14/10/2013 - In the Name of the Son won in front of Borgman by Alex Van Warmerdam and Holy Motors by Léos Carax in the race for the Golden Méliès, awarded this weekend in Sitgès

The Golden Méliès was awarded this weekend during the International Fantastic Film Festival of Sitgès. The Golden Méliès is a unique reward since it covers several festivals, as part of the European Federation of Fantastic Film Festivals. Each of the nine participating festivals each year awards a Silver Méliès to one of its competition’s films, and then, at the end of the season, these films compete against each other for the ultimate award. This competition focuses on the best European fantastic or science fiction film of the year, and this year brought together movies as different as Cockneys vs Zombies [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Holy Motors [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Leos Carax
film profile].

It was thus quite unexpectedly that In the Name of the Son [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Vincent Lannoo, won this year after being rewarded at the Fantastic Film Festival of Neufchatel. In the Name of the Son tells the story of the vengeful odyssey of Elisabeth, a traditional Catholic mother, whose world collapses after her son, who was molested by a paedophile priest, commits suicide. While the film goes back and forth with different genres, does not lack bloodshed and is characterised by a radically iconoclast and joyfully irreverent tone, it does not fit in the fantastic or science fiction categories as such. It should however be mentioned that In the Name of the Son has received good reactions from the public for over a year in the many festivals where it was screened. Only just last week, it received the Prize of the Public at the Festival L’Absurde Séance in Nantes. This Méliès thus offers a nice ending to a great festival career.   

In the past, the Golden Méliès was awarded to famous filmmakers such as Michael Wintterbottom (Code 46 [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Alex de la Iglesia (The Last Circus [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Álex de la Iglesia
film profile]), and consecrated successes like Let the Right One In [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: John Nordling
interview: Tomas Alfredson
film profile] by Tomas Alfredson and Adam’s Apples [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anders Thomas Jensen
interview: Mads Mikkelsen
interview: Tivi Magnusson
film profile] byAnders Thomas Jensen. In the Name of the Son is the second Belgian film to win the prize, after Thomas est amoureux by Pierre-Paul Renders in 2001.