Wen ren with festival founders Mario Dorminsky and Beatriz Pacheco Peirera
"Last Sunrise," the first feature by Chinese director Wen Ren, who made his world premiere at Fantasporto'2019, is the grand winner of the 39th Fantasporto - Porto International Film Festival. In this film, astronomer Sun Yang and his young assistant Chen Mu discover an icy world where they project the future of humanity after the sun disappears.
One of the first science fiction films produced in China, with great interpretations and special effects.
The prize for Best Achievement was for British filmmaker Julian Richards, for the set of two films he presented in this section, "Reborn" and "Daddy's Girl", a fact unheard of at this festival, since never before has a director had two films in the competition , both in international prehistory.
Significant was also the presence at the Festival of the Chinese director, which was in the company of all the award-winning directors, also invited guests of Fantas, with the exception of Peter Strickland, who has been in Fantas, but in 2012.
In this section, the International Jury decided to award its Special Prize to "In Fabric" by Peter Strickland (from Berberian Sound Studio, winner of Fantasporto 2012) for his "high level of originality".
The Jury also decided to assign in this section of Fantastic Cinema a Special Mention to the American film "The Fare", by C. Hamilton.
The prize for Best Argument was for Rodrigo Aragão, screenwriter and director of the Brazilian film "A Mata Negra", about a young woman lost in the forest, facing demons, spirits of the dead, persecuted by a crazy preacher ...
The Best Actor award goes to Christopher Rygh for his performance in the film "The Head Hunter," a North American production that has a strong Portuguese component that also won the Best Film Award in the Portuguese Cinema section.
Australian Chara won Best Actress for her role in "Living Space" by fellow countryman Steven Spiel.
Hungarian film "His Master's Voice" by György Pálfy won the prize for Best Photography and Visual Effects.
The award for Best Fantastic Short Film was for the Israeli film "My First Time" by Asaf Livni.
"WEREWOLF" BY ADRIAN PANEK (POLAND), closes the 29TH WEEK OF THE DIRECTORS
The winner of the 39th Fantasporto Filmmakers' Week is "Werewolf" by Polish director Adrian Panek, a film about a group of children released from a Nazi concentration camp at the end of World War II who find shelter in an abandoned mansion and lie there cornered, surrounded by a pack of guard dogs fleeing from the same camp ...
The Special Jury Prize in this competition was for the Filipino film "Waiting for Sunset," about an old couple who have been living together for a long time without being able to get married because the woman does not know if she has a husband or not, since the man disappeared suddenly, without leave track. The routine of this couple breaks suddenly when it receives a message of the disappeared husband in search of peace and reconciliation. A tale of tenderness and humanity, with great interpretations, winner of the Best Film at the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival. It is the first feature of Carlo Catu, screenwriter of "Laut", film presented at Fantasporto in 2018.
This film also won the award for Best Actor, which distinguishes Dante Rivero's performance.
The award for Best Director in this section goes to American filmmaker Christina Choe for her work on "Nancy," her first feature film.
The award for Best Screenplay was won by Balint Hegedûs and Károly Uji Mészáros for the film "X - The eXploited" (Hungary).
The award for Best Actress was awarded ex-aequo to the Philippine actresses, Ai-Ai de las Alas, for her performance in "School Service", and Ina Raymundo, for performance in "Kuya Wes."
"THE WITCH: PART 1 - THE SUBVERSION", SOUTH-KOREAN HOON-JONG PARK WINS THE SECTION 'ORIENT EXPRESS'
In the 'Orient Express' section, the winner was South Korean film 'The Witch: Part 1 - The Subversion' by Hoon-Jong Park (screenwriter for 'I Saw The Devil', who won Orient Express in 2011) about a student like amnesia looking for her identity.
In this section, the Special Jury Prize goes to "School Service" by Louie Lagdameo Ignacio, about a girl from a remote village who is kidnapped on the way to school by a band of bandits who run a network of beggars in Manila.
OTHER AWARDS
The Audience Award went to the American documentary "The Panama Papers," by British director Alex Winter on the discovery of the financial scandal of the world's billion-dollar tax evasion network that involves politicians, financiers and celebrities from all walks of life.
The Critics Award was attributed to Biju Kumar Damodaran's Indian film "Painting Life," about a Bollywood film crew going to a remote Himalayan village to film a dance sequence and is there isolated by torrential rains and landslides. land, without electricity or communications, at the mercy of the forces of nature.
"THE HEAD HUNTER", WINS THE FANTASPORTO PORTUGUESE CINEMA PRIZE
The North American production "The Head Hunter", which involved a large Portuguese team and was filmed in the northeast of Portugal, in the Bragança area, directed by Jordan Downey, is the winner of the Portuguese Film Award of Fantasporto'2019. The film follows the course of a medieval bounty hunter seeking revenge for a monster responsible for the death of his only daughter.
The ETIC - School of Technologies Innovation and Creation, of Lisbon, won the Competition Among Schools held within the scope of the Portuguese Cinema Prize. The Special Mention-Creativity was attributed by the jury to the film "Ashes" of Célia Fraga, of the Superior Artistic School of Porto.
THE GUESTS
FROM RUSSIAN ORSAN ORLAN MODEL AND ACTRESS, "THE RUSSIAN BRIDE", to the winner of FANTAS 2015, KAROLY MEZÁROS. OF THE NORTH AMERICAN PRODUCER WHO DISCOVERED THEN THE HILLS TO REALIZE "THE HEAD HUNTER", TO A PERFORMER OF A FANTASTIC CHINESE FILM OF SCIENTIFIC FICTION, WHICH WILL WORLDWIDE ANYTHING IN THE FANTASIES, STILL KNOWN AND RECOGNIZED PHILIPPINES, INDIAN ACTORS AND ACTORS , AUSTALIANS, OF THE EMIRATES, OF ISRAEL, OF THE UNITED STATES ... RETURNED TO THE PORT THE WORLD OF THE CINEMA
There is a special highlight to make for the Filipino presence in this Fantasporto. Representatives from three films from the Far East, including director James Robin Mayo and actor Ogie Alcasid from the film "Kuya Wes" are present. "School Service", will be present the director Louie Ignacio Lagdameo, actor Dennis Evangelista and Ferdinand Lapuz, distributor. The film's biggest delegation is the five members of the Waiting for Sunset team in Porto, director Carlo Catu, producers Roderick Cabrido and Omar Surtijas, distributor Lexter Tarriela and lead actor Menggie Cobarrubias.
From the United Arab Emirates came the director Hana Kazim to present her film "Makr", while Asaf Livni, came from Israel, accompanying his work "Mysteries of the World", which would win the Best Short Film Award Fantastic.
India is present with Biju Kumar Damodaran's "Painting Life" film, a self-taught filmmaker who is also a doctor and already has a long and award-winning filmography in his country. Dr. Biju, as he is known in the Indian cinematographic medium, is also in Porto to present his film, accompanied by the actor Prakash Bare. They won the Critics Prize ...
From Spain come Marc Martínez Jordan (director of "Framed") and Pau Pascoal Galbis (producer of "Impius", "Retaliation", "The Curse" and "Sea of Interior") while the UK is present the director Andrew Desmond ("The Sonata"), with a delegation of eight members of the team, as well as Ryan Symons, with his film "Demon Eye." A well-known friend of Fantasporto, who is present in Porto to present the two films that have this year's competition, "Daddy's Girl" and "Reborn", both in the official section of Fantasy Cinema, which brought him something unprecedented that was to win with his two films the Best Director Award.
From Hungary we had Károly Mészáros, director of "X - The Exploited" candidate in the section CF and already awarded by Fantasporto in 2015, with the long "Liza, The Fox - Fairy".
Gyorgy Pálfi (director of "Taxidermy"), also went to Porto, accompanied by screenwriter Szofia Ruttkay, to present his film to contest "His Master's Voice". Hungarian filmmakers are accompanied by Marta Bényei, from the distributor Hungary Filmalap.
Across the Atlantic is Mexican director Salomon Askenazi to perform "Dos Veces Tú" in the uncompetitive Première & Panorama section, as well as American Kevin Stewart (producer of "The Head Hunter"). Judy Suh and producer Ursula Romero from the short film "Roberta's Living Room" are present in the USA.
BRAZIL SAYS THIS
From Brazil, for example, Rodrigo Aragão and Mayra Alícia Ferreira, respectively director and producer of "A Mata Negra", were in competition in the official section Cinema Fantástico, a film that would win the Best Screenplay Award, as well as the director Santiago Dellape, already awarded in 2017 by Fantasporto with his long "The Repartition of Time". T
