10/03/2014 - Swiss director Olivier Beguin, Spain’s Álex de la Iglesia and Hungarian filmmaker Márk Bodzsár also win awards at the fantastic film festival in Porto

This weekend, the 34th edition of the Fantasporto festival came to a close with the Japanese film Miss Zombie, by Hiroyuki Tanaka, standing out as the winner of the festival’s Best Film Award and the Special Award in the Orient Express section, which is dedicated to Far Eastern cinema.

But in addition to this Asian success, European cinema was not left out as the competition came to a close. Chimères [+see also:
trailer
film profile], for example, earned itself the Jury’s Special Award. The vampire movie, co-produced by Chaoticlock Films (Switzerland) and VM Broadcast Services Global (Spain), marks the first foray by Swiss director Olivier Beguin into feature-film territory, following his two short films Dead Bones and Employé du Mois.

The latest movie by Spanish director Álex de la Iglesia, Witching & Bitching [+see also:
trailer
interview: Alex de la Iglesia
film profile] (read the interview), snagged the Best Special Effects Award and the Audience Award, while the Turkish-Ukrainian co-production Love Me by Maryna Gorbach and Mehmet Bahadir bagged the Critics’ Award and the Jury’s Special Award in the Directors’ Week section. Israeli filmmakers Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado were given the Best Direction Award for Big Bad Wolves, and its star, Duval’e Glickman, won in the Best Actor category. Britain’s Ann Walton made off with the Best Actress Award for her role in the ghost film Soulmate, by Axelle Carolyn.

The Manoel de Oliveira Award, given out in the Directors’ Week section, went to Hungarian director Márk Bodzsár for his feature film Heavenly Shift [+see also:
trailer
film profile], produced by Unio Films.

In terms of the awards given out to Portuguese participants, the short film José Combustão dos Porcos by José Magro was chosen as the Best Portuguese Film, while the 2014 Best Film School Award went to the Catholic University of Porto.

Fantasporto will be back for its 35th edition between 27 February and 7 March 2015.

(Translated from Spanish)