02/06/2014 - The claustrophobic Spanish film is victorious at the second edition of a fast-growing competition, which paid tribute to Tobe Hooper, Dario Argento and Jaume Balagueró

This year, the Best Film Award in the Official Section of the Nocturna Festival was named the Paul Naschy Prize in honour of the late filmmaker, who was considered the master of Spanish-made horror. At this edition of the event, it was awarded to In Darkness We Fall [+see also:
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In the other sections, such as Dark Visions, which focused on the most innovative and groundbreaking offerings within the fantasy genre, the Best Film Award went to Cruel and Unusual (Canada), while in the Madness sidebar – featuring violent and/or black-humour titles – the jury singled out another Canadian production, Pinup Dolls on Ice. And out of all the films, the audience voted for the US feature Savaged.

The competition, which had a privately funded budget of €70,000, included a section for both national and international short films (in which 24 horas con Lucía and Swiss film Lothar won awards), and a Panorama sidebar, which gathered together some interesting projects such as Panzer Chocolate, The Station (Austria) and Viy (uniting Russia, Ukraine, Germany, the UK and the Czech Republic). Nocturna also hosted the premieres of two Spanish productions: César del Álamo’s La mujer que hablaba con los muertos and Wax, directed by Víctor Matellano.

With 165 accredited journalists in attendance, the festival benefitted from a great deal of coverage across international media and aims to be even better for its next edition, without neglecting the close relationship it has with its devoted audience, as festival director Luis M Rosales maintains: “Our programming is somewhat unorthodox, and sees independent films rubbing shoulders with massive European and Hollywood productions; in this way, it demonstrates all the trends within the genre.”

(Translated from Spanish)