Editor

Méliès d’Argent winner in Fantasporto

The 26th edition of Fantasporto proved to be a successful one - A great program, fantastic guests, and a wonderful setting provided by Porto itself.

And the winners were…

Méliès d’Argent
ANIMAL, Roselyne Bosch, (Portugal, UK, France), 2005

Short Film Nomination for a Méliès d’Or
THE LEGEND OF THE SCARECROW, Marcos Besas, (Spain), 2005

For a full list of all Fantasporto winners in all the different categories visit our press section at melies.org or visit Fantasporto here.

Méliès d’Argent winner in Brussels

Brussels 24th Edition ended March 25th with the annual Vampires Ball.

The Méliès d’Argent went to Anders Thomas Jensen’s ADAM'S APPLES (Denmark), 2005

Short Film Nomination for a Méliès d’Or went to DOLL 639, Andras Desi (Hungary), 2005

This year’s Award listing was nearly all-European, with Jensen’s opus collecting the Golden Raven (Grand Prize) and the Pegasus (Prize of the Public) in addition to the Méliès d’Argent.

In the International Competition, the International Jury (Michael Ironside, Philippe Nahon, Matthew Robbins and Rob Schmidt) also awarded the Swedish film STORM by Marlind & Stein with a Silver Raven and Jaume Balaguero’s FRAGILE with a Special Mention for its special effects.

A second Special Mention went to Joe Dante’s HOMECOMING, to celebrate its political awareness.

For a full list of all the winners at the Brussels festival go here.


Short film nomination for a Méliès d’Or from Malaga

Once again, the International Week of Fantastic Film in Malaga, had the pleasure to offer to the film lovers of southern Spain a great variety of fantasy cinema and other activities like exhibitions, conferences and live shows. In addition to the official section, and the informative one, other programs have been offered, for example such as the one about Lotte Reiniger, Richard Fleisher and science fiction classics.

The 16th Semana Internacional de Cine Fantastico in Malaga (Spain) organized by the Vicerrectorado de Cultura y Relaciones Institucionales and the Universidad de Malaga took place from March 2 to 10 2006. Among different sections and retrospectives the adherent member of the EFFFF screened around 50 features and 30 short movies.

The Méliès d'Or short film nomination went to the Spanish movie AVATAR by director Lluis Quilez, 2005.

As a panorama the organizers put up an exhibition by French artist Patrice Hubert "Kinetic Totems" as well as different panels and round tables. One of the round tables organized at the University of Malaga was dedicated to the evolution of the European fantastic cinema, among the speakers were, the director of the festival Ramon Reina Lopez, Angel Sala, the director of the Sitges Festival International de Film de Catalunya and Romain Roll, representing Cinénygma Luxembourg International Film Festival and the EFFFF.


Amsterdam to Award 9th Méliès d’Argent

Films that are nerve-wrecking, films that astound and astonish – heaps of them will be shown during the 22nd Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival, from April 19 through April 26. In the main programme of the AFFF the whole range of the genre film, as is custom at the AFFF, can be seen on screen: fantasy, horror, science fiction, thriller, anime, and cult.

From blockbuster to art house film, from Dutch fabrication to films from far and away. Also, the European fantastic short film is celebrated and during the Night of Terror you can count on old-fashioned goose bumps.

One of the festival highlights is the Méliès d’Argent Competition where one European feature film will be handed the d’Argent award and the possibility of becoming “Best European Fantastic Film 2006”, at the Méliès d’Or ceremony in Espoo, Finland in August.

The following feature films compete for the Méliès d’Argent:

MIRRORMASK, Dave McKean (GB/USA)
STORM, Måns Mårlind, Björn Stien (Sweden)
FRAGILE, Jaume Balagueró (Spain)
BEOWULF & GRENDE, Sturla Gunnarsson (Iceland/GB/Canada)
SHEITAN, Kim Chapiron (France)
NUIT NOIRE, Olivier Smolders (Belgium)
RENAISSANCE, Christian Volckman (France/GB/Luxembourg)

For more information: visit melies.org or go directly to AFFF here.


Dead by Dawn: What’s hot, and what’s not…

As Dead by Dawn, Scotland's International Horror Film Festival, turns 13, the festival celebrates in style with a programme of independent shorts and features.

The cast and crew will attend the World Premiere of BLOOD TRAILS, and the UK Premiere of Shinya Tsukamoto's latest HAZE. There will also be premiere screenings of Adam Mason's BROKEN, as well as some bizarre visions from Japan with THE LAST SUPPER and ZOMBIE JIETAI.

The Cutting Edge short film competition for debut and emerging filmmakers is back, alongside the main shorts programme and the “What You Make It” short film programme, featuring Tom Geens extraordinary short SHAME, which won the Dead by Dawn award at the Hallowe'en Short Film Festival in London.

Dead by Dawn will also, hand out a Nomination for a Méliès d’Or to one of its European short films in competition.