LET THE CORPSES TAN[/caption]
With little more than two weeks to go, the 6th Ithaca Fantastik (IF) taking place November 3 to 12 in Ithaca, NY, unveiled its full features and short film lineup of 37 films from 20 countries.
In LET THE CORPSES TAN, Belgian duo Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani pay visual homage to Italian gangster films. Marc Meyers’s award-winning MY FRIEND DAHMER, based on the graphic novel of the same name, follows the teenage years of the budding serial killer. Ryan Prows’s mesmerizing and gritty LA tale LOWLIFE takes viewers on a high-energy organ-harvesting misadventure. And Deborah Haywoods’s beautifully disturbing and deeply personal PIN CUSHION explores intergenerational bullying in a small but toxic English town.
Playing to a full range of IF6’s retrospective theme—Italiano Psichedeliko—with a contemporary eye, Rupert Jones’s murder-mystery, KALEIDOSCOPE, mesmerizes with lush visuals and amazing performances from Sinead Matthews and Toby Jones. Rainer Sarnet’s NOVEMBER plunges vanguard film-lovers into a surrealist maelstrom of faith, witchcraft, and love, while German tale FREDDY/EDDY ushers in a doubled and troubled soul from the mind of Tini Tüllmann.
Any pure horror lovers in the room? Giddens Ko’s MON MON MON MONSTER blows minds with its thoughtful subtext on bullying dressed with gory violence. A Taiwanese echo to Haywoods’s PIN CUSHION, this film takes no prisoners. The same can be said about Gabriela Amaral’s FRIENDLY BEAST: What starts out as a classic social drama makes a sharp turn into more graphic territory demanding self-reflection. And for undead action, Robin Aubert’s LES AFFAMÉS – an art house Zombie film full of deep social commentary—is a brilliant homage to maestro George Romero’s ghoul metaphor.
Sometimes, real life is more Fantastik than fiction. Brad Abrahams’s documentary, LOVE AND SAUCERS, tells the improbable story of David Higgins’ intimate love for an alien and the art that followed. For sheer genre joy, Australian mockumentary TOP KNOT DETECTIVE is Aaron McCann and Dominic Pearce’s madcap love letter to late-night Japanese television—from Lone Wolf and Cub and Mute Samurai to Message from Space and Space Sheriff Gavan.
IF completes this year’s smorgasbord with the crazies: Adolfo Kolmerer and William James’s SNOWFLAKE, the prodigal son of Pulp Fiction and Synecdoche NY, with producer Eric Sonnenburg here for the sceening; Thomas Berg and Frederik Waldeland’s super-weird, laugh-out-loud VAMPYR VIDAR; and Jimmy Henderson’s JAILBREAK with its roots in HK martial arts cinema, Jean Paul Ly’s choreography, dynamic camerawork, and the incisive power of a Tony Jaa elbow strike.
IF also shines a spotlight on BLUE UNDERGROUND, Bill Lustig’s distribution company, with the 4K restoration of Gary Sherman’s DEATH LINE, a direct transfer from the camera negative—as close as you can get to a director’s true vision! Another new 4K transfer, Bob Clark’s DEAD BY NIGHT, offers a deep meditation on the effects of war …with a zombie trope.
Along with this incredible lineup, IF will also present its 2017 art show: THE STRANGE COLORS OF GILLES VRANCKX featuring the work of the Belgian poster genius behind art for Amer, The Strange Colors of Your Body’s Tears, LET THE CORPSES TAN, and more.
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6th Ithaca Fantastik Announces Lineup, LET THE CORPSES TAN, MY FRIEND DAHMER and More..
[caption id="attachment_24807" align="aligncenter" width="1023"] LET THE CORPSES TAN[/caption]
With little more than two weeks to go, the 6th Ithaca Fantastik (IF) taking place November 3 to 12 in Ithaca, NY, unveiled its full features and short film lineup of 37 films from 20 countries.
In LET THE CORPSES TAN, Belgian duo Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani pay visual homage to Italian gangster films. Marc Meyers’s award-winning MY FRIEND DAHMER, based on the graphic novel of the same name, follows the teenage years of the budding serial killer. Ryan Prows’s mesmerizing and gritty LA tale LOWLIFE takes viewers on a high-energy organ-harvesting misadventure. And Deborah Haywoods’s beautifully disturbing and deeply personal PIN CUSHION explores intergenerational bullying in a small but toxic English town.
Playing to a full range of IF6’s retrospective theme—Italiano Psichedeliko—with a contemporary eye, Rupert Jones’s murder-mystery, KALEIDOSCOPE, mesmerizes with lush visuals and amazing performances from Sinead Matthews and Toby Jones. Rainer Sarnet’s NOVEMBER plunges vanguard film-lovers into a surrealist maelstrom of faith, witchcraft, and love, while German tale FREDDY/EDDY ushers in a doubled and troubled soul from the mind of Tini Tüllmann.
Any pure horror lovers in the room? Giddens Ko’s MON MON MON MONSTER blows minds with its thoughtful subtext on bullying dressed with gory violence. A Taiwanese echo to Haywoods’s PIN CUSHION, this film takes no prisoners. The same can be said about Gabriela Amaral’s FRIENDLY BEAST: What starts out as a classic social drama makes a sharp turn into more graphic territory demanding self-reflection. And for undead action, Robin Aubert’s LES AFFAMÉS – an art house Zombie film full of deep social commentary—is a brilliant homage to maestro George Romero’s ghoul metaphor.
Sometimes, real life is more Fantastik than fiction. Brad Abrahams’s documentary, LOVE AND SAUCERS, tells the improbable story of David Higgins’ intimate love for an alien and the art that followed. For sheer genre joy, Australian mockumentary TOP KNOT DETECTIVE is Aaron McCann and Dominic Pearce’s madcap love letter to late-night Japanese television—from Lone Wolf and Cub and Mute Samurai to Message from Space and Space Sheriff Gavan.
IF completes this year’s smorgasbord with the crazies: Adolfo Kolmerer and William James’s SNOWFLAKE, the prodigal son of Pulp Fiction and Synecdoche NY, with producer Eric Sonnenburg here for the sceening; Thomas Berg and Frederik Waldeland’s super-weird, laugh-out-loud VAMPYR VIDAR; and Jimmy Henderson’s JAILBREAK with its roots in HK martial arts cinema, Jean Paul Ly’s choreography, dynamic camerawork, and the incisive power of a Tony Jaa elbow strike.
IF also shines a spotlight on BLUE UNDERGROUND, Bill Lustig’s distribution company, with the 4K restoration of Gary Sherman’s DEATH LINE, a direct transfer from the camera negative—as close as you can get to a director’s true vision! Another new 4K transfer, Bob Clark’s DEAD BY NIGHT, offers a deep meditation on the effects of war …with a zombie trope.
Along with this incredible lineup, IF will also present its 2017 art show: THE STRANGE COLORS OF GILLES VRANCKX featuring the work of the Belgian poster genius behind art for Amer, The Strange Colors of Your Body’s Tears, LET THE CORPSES TAN, and more.
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Ithaca Fantastik Reveals First Wave of Films, TRAGEDY GIRLS, THE ENDLESS and More
[caption id="attachment_24718" align="aligncenter" width="1123"]
TRAGEDY GIRLS[/caption]
The 2017 Ithaca Fantastik (IF) film festival returns to Ithaca, New York, November 3 to 12, 2017; and with less than a month and a half to go, IF is revealing, its first wave of titles, and an inspired retrospective.
Returning audiences will notice an expanded schedule as the festival grows from half a week to a full nine days. The festival’s two weekends will be dedicated to the best in current genre and festival cinema, with the week between featuring classic retrospective selections.
The first weekend begins with the return of the CINEMA PUR miniseries, from Finnish action comedy SAMURAI RAUNI (Mika Ratto, Finland) to the hyper-real dark fairy tale TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID (Issa Lopez, Mexico). Turkey and Canada are well-represented again this year, with the SXSW award-winner INFLAME (Ceylan Ozgun Ozcelik, Turkey), and the TIFF midnight madness selection THE CRESCENT (Seth A. Smith, Canada).
The lineup wouldn’t be complete without a little witchcraft – HAGAZUSSA: A Heathen’s Curse (Lukas Feigelfeld, Germany) will haunt viewers long after the screening. Rounding out CINEMA PUR, the documentary BIGHT OF THE TWIN (Hazel McCarthy, US), about the personal journey of avant-garde performance artist Genesis Breyer P-Oridge, interlaces belief and grief in a beautiful and unexpected way.
The 40th Anniversary of the Giallo masterpiece SUSPIRIA (Dario Argento, 1977) provides an excellent occasion to revisit Italian exploitation classics with fresh eyes. The festival retrospective, ITALIANO PSICHEDELICO, will focus on the amazing visuals these inspired directors put on-screen. Selections include late 60s to mid 70s Italian films SUSPIRIA (Dario Argento, 1977), AUTOPSY (Armando Crispino, 1975), LE ORME (Luigi Bazzoni, Mario Fanelli, 1975), BABA YAGA (Corrado Farina, 1973), DEADLY SWEET (Tinto Brass, 1967), as well as more titles to be announced in wave two!
Continuing the weekend lineup, the festival will feature slasher comedy TRAGEDY GIRLS (Tyler McIntyre, UK), Tribeca award winner THE ENDLESS (Benson and Moorhead, USA), Graham Skipper’s directorial debut SEQUENCE BREAK (USA), Nordic ghost tale I REMEMBER YOU (Oskar Thor Axelsson, Iceland), and a twisted take on the timeloop trope A DAY (Sun-Ho Cho, South Korea).
Ithaca Fantastik would not be complete without its midnight series, featuring the riveting zombie comedy ZOMBIOLOGY (Alan Lo, Japan) and the surprising BRAVE STORM (Junya Okabe, Japan), which can be best described as an inventive and improbable mix between Terminator and Evangelion.
2017 Ithaca Fantastik First Wave of Films
BIGHT OF THE TWIN (Ithaca Premiere) Hazel Hill McCarthy III, US BRAVE STORM (North American premiere) Junya Okabe, Japan THE CRESCENT (Ithaca Premiere) Seth A. Smith, Canada A DAY (East Coast Premiere) Sun-Ho Cho, South Korea THE ENDLESS (Ithaca Premiere) Benson and Moorhead, USA HAGAZUSSA (Ithaca Premiere) Lukas Feigelfeld, Germany INFLAME (East Coast Premiere) Ceylan Ozgun Ozcelik, Turkey I REMEMBER YOU (Ithaca Premiere) Oskar Thor Axelsson, Iceland SAMURAI RAUNI (North American Premiere) Mika Ratto, Finland SEQUENCE BREAK (Ithaca Premiere) Graham Skipper, USA TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID (East Coast Premiere) Issa Lopez, Mexico TRAGEDY GIRLS (Ithaca Premiere) Tyler McIntyre, UK ZOMBIOLOGY: ENJOY YOURSELF TONIGHT (Ithaca Premiere) Alan Lo, Hong KongRetrospective ITALIANO PSICHEDELIKO
AUTOPSY Armando Crispino, 1975 BABA YAGA Corrado Farina, 1973 DEADLY SWEET Tinto Brass, 1967 LE ORME Luigi Bazzoni, Mario Fanelli, 1975 SUSPIRIA Dario Argento, 1977
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2017 SXSW Film Awards – MOST BEAUTIFUL ISLAND, THE WORK Win Grand Jury Awards
[caption id="attachment_20918" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
Most Beautiful Island[/caption]
The South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference and Festivals announced the 2017 Jury and Special Award winners of the SXSW Film Awards.
SXSW also announced the Jury Award winners in Shorts Filmmaking and winners of the SXSW Film Design Awards, as well as Special Awards including the Louis Black “Lone Star” Award and Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship, plus new categories with the SXSW Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award alongside the SXSW LUNA® Gamechanger Award – Narrative and SXSW LUNA® Chicken & Egg Award – Documentary.
2017 SXSW Film Festival Awards
Feature Film Grand Jury Awards
NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION Winner: Most Beautiful Island Director: Ana Asensio Special Jury Recognition for Breakthrough Performance: The Strange Ones Actor: James Freedson-Jackson Special Jury Recognition for Best Ensemble: A Bad Idea Gone Wrong Cast: Matt Jones, Eleanore Pienta, Will Rogers, Jonny Mars, Sam Eidson, Jennymarie Jemison DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION Winner: The Work Directors: Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous Special Jury Recognition for Excellence in Observational Cinema: Maineland Director: Miao Wang Special Jury Recognition for Excellence in Documentary Storytelling: I Am Another You Director: Nanfu WangShort Film Grand Jury Awards
NARRATIVE SHORTS Winner: Forever Now Director: Kristian Håskjold Special Jury Recognition for Acting: DeKalb Elementary Actor: Tarra Riggs DOCUMENTARY SHORTS Winner: Little Potato Director: Wes Hurley & Nathan M. Miller MIDNIGHT SHORTS Winner: The Suplex Duplex Complex Director: Todd Rohal ANIMATED SHORTS Winner: Wednesday with Goddard Directors: Nicolas Menard Special Jury Recognition: Pussy Director: Renata Gasiorowska MUSIC VIDEOS Winner: Leon Bridges – ‘RIVER’ Director: Miles Jay Special Jury Recognition: Tame Impala – ‘The Less I Know The Better’ Director: CANADA TEXAS SHORTS Winner: The Rabbit Hunt Director: Patrick Bresnan TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL SHORTS Winner: Better Late Than Never Director: Atheena Frizzell Special Jury Recognition: Darcy’s Quinceañera Director: Sam CooperSXSW Film Design Awards
EXCELLENCE IN POSTER DESIGN Winner: Fry Day Designer: Caspar Newbolt Special Jury Recognition: Like Me Designer: Jeremy Enecio EXCELLENCE IN TITLE DESIGN Winner: Into The Current Directors: Chris R. Moberg and Jared YoungSXSW Special Awards
SXSW LUNA® Gamechanger Award – Narrative Winner: INFLAME Director: Ceylan Ozgun Ozcelik SXSW LUNA® Chicken & Egg Award – Documentary Winner: I Am Another You Director: Nanfu Wang SXSW Louis Black “Lone Star” Award To honor SXSW co-founder/director Louis Black, a jury prize was created in 2011 called the Louis Black “Lone Star” Award, to be awarded to a Texas film in content, filmmaker residency, or primary shooting location. (Opt-in Award) Louis Black “Lone Star” Award Winner: Mr. Roosevelt Director: Noël Wells SXSW Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award In honor of a filmmaker whose work strives to be wholly its own, without regard for norms or desire to conform. The Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award is presented to a filmmaker from our Visions screening category. SXSW Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award Presented to: Assholes directed by Peter Vack SXSW Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship Presentation The Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship is a year-long experience that encourages and champions the talent of an emerging documentary editor. Awarded annually, the fellowship was created to honor the memory of gifted editor Karen Schmeer. Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship Presented to: Leigh Johnson The SXSW Film Awards are presented by FilmStruck. FilmStruck is a new streaming service for serious film fans, offering a comprehensive library including indie, contemporary and classic art house, foreign and cult films. It is the exclusive streaming home of The Criterion Collection.