The Fantasia fest’s big winners

Big Bad Wolves

This year’s Fantasia film festival was a big success. There were more than 125,000 festival-goers surpassing last year’s 109,000, and out of 139 screenings, 84 (or 60 per cent) were sold out.

The festival is not only devoted to genre film screenings, it also hosts a competition which hands out awards to filmmakers in several categories. Here are this year’s winners:

New Flesh Award for Best First Feature: Cheap Thrills by E.L. Katz

Winner of this year’s SXSW’s Audience Award, the Fantasia jury calls Cheap Thrills, “Darkly humorous, smart and bloody in ways that will make many viewers squirm with glee. This abundantly confident first feature provides a thoroughly entertaining snapshot of modern blue collar desperation in a world addicted to easy money and childish amusement.”

You can read our review here.

Special Mention: Halley by Sebastian Hofmann

The jury for the First Feature Competition consisted of jury president Charles de Lauzirika (filmmaker), Ramachandra Borcar (musician), Manon Dumais (film critic, Voir), Jason Lapeyre (filmmaker) and Stéphane du Mesnildot (film critic, Les cahiers du cinema)

Cheval Noir Award for Best Film: Big Bad Wolves by Aharon Keshales & Navot Papushado

Statement: With elements of horror, crime thriller, revenge drama and wicked black comedy, Big Bad Wolves takes genre-bending to bold new levels. This sense of originality, along with its subversive political subtext, assured visual style and impeccable ensemble cast is what separates the film from the rest of the pack.

You can read our review here.

Best Director: Hou Chi-Jan for When a Wolf Falls in Love With a Sheep

Best Screenplay: Aharon Keshales & Navot Papushado for Big Bad Wolves

Best Actor: Cho Jae-hyun for The Weight

Best Actress: Nathalie Boutefeu for Les Gouffres

Special Mention: Across the River by Lorenzo Bianchini & Les Gouffres by Antoine Barraud

The grand jury for the Cheval Noir Competition was comprised of jury president Laura Kern (managing editor of Film Comment), Jean-Pierre Bergeron (actor, filmmaker), Samuel Jamier (co-director of the New York Asian Film Festival), Jarod Neece (senior programmer, SXSW film festival), Travis Stevens (producer, CEO of Snowfort Pictures)

Audience Awards:

Best Asian Feature:

Gold: HK/Forbidden Super Hero by Yuichi Fukuda

Silver: Lesson of the Evil by Takashi Miike

Bronze: How to Use Guys with Secret Tips by Lee Wonsuk

Best International Feature:

Gold: Curse of Chucky by Don Mancini

Silver: OXV: The Manual by Darren Paul Fisher

Bronze: Broken Circle Breakdown by Felix Van Groeningen

Best Canadian or Quebec Feature:

Les 4 soldats by Robert Morin

Best Animation Feature:

The Garden of Words by Makoto Shinkai

Guru Prize For Most Energetic Film:

HK/Forbidden Super Hero by Yuishi Fukuda

Most Innovative Film:

OXV: The Manual by Darren Paul Fisher

Best Short Film:

Gold: Le Chevreuil by Rémi St-Michel

Silver: L’étranger by Olaf Svenson

Bronze: Jack Attack by Antonio Padovan & Bryan Norton

Best Documentary:

Rewind This! by Josh Johnson ■