The 2017 Ithaca Fantastik film festival in upstate New York closed out its festival of dynamic genre and vanguard cinema, and awarded its Best Film prize to PIN CUSHION directed by Deborah Haywood.

SNOWFLAKE was also a big winner, taking the awards for Best Achievement in Directing for Adolfo J. Kolmerer and William James, along with International Competition Audience Award.

In addition to film screenings the festival also hosted the return of the 48-Hour Fantastik Film Challenge, which engages teams of students from Ithaca College to produce a genre short over two-days to screen at the festival. This year top honors were awarded to ME, MYSELF, AND DIE by Jyasi Nagel & Em Zarabet by challenge organizers Kevin Fermini and Jack Warner.

This year’s jury consisted of artist Gilles Vranckx and locals Bob Proehl, author and arts & culture columnist, and genre film aficionado Woody Chichester. “2017 was truly a fantastic year, we had the chance to be able to screen some of the movies that will stay with me forever, and seeing how tight was the Cinema Pur and Int’l competition Audience awards it seems like our audience felt the same,” said IF fest director Hugues Barbier on the competition selection. “Our jury had a great time talking and debating these movies, and even though it’s been a hard to decide, the awards have been given at the unanimity for each category.”

Best Film: PIN CUSHION, dir. Deborah Haywood
Best Screenplay: THE ENDLESS, dirs. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead
Best Achievement in Directing: Adolfo J. Kolmerer and William James, SNOWFLAKE
Best Short: MIRIAM IS GOING TO MARS, dir. Michael Lippert

Cinema Pur Audience Award: TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID, Issa López
International Competition Audience Award: SNOWFLAKE, dirs. Adolfo J. Kolmerer and William James