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JAPANESE AND HUNGARIAN CINEMA DOMINATE FANTASPORTO’2021

SUICIDE FOREST VILLAGE (Jap) and PREPARATIONS TO BE TOGETHER FOR AN UNKNOWN PERIOD OF TIME (Hun) WIN THE TOP AWARDS

The in person 41st edition of the Oporto International Film Festival – Fantasporto was touched again by the cinema made in Japan, following the winner of 2020, GHOSTMASTER, with Takashi Shimizu’s SUICIDE FOREST VILLAGE was awarded with the BEST FILM in the Fantasy Competition.

The Hungarian Cinema strikes again in Fantasporto with the awards granted to POST MORTEM in the Fantasy section and, more importantly with the BEST FILM AWARD of PREPARATIONS TO BE TOGETHER FOR AN UNKNOWN PERIOD OF TIME/ FÉLKESZULÉS by Lili Horvát (Hung) in the Directors Week.

The Japanese first feature AWAUTA by Mile Nagaoka wins two important awards, the SPECIAL AWARD OF THE JURY and the BEST DIRECTION.

The selection included films from the USA, South America, European and Asian countries with 50 features in competition, selected from proposals from 59 countries.

This  edition, postponed  twice because of the pandemic, was prepared in its final details in less than 10 days, equipping a theatre appropriately in an iconic building of the Industrial Age, a former food market, now a concert hall renamed Hard Club near the riverbank and  the centre of Porto, a World Heritage City.  The Hard Club has all the facilities - restaurant, halls, space and modern equipment- to make this edition of Fantasporto the usual celebration of Cinema. Narrowly escaping the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, the festival adapted with no foreign guests, no weekend screenings, fewer seats, juries working on-line but keeping the same program previously thought for February. This indicates the international ranking of Fantasporto as one of the three leading fantasy festivals in the world.

JAPAN WINS THE FANTASY OFFICIAL SECTION AGAIN

The Japanese feature SUICIDE FOREST VILLAGE, by director Takashi Shimizu, won the BEST FILM AWARD -FANTASPORTO 2021. The film is a terror and fantasy drama about two little girls who are rescued near a forest. Years later, under the house where they live, a strange box is found that seems to be the cause for the death of all who come in contact with it. From the director of “Howling Village”, screened in Fantasporto in 2020.

For the SPECIAL AWARD OF THE JURY, the international jury chose THE TROUBLE WITH BEING BORN by Sandra Wollner (Germany), the story of an android with the shape of a child whose memories are worth a lot to its owner but nothing at all to her. This is the story of a machine but much more about what humans think about loss, death, loneliness or human relationships. It is the second feature by this German director and the first time a woman wins one of the top fantasy awards of the festival.

Hungarians once again brought to Fantasporto two winners (with PREPARATIONS TO BE TOGETHER FOR AN UNKNOWN PERIOD OF TIME by Lili Horvát winning the Directors Week). In this Fantasy Section, the BEST DIRECTION AWARD was granted to POST MORTEM by Péter Bergendy. A photographer goes to a small village to capture the images of dead family members with their live relatives as it was frequent at the time. In a place that had many deaths because of the Spanish Flu and unable to bury their dead due to the frozen land, the village is in the hands of unfriendly ghosts. In 2018, Bergendy was responsible for “Trezor”, the first TV film from Hungary ever nominated to the Emmy’s.  This feature was also granted the BEST ACTOR AWARD to its leading actor, JAMES D’ARCY. The BEST ACTRESS AWARD went to THEKLA REUTEN for her extraordinary performance in MARIONETTE  by  Elbert Van Strien, a past winner of Fantasporto in 2011.

PIROS ZANKÁY, writer of POST MORTEM  (Hun) won BEST SCREENPLAY. And the BEST VISUAL EFFECTS  AWARD went to the Brasilian horror feature O CEMITÉRIO DAS ALMAS PERDIDAS by Rodrigo Aragão.

Spain had a great year winning the BEST FANTASY SHORT AWARD with ABRACITOS, by Tony Morales, and a SPECIAL MENTION for DAR-DAR by Paul Urkijo Alijo.

The International Jury of the Fantasy Jury: CHRISTIAN HALMAN (director), SANTIAGO DELLAPE (director) and MIKA HELMINEN (critc).

DIRECTORS WEEK AWARD/ MANOEL DE OLIVEIRA AWARD GOES TO HUNGARY

As we said the BEST FILM of the DIRECTORS WEEK was  won by Hungarian director LILI HORVÁT and her feature PREPARATIONS TO BE TOGETHER FOR AN UNKNOWN PERIOD OF TIME, an intense  love story about a woman who leaves her work in America, and returns to Budapest to start a new life with an Hungarian man she had met in USA and  fell in love with.  As arranged, she waits for him at the Liberty Bridge, but he does not appear at the rendezvous. This film also gave NATASA STORK the BEST ACTRESS AWARD of the official section.

A favourite of the jury of the Directors Week was also the first feature by Japanese director MILE NAGAOKA. AWAUTA which received the SPECIAL JURY AWARD and the BEST DIRECTOR of the Directors Week.

THE BEST SCREENPLAY went to DINNER IN AMERICA and Adam Rehmeier (USA),  and the BEST ACTOR  AWARD was granted to  AUGUSTO GORDILLO for his role in the Uruguayan feature  IN THE QUARRY / EN EL POZO.  

The International Jury of the Directors Week: ATE DE JONG (director), CASHELL HORGAN (director) and RICARDO FIGUEIRA (journalist)

PORTUGUESE CINEMA AWARDS WILL BE ANNOUNCED LATER ON.

In April 2022 , the 42^nd edition of Fantasporto will take place in the newly renovated Batalha- Centro de Cinema, returning in 2023 to the usual dates  by end of February.

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