09/04/2014 - The 32nd BIFFF will put forward a hundred or so horror films of different types and will launch a new co-production market dedicated to genre cinema

The Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival launched on Tuesday night. For over ten days, one of the biggest fantastical European festivals will host films from every corner of the world and will offer a varied yet refined selection, beyond a series of off the wall events. On the programme: zombies, a few vampires, crazy professors, samurais, psychopaths of every kind and pirates. 

More sensitive souls should avoid the Midnight Xtremes section and should head towards the five fantastical productions for children, including Ragnarok [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (a kind of Norwegian Indiana Jones) and The Adventurer (by Jonathan Newman), a Belgian co-production (Umedia). The many guests will include Terry Gilliam and new Spanish genre cinema champion, Alex de la Iglesia. For the first time this year, Brussels will welcome Frontières, the first European co-production market dedicated to fantastical cinema.

Included in the thriller competition section is Ablations by Arnold de Parscau (based on a screenplay by Benoît Delépine), the story of a quiet (or almost quiet) father who one day wakes up and is unstoppable… The cast is first class (Denis Ménochet, Virginie Ledoyen, Yolande Moreau, Philippe Nahon); the film is produced by Nexus Factory. Another Belgian production, Let Me Survive by Eduardo Rossoff, produced by Banana Films, is about the descent into hell of Kate, who finds herself alone at sea on an inflatable boat after her husband and son have died.   

The international section may be dominated by North American and Asian productions, but still: some European ones too. The Machine by Caradog W James (UK) and obviously Witching & Bitching [+see also:
trailer
interview: Alex de la Iglesia
film profile], Alex de la Iglesia’s new film. Spain is the most represented country (together with the UK) in the relatively small European selection this year (Scandinavian countries are almost completely absent unlike in previous years), with a dozen or so productions and co-productions selected across sections.  

(Translated from French)