More than 40 films will compete in the three feature film juried competitions at the 43rd Cleveland International Film Festival for $30,000 in cash prizes. The competitions include George Gund III Memorial Central and Eastern European Competition; Nesnadny + Schwartz Portrait Documentary Competition and New Direction Competition.
The first trailer is released for the upcoming cosmic horror Starfish, featuring a dazzling lead performance from Virginia Gardner (Halloween 2018, Marvel’s The Runaways). The film begins its theatrical roadshow tour starting in NYC on March 13 with a rollout in other cities through late April, followed by the Digital/VOD release May 28.
Perry Blackshear, Best Director winner for THE RUSALKA – 2018 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival Awards[/caption]
Following what is considered the biggest year yet, the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival announced the 2018 award winners, with the top awards going to Cannibal Club, winner of the Best Film – Horror Feature, and Family, winner of the Best Film – Head Trip. CAM was voted the winner of the Audience Award.
“Watching our festival grow in ways we never could have imagined is such an exciting experience. Enormous thank you to the entire staff and volunteers, you are a dream-team and congratulations to our award winners. We’ll be back again next year bigger and better than ever before!” says festival director Justin Timms.
THE UNTHINKABLE[/caption]
Ithaca Fantastik will close the upcoming 7th edition in upstate NY with the breathtaking Swedish war drama THE UNTHINKABLE from Victor Danelland. The 10-day festival running October 26th to November 4th announced the final wave of 2018 programming including the highly acclaimed and award-winning MY NAME IS MYEISHA by Gus Krieger’s and Daniel Goldhaber’s electrifying CAM, and notable IF alum Perry Blackshear returns following his 2015 psychological horror hit THEY LOOK LIKE PEOPLE with an eerie and out-of-the-world fable THE RUSALKA!
The Cinema Pur side-bar is back with one of the festival’s strongest vanguard focused programs to date adding Joel Potrykus’ latest niche nostalgia nerd-fest RELAXER and A.T. White’s spellbinding debut STARFISH, hands down one of the most beautiful and gripping fable we’ve seen this year to previously announced titles in wave one. The Ithaca Fantastik will host also special screening of BOILED ANGELS: THE TRIAL OF MIKE DIANA with celebrated cult director Frank Henenlotter and Mike Diana paired with a discussion. Taking the Piss Down Under, a mini series with two of our favorite films of the year coming from South East Pacific: BROTHER’S NEST, MEGA TIME SQUAD. What would Ithaca Fantastik be without a dose of gore and fun! Get ready for the gruesome French insanity that is Alfonso’s GIRLS WITH BALLS and the international festival midnighter darling, Ueda’s ONE CUT OF THE DEAD!
For it’s 7th edition, Ithaca Fantastik goes wild with its shorts with four massive blocks – GASP! The Horror!, WTFantastik!, Light+/-Dark Shorts, and the very special Eyeslicer Halloween Special, a curation of the weirdest and wackiest American indie spooky shorts from NYC producers Dan Schoenbrun and Vanessa McDonnell.
Ithaca Fantastik rounds out the final wave with a dive into AR/VR and brings a program of six experiences, including the award winner DINNER PARTY and Alexandre’s Aja’s CAMPFIRE CREEPERS!
Closing:
The Unthinkable East Coast Premiere
Victor Danell | 2018 | Sweden | 129min
While Alex attempts to reconnect with the long lost love of his youth, a series of strange events unfold—each bizarre occurrence leading to the next until it culminates in a declaration of war by a belligerent foreign country. Carried on by his quest for love, Alex must also manage to find his family and save them from the war. This epic adventure pushes him to overcome each obstacle and face the deepest, darkest corners of his past.
Scandinavia has produced some of recent years’ most impressive action films with a healthy dose of heart—from The Wave (2015) to The Quake (2018)—redefining what it means to be a blockbuster in the global market. Following in this grand tradition, Crazy Pictures takes us by storm with this genre blurring piece of cinema. It expertly navigates the arthouse drama landscape while using a backdrop of a war as metaphorical elements enhance the frustration of the protagonist. THE UNTHINKABLE will make you think, cringe, laugh out loud, and cry- all in the span of a second. You’ll be talking about this perfect IF8 closing film for months to come.
Welcome To Mercy[/caption]
The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival today unveiled the remainder of the massive line-up for the third edition, with highly anticipated TIFF Midnight Madness premieres IN FABRIC and THE WIND, World Premiere of brand new Vinegar Syndrome restoration of clown slasher BLOOD HARVEST and first-ever Secret Screening.
The films also completed the brand new Head Trip program lineup of films that push the boundaries of horror with Starfish and The Clovehitch Killer, and introduces the expansion of six shorts blocks, including the return of the showcase of locally made chills Home Invasion (previously Local’s Only) and new LGBT block Slayed: LGBT Horror Shorts, co-presented by NewFest.
The festival will return to Nitehawk Cinema, Syndicated, LIU Kumble Theatre, Videology, and the Wythe Hotel Cinema; and this year the IFP’s Made in NY Media Center.
STARFISH (East Coast Premiere)
USA | 2018 | 101 Min | Dir. A.T. White
Presented by Brooklyn Fireproof Stages
Stricken with grief, Aubrey is having a difficult time coping with the death of her best friend, Grace. To combat the overwhelming sadness, she breaks into Grace’s apartment and quietly picks up where her late friend left off, caring for her pets and using her possessions, not to mention sleeping in her bed. The next morning, though, everything’s changed. The streets outside are desolate, fires engulf the city, and people are being attacked by something inhuman. There’s only one person who can potentially save the world: Aubrey, thanks to clues found on mixtapes left by Grace.
An endlessly creative gambit that fuses multiple genres, including cosmic horror, director A.T. White’s STARFISH is one of the most ambitious feature debuts in years. It’s also one of the year’s best films, an emotionally potent, frequently terrifying, and wholly disorienting mash-up of a film that plays like ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND as remixed by H.P. Lovecraft.
WELCOME TO MERCY (World Premiere)
USA | 2018 | 104 Min | Dir. Tommy Bertelsen
After returning to her family’s native Latvia to mourn her father’s death, American single mother Madaline begins suffering from inexplicable visions and physical scars, all of which point to the gift—or curse, rather—the Holy Stigmata. To seek help, Madaline travels to an island convent and ingratiates herself within the sisterhood of nuns. But much to her detriment, Madaline’s new acquaintances pray to something far more sinister than the Holy Spirit, leading her to realize that those newfound afflictions come from anywhere but Heaven.
Providing an effectively retro spin on modern religious horror, WELCOME TO MERCY utilizes the best sacrilegious genre tropes, everything from evil nuns to weaponized crosses, to weave a powerful story of tested faith and hard-earned redemption. Anchored by a fierce performance from lead actress Kristen Ruhlin, who also wrote the screenplay, WELCOME TO MERCY packs a serious punch.
IN FABRIC (East Coast Premiere)
UK | 2018 | 118 Min | Dir. Peter Strickland
There’s something off about the vintage department store in which single mother Sheila finds herself looking for a fancy new dress. The store’s employees are nearly robotic in their stone-faced dedication to sales, the mannequins seem to be whispering to one another, women nearly trample each other to enter as its doors, and its television commercials are hypnotically sinister. Nevertheless, Sheila buys a lavish red dress. Little does she know, her life will soon be overcome by a series of random misfortunes, supernatural phenomena, and living nightmares. And, it seems, the dress is to blame.
Having already proven his singular merits with the giallo-minded brain-scrambler BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO and the gorgeously erotic DUKE OF BURGUNDY, British filmmaker Peter Strickland ups the ante with IN FABRIC, his most awe-inspiring film to date. Combining the aesthetics and influences of his two previous films into a barrage of visually dazzling surrealism, IN FABRIC is an inventive, unsettling and mesmerizing ghost story about the doomed pursuit of happiness. Cynicism has rarely been this stunning.
THE WIND (East Coast Premiere)
USA | 2018 | 87 Min | Dir. Emma Tammi
A devastating scene sets the stage for a haunting account of demonic terror on the American frontier in the 1800’s. Lizzy and Isaac welcome a couple, Emma and Gideon from Illinois, who take up residence in a nearby abandoned cabin. Not long after, Emma fears she is being hunted down by an evil spirit who wants her unborn baby and violently succumbs to her mania. This event reawakens Lizzy’s buried memories of her encounters with the demons on the land and when Isaac leaves to accompany Gideon back to Illinois, Lizzy is left alone to wage battle against the evil on the land.
Emma Tammi’s narrative feature debut makes astoundingly affective use of the American Western frontier. The wide open, barren and desolate wastelands combined with the atmospheric sounds of the elements and unrelenting gusts of wind (or are they whispers from the dead?) create a sense of helplessness unmatched by the claustrophobia of a haunted house and makes a strong case that we need more western horror films in our lives.
POSSUM (US Premiere)
UK | 2018 | 85 Min | Dir. Matthew Holness
Following an undisclosed shame, former puppeteer Philip returns to his shabby Norfolk childhood home and only surviving family member, gratingly unpleasant stepfather Maurice. Hanging off the edge of his own sanity, Philip tries to destroy his horrid memories which are encapsulated in the form of Possum, a large and hideous spider puppet. But Possum only pretends to be dead.
Under-appreciated character actor Sean Harris (recently recognizable as MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE antagonist Solomon Lane) stars with an insanely nuanced and chilling portrayal of isolation and trauma. Shot on 35mm with a fittingly yellow-and-brown-rotted palette and a puppet that delivers some seriously disturbing imagery, writer-director Matthew Holness’ first feature is a twisted psychological thriller that deep-dives into a bleak surrealist nightmare.
PARTY HARD, DIE YOUNG (North American Premiere)
Austria | 2018 | 93 Min | Dir. Dominik Hartl
To celebrate graduating from high school, Julia and her classmates take off for a party-resort in Croatia to experience the banger to end all bangers. As the epic party rages on, Julia’s best friend Jessica mysteriously disappears leaving nothing but a suspicious text and a Snapchat photo with her face scratched out. Then another friend slips off a roof to her death—and Julia receives another Snapchat photo. Uh oh.
Energetic and aesthetically gorgeous (mostly shot at the actual X-Jam Festival), Austrian director Dominic Hartl’s glossy homage to ‘90s teen slasher films is high on style while choosing to embrace new age connectivity when so many recent genre films would rather run from it, updating the slasher for the iPhone and EDM generation.
THE CLOVEHITCH KILLER (East Coast Premiere)
USA | 2018 | 109 Min | Dir. Duncan Skiles
Young churchgoing boy scout Tyler’s reputation takes a hit when his crush finds a pornographic bondage picture in his dad’s truck, believing it to be his. Ostracized from his group of friends, he falls in with Kassi, a teenage orphan obsessed with the Clovehitch Killer, a serial killer with a penchant for the clove hitch knot who once terrorized their town and was never found. After discovering more photos hidden in his dad’s work shed he’s left to fear the worst.
Rising talent Charlie Plummer is excellent as the innocent Tyler, but it’s Dylan McDermott playing his father, Don, who really owns the film with his paternal suburban transformation that’s every bit as campy and creepy as you would hope it to be. Directed by newcomer Duncan Skiles and written by Christopher Ford, frequent collaborator of Jon Watts on films such as CLOWN and COP CAR, this small town thriller has a sinister edge and sports an exciting narrative device that flips the story on its head.
GHOST MASK: SCAR (US Premiere)
South Korea | 2018 | 81 Min | Dir. Takeshi Sone
Miyu travels from Japan to Seoul, Korea trying to track down her older sister who has been missing for two years. Shortly after she arrives she meets plastic surgeon Hana, who invites her home to meet her lover Hyoshin. The three women cohabitate as Miyu’s search for her sister intensifies meanwhile Hyoshin, haunted by disturbing nightmares, becomes suspicious of Hana and Miyu’s relationship.
A tragic story of two Japanese sisters separated at childhood and plagued by jealousy, negligence and abandonment, GHOST MASK: SCAR is directed and shot by prolific cinematographer Takeshi Sone (he also shot recent festival hit ONE CUT OF THE DEAD) and features a ricocheting narrative that comes together beautifully in a bloody, gonzo final act.
BLOOD HARVEST (World Premiere of New Restoration)
USA | 2018 | 88 Min | Dir. Bill Rebane
Within the slasher movie canon, there are the indisputable giants: Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers. But what about Marvelous Mervo? Sure, he’s not the omnipresent icon that those other homicidal maniacs are, but there’s something to be said about a madman who’s played by eccentric ’80s music star Tiny Tim dressed like a clown and who leaves victims’ bodies hanging upside down in a barn like cattle.
If that sounds weird enough on its own, just wait until you experience the entirety of BLOOD HARVEST, one of the strangest ’80s slasher movies you’ll ever see. BHFF is thrilled to host the world premiere of a newly restored print of director Bill Rebane’s unnerving and often uncomfortably hilarious oddity, courtesy of Vinegar Syndrome. Full of gnarly kills, Tiny Tim’s signature brand of weirdness, and relentless unpredictability, BLOOD HARVEST is ripe for watch-it-with-a-rowdy-crowd rediscovery.
SECRET SCREENING
??? | ??? | ?? Min | Dir. ???
For the first time ever, the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival is excited to present a mystery film, and, sorry, we won’t give any easy-to-solve hints for all of you proud cinema sleuths out there! Okay, fine, we’ll give you a little something: Our inaugural “Secret Screening” film will either be a can’t-miss new horror gem that everyone, both genre folks and general film lovers alike, will be talking about for years to come or an unexpected yet prescient genre classic from deep in the vaults. Sorry, that’s all you’re going to get. Now let the speculation begin!
Home Invasion 2018 – annual showcase of local NYC films featuring the popular shorts block and a spotlight screening of Yedidya Gorsetman’s dark indie sci-fi EMPATHY, INC.
EMPATHY, INC. (East Coast Premiere)
USA | 2018 | 96 Min | Dir. Yedidya Gorsetman
In the “high risk, high reward” world of venture capitalists, rising star Joel lets it all ride on a deal that, sadly for he and his actress wife, painfully falls apart, leaving him with no other choice than to move in with his wife’s parents for financial reasons. Feeling like a huge failure, Joel unexpectedly finds some hope via a run-in with an old friend, whose business partner asks Joel to invest in a new experiential technology called XVR, or Xtreme Virtual Reality, the latest product of which allows wealthy folks to see life through the eyes of the less fortunate. Unfortunately for Joel, XVR’s makers’ intentions aren’t what they seem.
Shot in stark black-and-white and going into exceedingly dark narrative places, NYC-bred director Yedidya Gorsetman’s EMPATHY, INC. is the best kind of lo-fi sci-fi, an intimate character piece rooted in big ideas and blending doses of brutal horror into its cerebral tapestry. Comparable to an extended and decidedly bleak BLACK MIRROR episode, EMPATHY, INC. is a homegrown slice of pure genre-mashing ambition.
Downsizing[/caption]
The Virginia Film Festival will celebrate its 30th year from November 9 to 12, 2017, with a stellar lineup of more than 150 films and an outstanding array of special guests.
VFF Director and UVA Vice Provost for the Arts Jody Kielbasa announced the first wave of programming and special guests for the 2017 Festival. “We are incredibly excited to share this first announcement regarding our 2017 program,” Kielbasa said, “which we believe captures the things that set us apart, and that contribute to our rising profile on the national and international festival scene. Once again, our audiences will be able to choose from a program of extraordinary depth and breadth, including some of the hottest titles on the current festival circuit, fascinating documentaries that address and comment on the most important topics of our time, the latest work from some of the newest and most exciting voices on the filmmaking scene, and the best of filmmaking from around the world and right here in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
The 2017 Virginia Film Festival will open with Alexander Payne’s Downsizing, a science fiction flavored dramedy about a group of people exploring the possibility of dramatically reducing their footprints on the world through miniaturization. The film stars Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Christoph Waltz, and Hong Chau in a breakout role that is already garnering her significant Oscar buzz.
The Centerpiece Film will be Hostiles directed by Scott Cooper. In 1892, Army Captain Joseph J. Blocker (Christian Bale) is ordered to escort an ailing long-time prisoner, Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi), and his family across hostile territory back to his Cheyenne homeland to die in this gritty and powerful new Western from director Scott Cooper (Black Mass) that also stars Rosamund Pike, Ben Foster and Jesse Plemons.
William H. Macy comes to the Virginia Film Festival for the first time to present his new film Krystal. The film, which Macy directed and stars in, is about a young man who, despite having never had a drink in his life, joins Alcoholics Anonymous in an attempt to woo the woman of his dreams, an ex-stripper who is dealing with alcoholism and drug addiction, played by Rosario Dawson.
The tragic events surrounding the domestic terrorist incidents in Charlottesville on August 11 and 12 captivated the world and with that in mind, the Virginia Film Festival reached out to a variety of local filmmakers and encouraged them to create a documentary that captures the harrowing events that happened in Charlottesville, as seen by local filmmakers and residents. The result is Charlottesville: Our Streets, which is directed by Brian Wimer and written by Jackson Landers.
This year the Virginia Film Festival is partnering with James Madison’s Montpelier for Race in America – a special series of films and discussions inspired by and built around Montpelier’s acclaimed Mere Distinction of Colour exhibition and its ongoing commitment to exploring its own legacy of slavery, including the recreation of slave dwellings on its historic property. This year’s special guests will include the previously-announced Spike Lee, who will be on hand in Charlottesville as part of “Race in America,” to present his Oscar-nominated documentary 4 Little Girls, about one of America’s most despicable hate crimes – the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Church in Birmingham, Alabama that took the lives of four African American girls, Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robinson, and Cynthia Wesley. He will also present I Can’t Breathe, a short video piece that combines footage of the chokehold death of Eric Garner at the hands of the New York City Police Department with footage of the similar death of the Radio Raheem character in Lee’s iconic 1989 film Do The Right Thing. In addition to 4 Little Girls, the films in the series will include: