Variety had the exclusive yesterday, an announcement of the creation of Fantastic Pavilion, "... a significant booth and exhibition space located at the Cannes Marché du Film in the Palais des Festivals".
Announced this week during Ventana Sur in Buenos Aires, the Fantastic Pavilion was created by mi padre de terror, Pablo Guisa, Grupo Mórbido CEO (ie. Morbido Fest), Ventana Sur co-director Bernardo Bergeret, and Daniel de la Vega, co-ordinator of Ventana Sur’s Maquinitas video game forum (not the director).
From speaking with some of those involved with this newly announced organization it is exactly that, organization for the international genre filmmaking community. A centrailized hub during the market meant for networking and a place to hold meetings. There are hopes to build up to hosting panels and while everyone's in the same spot why not have some fun? Everyone loves attending a Cannes shindig while they're in town.
The membership of the Fantastic Pavilion is worldwide, 19 festivals represented in Europe and supporting members in Asia, North America, Latin America and the Middle East. A few of the big players in mix include Sitges, Brussels, Neuchâtel, Fantasia, Fantastic Fest, Mórbido and BiFan. They will all work in partnership with the mighty Méliès International Festival Federation whom dishes out the coveted Méliès d'Or prize for the best European fantastic feature film and short film each year.
Our friend and my personal international sports confidante Alex Noyer (Conductor and Sound of Violence) will serve as Fantastic Pavilion Consul.
“Overall we feel the Pavilion will offer an enhanced experience for attending members of the international genre film industries, whether seasoned or newcomers,” he said. “The genre film industry is a multi-cultural, cooperative and innovative hub that brings its own unique impetus to the market. We see the pavilion as a celebration of that creative energy,” he added.
Sitges' Mònica Garcia Massagué, general manager of the Sitges Foundation has also been doing amazing work through the Sitges WomanInFan genre gender platform. She will serve as a Fantastic Pavilion ambassador.
“The success of Julia Ducournau at Cannes, Nikyatu Jusu in Sundance and Michelle Garza in Tribeca and the explosion of Prano Bailey Bond (“Censor”) and Carlota Pereda with first feature “Piggy” are signs of a profound change in fantastic genre,” said Garcia Massagué. She added: “The Fantastic Pavilion is a great opportunity to promote and render visible with a large relevance the work of women in fantastic titles and programs like WomanInFan and a presence in the Fantastic Pavilion is an industry response.”
We leave you with a final thought from Guisa.
“I see the Fantastic Pavilion as a cradle from where many future legendary projects will be birthed, we are creating a very special place from where genre films will blossom,” said Guisa. “The Fantastic Pavilion will become one of the most important all-encompassing genre hub projects in history...”.