Top honors went to Alex Van Warmerdam's hit-man comedy Schneider Vs. Bax, a delightfully nasty piece of work that our man Todd Brown has called "occasionally shocking and frequently hilarious."
While Moonwalkers, "a very broad commentary on Swinging London, complete with numerous topless women, an excess of psychedelic drugs, and a brain-fried Ron Perlman, who must team with well-meaning yet ineffective music manager Rupert Grint to [convince Stanley Kubrick to fake the moon-landing]" didn't quite wow our Peter Martin, it certainly went the distance with local festival-goers, who gave it the Audience Award.
Short film honors went Luke and Peter McCoubrey's The Grey Matter and Studio Rosto's animated freakout Splintertime, respectively.
And though parting can be such sweet sorrow, the festival went out on a triumphant note with the European Premiere of India's box office sensation Baahubali - The Beginning. J Hurtado laid his eyes on the beast, and summed it up as "a film for the child in everyone, the one who wants to believe in heroes and derring-do, and for the adult in everyone who wants to believe that they can be the hero of their own story".
We will have a couple interviews going up in the coming days, but if they do little to tide you over just remember, next year's festival's only 51 weeks away...
Over the course of eleven days, L'ÉTRANGE FESTIVAL 2015 has presented 7 World premieres, 2 International premieres, 9 European premieres and 37 French premieres, 2 "sold out" exclusive shows by The Residents and 3 "Cartes Blanches" to Guy Maddin, Benoît Delépine and Ben Wheatley.On Sunday, September the 13th, L'ÉTRANGE FESTIVAL is thrilled to announce the Palmares for its 21st edition.International Feature Film CompetitionGRAND PRIX NOUVEAU GENRE Award (in partnership with Canal+Cinéma) SCHNEIDER vs. BAX by Alex Van Warmerdam - Netherlands - 2015 - 1h36 - Comedy - Color (Potemkine distribution)After Buried in 2010, Bullhead in 2011, Headhunters in 2012, The Major in 2013 and The Voices in 2014, Schneider vs. Bax will receive a cash prize award amounting to the purchase of the French premium broadcast rights by Canal+Cinema.AUDIENCE AWARD MOONWALKERS by Antoine bardou-Jacquet - UK - 2015 - 1h47 - Comedy - Color (Mars Films distribution)International Short Film CompetitionGRAND PRIX CANAL+ Award (in partnership with the Short Programs & Creations Unit at Canal+France) THE GREY MATTER by Luke & Peter McCoubrey - USA - 2015 - 18' - FictionAUDIENCE AWARD SPLINTERTIME by Rosto - France/Belgium/Netherlands - 11'05 - Animation/ExperimentalThe closing ceremony proudly ended with the European Premiere of BAAHUBALI: The Beginning by S.S. Rajamouli