MotelX has wrapped up this year's edition of the festival. As per usual, the festival had a program packed with local and international talent. In that regard everyone is a winner but when it comes to to the awards handed out at the end of the festival, well, we know how that goes.
Damian McCarthy's Irish screamer Oddity won the Best European Feature Film award and if it hasn't already won that award elsewhere on the Méliès d’argent/European festival circuit it is now guaranteed a spot in the Méliès d’argent competition, coming soon at Sitges. Coralie Fargeat's The Substance took home the Audience Award.
The other Méliés d’argent award for short films went to Eros V's Meat Puppet. On the home front, Chico Noras' short film The Procedure was awarded Best Portuguese Horror Short Film.
All award winners and special mentions are below.
MOTELXLisbon International Horror Film Festival18th EDITION - WINNERS10 - 16 SEP 2024Lisbon - Cinema São Jorge“The Procedure”, by Chico Noras, won the MOTELX Award - Best Portuguese Horror Short Film 2024, at the 18th edition of the Festival.In the Méliès d’argent competition, the Best European Feature Film 2024 went to the Irish film “Oddity”, by Damian Mc Carthy.The 18th MOTELX took place from 10 to 16 September, at Cinema São Jorge in Lisbon, featuring over 100 films from 30 countries and spanning a wide range of horror subgenres.Last Sunday, 15 September, during the Closing Screening of the 18th edition of MOTELX, at Cinema São Jorge, the winners of the Festival's main competitions were announced.“The Procedure”, by Chico Noras, won the MOTELX Award - Best Portuguese Horror Short Film 2024, the highest monetary prize for national short films (5.000€). Among the ten titles in the competition, the choice was made by the jury composed of Cátia Rodrigues (film programmer and critic), Heidi Honeycutt (programmer, journalist and film historian) and Nuno Galopim (journalist and broadcaster), who highlighted the “colourful art direction” and the “sharp acting”, which “contrast with the unsettling feeling the film evokes”. The Special Mention of the award that fulfils one of the Festival’s greatest missions - to boost the production of horror cinema in Portugal - went to “Umbral”, for its “new directed original vision”.The same jury panel also chose “Meat Puppet” (United Kingdom), by Eros V, as Best European Short Film 2024, in the race for the Méliés d’argent Award, in which eight Portuguese films participated. In addition to this “funny but also meaningful body horror coming-of-age film”, a Special Mention was awarded to “Be Right Back” (Spain), by Lucas Paulino e Gabe Ibañez.“Oddity”, by Irish filmmaker Damian Mc Carthy, received the Méliès d’argent Award for Best European Feature Film 2024. The jury composed of Alan Jones (film critic and artistic director), Rui Vieira (director and creative producer) and Stefanie Coimbra (producer) honoured it for creating “a compelling story told with style, good practical effects, new choreography scares, directed with a darky provocative panache”.A source of great joy in this edition, “The Substance”, directed by French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat, starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid, won the Audience Award.At the ceremony, the winners of other competitions, already revealed during the Festival, were mentioned: “The Calling” (Sweden), by Frida E. Elmström, won the Big Bad Wolf Award (from the Festival’s least scary section), and “Espectro”, by Catarina Araújo, won the MOTELX GUIÕES Award - Best Portuguese Horror Screenplay 2024.Regarding the 18th MOTELX, which happened between 10 and 16 September, artistic directors Pedro Souto and João Monteiro highlighted the “incredible days” experienced and the audience, “the reason for this Festival’s existence”, who “came out in force”, emphasising the “growing enthusiasm for the genre”. This year’s programme featured “over 100 films, around 80 screenings, representing 30 countries and showcasing many and different subgenres of horror cinema”.