Fantastic Fest 2011, Day Five: The Second Half Begins

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Day Five marks the beginning of the second half of the fest. Many of the filmmakers and industry people have left, and new fans arrive attending with second-half badges. The tone of the festival becomes more relaxed, but unfortunately, the FEARnet-sponsored free ice-cream truck has departed. Some of the better parts of the fest are still yet to come. As I'm writing this, the awards are about to begin, hosted by Devin Steuerwald. Jette will be covering the results separately. I'll end the day with the signature party, Fantastic Feud.

I began the day with movie film that has made waves at the fest this year, earning a runner-up in the Fantastic Fest Audience Award category. Juan of the Dead (Juan de los Muertos) is a unique interpretation of the zombie apocalypse. Set and shot in Cuba, Juan pokes fun at the same films that serve as its inspiration and includes several jabs at the political situation. Juan, the titular character, is an affable screw-up who spends his days fishing from a raft and sneaking into his lover's boudoir while her husband is away. When zombies start to appear (the state media reports the phenomenon as political dissident attacks sponsored by the U.S. government), Juan and his friends decide they're better at zombie killing than the government and attempt to turn a profit by starting a business exterminating for their neighbors. As the zombie plague grows out of control, their plans must evolve from control to escape. This was a lot of fun, full of surprises and interesting kills.

The next part of the day was the Short Fuse: Horror Shorts program, which included nine short films from around the world. One of the highlights of this program was Austin-produced No Way Out (read Rod's interview with writer Eric Vespe and director Aaron Morgan). Fest regulars Dennis Widmyer and Justin Duprie, who hails from Corpus, wrote and produced the exceptional horror-comedy short Curtain, which makes The Exorcist look tame by comparison. Other great shorts included The Unliving and How to Rid Your Lover of a Negative Emotion Caused by You!, the runner up and winner of the Fantastic Fest Horror Shorts Award, respectively.

After the shorts, I had to rush straight into Bullhead (Rundskop), which won the Fantastic Fest AMD and Dell Next Wave Spotlight Competition later that night. This poignant drama from Belgium combines the unlikely worlds of organized crime and the cattle industry. Set against a crime-thriller backdrop, the meat of this film is the story of Jacky and his best friend Diederik and the terrible secret past they share. This first-time directing effort from Michael Roskam is the Belgian submission to this year's Foreign-Language Oscar category. Matthias Schoenaerts is astonishing in this, having gained approximately 60 lbs of muscle for the role. Beautiful and tragic, Bullhead plays like the love child of a Coen brothers and Tarantino pairing. This is the surprise hit of the year.

After the awards, the U.S. squared off against the "World" in Fantastic Feud. Austin film writer Scott Weinberg emceed the event with Devin Steuerwald (both pictured at top ... yes, that's really them). As usual, the U.S. team, captained by Elijah Wood, soundly defeated the World team, captained this year by Dominic Monaghan. Questions included fun stuff from "Worst 3D film made from 1982-1984" to "Name your biggest guilty pleasure movie." Check out the photos below.

[Photo credit: Mike Saulters]