dead Snow 2: Red Vs. Dead. The Norwegian zombie comedy picked up gongs for Best Director and Actor (for Vegar Hoel) as well as the NH Nonghyup Citizen's Award.

Other winners in the Puchon Choice competition were the Australian horror The Babadook, which picked up Best Actress for Essie Davis, and Fruit Chan's post-apocalyptic comedy The Midnight After, which was awarded the Jury Prize.

Meanwhile two Korean films were honored by the European Fantastic Film Festival Federation (EFFFF). Oh In-chun's horror-comedy Mourning Grave won the Best Asian Film prize and Lee Jung-ho's revenge thriller Broken received a special mention. The LG HiEntech Prize for Best Korean Independent Film went to Han Yun-sun's 18 - Eighteen Noir. Lastly, the NETPAC Prize was conferred to the Japanese comedy Wood Job! from director Yaguchi Shinobu.

As for the Puchon Choice: Shorts competition, the main award went to Edouard Salier's Habana. Raging Balls of Steel Glory by Mike Mort nabbed the Jury's Choice prize while the Best Korean Short award was given to Park Chun-kyu's Mould. Lorenzo Recio's Shadow and Jeong Sung-rak's Something also received special jury mentions. This year's Citizen's Choice for Best Short Film prize was won by Park Geun-bum's Intruder.

The awards ceremony took place last Friday, July 25th, and was followed by the closing film, Lee Kwon's My Ordinary Lover Story. After another two days of screenings, the 18th edition of the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan) ended on Sunday.

See you next year for PiFan 2015! And check back in the next few days for more reviews.
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