Fantasia 2013: Award Winning Films Announced

Steve Barton   |  

Aug 8, 2013

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The 2013 Fantasia Film Festival has drawn to a close, and this year was bigger and better than ever. On tap right now is the official list of winners at the show whose work went above and beyond the normal lunacy!

From the Press Release
After Tuesday night’s sold-out screening of the Canadian premiere of THE WORLD’S END, presented by director Edgar Wright and actor Nick Frost, the Fantasia International Film Festival can confirm record attendance numbers this year, boasting more than 125,000 festival-goers for its 17th edition, surpassing last year’s record of 109,000 (a 15% increase). Over the course of its three-week film marathon, it presented over 131 features from 31 countries and more than 220 shorts from across the globe.

Fantasia’s 2013 edition opened with the North American Premiere of Takashi Miike’s SHIELD OF STRAW and closed with the Canadian Premiere of Edgar Wright’s THE WORLD’S END. A lifetime achievement award was given to Polish filmmaker Andrzej Zulawski. World Premieres included Joe Swanberg’s 24 EXPOSURES, Nobuo Mizuta’s THE APOLOGY KING, Don Mancini’s CURSE OF CHUCKY, Richard Stanley’s L’AUTRE MONDE (The Otherworld), Richie Mehta’s I’LL FOLLOW YOU DOWN, Robert Morin’s LES 4 SOLDATS, Lloyd Kaufman’s RETURN TO NUKE ‘EM HIGH VOL. 1, K. King’s ZOMBIE HUNTER, Eddie Mulins’ DOOMSDAYS, Anthony DiBlassi’s MISSIONARY, Renaud Gauthier’s DISCOPATH, Cody Calahan’s ANTISOCIAL, Darren Paul Fisher’s OXV: THE MANUAL, and James Sizemore’s THE DEMON’S ROOK.

The 2nd edition of the Fantasia Industry Rendez-Vous was a resounding success, with four jam-packed days of meetings, pitch sessions, conferences and networking cocktails that were all at full capacity. The Frontières International Co-Production Market presented 24 film projects from Canada, the United States, many European Countries, Mexico and New Zealand. Attendance at the Rendez-Vous was up significantly from last year, with 280 participants in 2013: 90 from the United States, 40 from Europe, 75 from Quebec, and 60 from the rest of Canada. The great variety of participants allowed for more than 600 hundred meetings to take place around the Frontières projects and other business interests. We have it on good authority that many new production partnerships, directly resulting from encounters at Frontières, will be announced in the near future.

Fantasia is also proud to announce this year’s prize 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.”

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 and 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.

Best Director: Hou Chi-Jan for WHEN A WOLF FALLS IN LOVE WITH A SHEEP

Best Screenplay: Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado for BIG BAD WOLVES

Best Actor: Cho Jae-hyun for THE WEIGHT by Jeon Kyu-hwan

Best Actress: Nathalie Boutefeu for LES GOUFFRES by Antoine Barraud

Special Mention: ACROSS THE RIVER by Lorenzo Bianchini and 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, South by Southwest Film Festival), and Travis Stevens (Producer, CEO of Snowfort Pictures).

Audience Awards: