Fantastic Fest Quick Snaps: And the Winners Are...
Jenn already covered the list of this year's Fantastic Fest Award winners in her Fantastic Fest: Day 5 Dispatch, so I'll just share the highlights through photos. And like Jette mentioned in her earlier post, words are hard to put together when you average five films a day and a 4 am bedtime.
The audience award winner of Fantastic Fest 2010 was Bedevilled, with director Jang Cheol-so and Producer Han Man Taeg (seen above). Bedevilled is primarily a horror film, but the story is a blend of dark humor, drama and suspense. Actress Ji Sung-won took the Best Acress award for the AMD and Dell "Next Wave" Spotlight Competition for her role as Hae-won Chung, a young woman with a bad attitude living in Seoul. She's identified as a murder witness, but she doesn’t want to cooperate with the investigation. An involuntary vacation leads to even more trouble.
I was asked to fill in as a jury member for the Fantastic Shorts category this year. Anyone who has read my flashback on Fantastic Fest shorts or preview guide for this year's selections will know that I love this format. I joined Neil Miller of Film School Rejects and Eugenio Mira (Agnosia) in selecting the winner. We had a difficult job because the diversity of the finalists was overwhelming.
However, it was easy to agree that the short film that captured and balanced the best elements of the fest -- surrealism, horror, science fiction -- but also had heart was Sorry...I Love You by Leticia Delora. I was honored to present the award at the ceremony, but I have to admit I don't think I've ever been that nervous onstage, including two rounds of karaoke this week!
Pictured below: AJ Bowen (Horror: Best Actor Award winner) and Simon Barrett (Horror: Best Screenplay Award winner) of A Horrible Way to Die.
Nacho Vigalondo and Elijah Wood, shown in the following photo with actor Jeff Fahey, were fellow jurors for The Next Wave Competition. This award category celebrates up-and-coming filmmakers who show excellence with a first or second feature. Find out more about the juries and films in competion here. We Are What We Are took home the Best Picture award in this category.
As to why Jeff Fahey was onstage, I'm not quite sure, but it is interesting to note that he has wrapped three films in Austin this year: Machete, Blacktino, and Dadgum, Texas. With talk of Spy Kids 4 filming and that some old characters may show up in the reboot, perhaps we will see Fahey in the upcoming Robert Rodriguez film. Seeing as how Elizabeth Avellan was also present, I think it's a safe bet!
[Photo credit: 'Bedevilled' Filmmakers, AJ Bowen and Simon Barrett of 'A Horrible Way to Die', Nacho and Elijah, by Debbie Cerda, on Flickr]