22/06/2022 - For his first edition as festival director, Pierre-Yves Walder has concocted a line-up which stays true to the audacious nature of the event

Boasting 128 works hailing from five different continents, the programme put forth by the 21st edition of the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) (running 1-9 July) will explore the most wide-ranging kinds of fantastical worlds. Viewers will be treated to a taste of exquisite delicacies created by renowned and borderline legendary filmmakers, such as Italy’s Dario Argento, Spain’s Àlex de la Iglesia and South Korea’s Park Chan-wook, but also by the most audacious of newcomers. In this sense, the festival is once again emphasising its open and inclusive approach. As insisted by its new (general and artistic) director Pierre-Yves Walder, "Now more than ever, the NIFFF has established itself as the privileged observatory of the many varied forms of the fantastical genre".

This 21st edition will open with an international premiere of The Five Devils [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which is the second intriguing feature film to come courtesy of French director Léa Mysius (and which enjoyed its international premiere in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight).

The official selection - which this year includes 11 world premieres, 10 international premieres, 7 European premieres and 44 Swiss premieres, is set to be scrutinised by a jury composed of the women of letters Joyce Carol Oates and Mariana Enríquez, Welsh director Prano Bailey-Bond, ROB and director Martika Ramirez Escobar. Of the fourteen films competing for the H.R. Giger Narcisse Award, eight are European productions and co-productions. France will be represented by Summer Scars [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Simon Rieth
film profile], which is Simon Rieth’s obscure yet radiant first feature film (selected for Cannes’ Critics’ Week), as well as by two co-productions: Ashkal [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Tunisian director Youssef Chebbi and The Cow Who Sang A Song Into The Future [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Chile’s Francisca Alegria. Another co-production on the agenda is the highly awaited post-apocalyptic tale Vesper [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kristina Buožytė and Bruno …
film profile] by French-Lithuanian duo Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper. The official selection will also showcase Freaks Out [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gabriele Mainetti
film profile] by Italy’s Gabriele Mainetti, an off-beat story revolving around four oddballs with superpowers and set in Rome besieged by Nazis; an international premiere of Austria’s Family Dinner [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Peter Hengl; Men [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by British helmer Alex Garland, which reveals a living nightmare in the English countryside; and two co-productions in the form of Nr.10 [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Holland’s Alex van Warmerdam and US director Riley Stearns’ intriguing cloning story Dual.

European films also feature heavily in the non-competitive Third Kind section, which homes in on sci-fi related genres. Among them, we’ll find a world premiere of French film L’année du requin (starring Marina Foïs, Kad Merad and Jean-Pascal Zadi), which is Ludovic and Zoran Bouhkerma’s second feature, telling the tale of a coastguard close to retirement who’s faced with a shark stalking the French department of Les Landes.

A movie not to be missed in the Ultra Movies section, dedicated to thrill-lovers, is Dark Glasses [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by cult Italian director Dario Argento who’s back behind the cameras after a ten-year absence, and Veneciafrenia [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by legendary Spanish director Álex de la Iglesia, which relates an unusual excursion across the world’s most well-known lagoon.

These tantalising sections will be made even more mouth-watering by first-rate special programmes along the lines of Scream Queer, offering a retrospective of twenty or so titles representing LGBTIQ+ communities, and Amazing Switzerland, which explores fantastical Swiss production in all its disconcerting splendour.

(Translated from French)