21/04/2010

The Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film closed last night with the awards ceremony. As every year, fans of fantasy film of all kinds flooded into Tour & Taxi, creating an extraordinary atmosphere.

While the international competition celebrated the undeniable talent of US and Asian directors of the genre, the Europeans took home more than just minor accolades, with the Best Thriller Award going to Cell 211 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Daniel Monzón
film profile] by Spain’s Daniel Monzon.

Juan, who thought he was going on a routine visit of the site of his future job, gets caught up in a riot. To survive, he passes himself off as a prisoner, even if it means going back on certain fundamental principles, such as “Thou shalt not kill”.

A special mention went to Uwe Boll’s German film Rampage.

The Silver Méliès awards are presented throughout the year at various major European fantasy film festivals, before the Golden Méliès is awarded at the end of the year. At the BIFFF, the Silver Meliès went to Anno Saul’s German film The Door [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a metaphysical trip back in time of sorts. The film ponders what survives of the soul when we kill off the person we should have been, in search of hypothetical perfection.

In the same section, a special mention was awarded to Cargo [+see also:
trailer
film profile], by Swiss duo Ivan Engler and Ralph Etter. This futuristic eco-space-opera surfs the wave of obsessive environmental fear and propels our pallid descendants into musty-smelling space stations. Then a patch of land emerges on the horizon (albeit several light years away).

Finally, the Audience Award was handed to a local film: Vincent Lannoo’s Vampires, which managed to delight the few Transylvanian counts still knocking around Brussels.

(Translated from French)