Fantasia Comes To An End … Winners Announced!

Another successful edition for Fantasia

Montreal, July 24th 2007, The Fantasia International Film Festival is extremely proud to have shared its cinematic experience with more than 81,000 attendees on its 11th edition. In 2006, the festival attracted some 77,000 spectators. The addition of a third screening room, as well as numerous sold-out showings, were determining factors in this year’s increased attendance.

This eleventh edition was notably marked by the participation of a newly record-breaking number of prestigious guests, originating from all around the world. Directors, producers, actors, studio representatives,distributors, program planners of international film festivals and foreign journalists participated in these 19 days of cinematic celebration.

Our new spotlights - Documentaries From The Edge, Hell Is A City: The Cinema Of Urban Apocalypse, The Films Of Yves Montmayeur, Russian Fantastika: From the Tsars to the Stars and our tribute to Jean Rollin - all saw lively success.

Official Jury prizes of the 11th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival Feature film competition

The official jury of the 2007 Fantasia Festival - presided over by director, screenwriter and actor Yves P. Pelletier and composed of Benoît Guichard (screenwriter), Patrice Robitaille (actor and screenwriter), Patrice Sauvé (director) and Roland Smith (programmer) - have presented their list of laureates to the public.

BEST film
Memories of Matsuko - Tetsuya Nakashima (Japan)

Best director
Feng Xiaogang – The banquet (China)

Best script
Han Jae-rim – The show must go on (South Korea)

Best photography
Li Zhang – The banquet (China)

Best Actor
Ex æquo : Song Kang-ho - The Show must go on (South Korea) / Ryu Deok-hwan - Like a Virgin (South Korea)

Best Actress
Mary McCormack – Right at your door (USA)

Official Jury prizes of the 11th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival Short film competition

The prestigious jury of the official short features shown at Fantasia, presided over by actress Suzanne Clément and composed of Stéphane Crête (actor, screenwriter and filmmaker), René-Homier Roy (television host, anchorman and journalist), Claude Auchu (vice-president and general director of the LG 2 agency) and Nancy Pavan (creative director, Tequila Communication) also presented their list of laureates to the public.

Best Quebec short feature
(Award includes a $2500 grant)
Flutter - Howie Shia (Quebec)

Special Jury Mention
MOI - Yan England (Quebec)

Special Jury Mention
The photography of Claudine Sauvé (François Blouin’s Hotel and Yan England’s Moi)

Best international short feature
Ex æquo: The Last 15 - Antonio Campos (USA) / Maquina - Gabe Ibanez (Spain)

Best animated short feature
Everything Will Be OK - Don Hertzfeldt (USA)

Special Jury Mention
The Runt - Andreas Hykade (Germany)

BEST DIY Short - QuEbec
(Award includes a $1000 grant and a professional DVD duplication from Magra Multi Média)
L’écervelé - Benoît Desjardins (Quebec)

Special MentionS:
20 secondes - Patrick Rozon (Quebec)
FLUSH! – JeF. Grenier (Quebec)
Jihad Joe II - Simon Bouchard (Quebec)

Sequences award
The noted French-Canadian magazine Séquences associated itself with Fantasia to present their Séquences Award. Mr. Élie Castiel, editor-in-chief of Séquences, was the president of the jury for this prize. For its refreshing audacity displayed through brilliant, anime-like mise en scene that breathes life into a surreal, personal universe, the Séquence Jury composed of Yasmina Daha, Dominic Bouchard et Luc Chaput selected, for their award…

WOOL 100% - Mai Tominaga (Japan)

Info Culture Award
Best Documentary

The jury accepted sleepless nights of debate and deliberation to choose this year’s winner of a very competitive selection.  Even if the films seen were very different in their approach, they all shared commons qualities - the pertinence and originality of their subjects, as well as the power to have the moviegoers think and ask themselves questions. The best way to describe the selected documentaries is that they represent real food for thought.

The jury, composed of Hector Salieri (president), Alison Leigh, Benjamin Desautels, Irene Johnson and Yves Beaupré, awarded THE GHOSTS OF CITÉ SOLEIL, directed by Asgen Leth and produced by Wyclef Jean, as Best Documentary.

L’Écran Fantastique Award
The L’Écran Fantastique Award is awarded to the American film Right at your door from writer/director Chris Gorak.

Special Mention
Rory Cochrane and Mary McCormack

The L’Écran Fantastique Award acknowledges fantasy, horror or science-fiction feature films produced in 2006 or 2007 and presented during the Fantasia Festival. The prize is comprised of an article of five to six colour pages in an upcoming edition of the magazine, along with a free full-page advertisement when the film is released in theatres or on video in France. L’Écran Fantastique, which has existed for more than 37 years, has a monthly print run of 98,000 copies and is distributed in the following territories: France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Canada (Quebec), Morocco and Germany. Its head office is in Paris, the editor-in-chief is Alain Schlockoff and its Canada correspondant is Yves Rivard. L’Écran Fantastique differentiates itself with its high standards in editing and its high-quality visual presentation.

PUBLIC’S PRIZE
fantasia 2007

As per tradition, Fantasia’s audiences were asked to express their choices for their favorite flashpoints of Fantasia 2007.

Best Asian Film

golden prize:
13 Beloved - Chookiat Sakweerakul (Thailand)

Silver prize:
Exiled – Johnnie To (Hong Kong)

Bronze prize:
Ex æquo : City of Violence - Ryoo Seung-wan (South Korea)/Memories of Matsuko - Tetsuya Nakashima (Japan)

Best European / North - South American Film

golden prize:
Hatchet - Adam Green (USA)

Silver prize:
End Of The Line - Maurice Deveraux (Canada)

Bronze prize:
Ex æquo : Mulberry Street - Jim Mickle (USA) / The Signal - David Bruckner, Dan Bush and Jacob Gentry (USA)

Best Animated / Stop Motion film

golden prize:
Tekkon Kinkreet - Michael Arias (Japan)

Silver prize:
We are the Strange - M dot Strange (USA)

Bronze prize:
Aachi & Ssipak - Joe Bum-jin (South Korea)

Most Groundbreaking Film

golden prize:
We are the Strange - M dot Strange (USA)

Silver prize:
Exte: Hair Extensions - Sion Sono (Japan)

Bronze prize:
Memories of Matsuko - Tetsuya Nakashima (Japan)

best documentary

golden prize:
King of Kong - Seth Gordon (USA)

Silver prize:
Your Mommy Kills Animals - Curt Johnson (USA)

Bronze prize:
Ex æquo : Ghosts OF City Soleil - Asger Leth (Denmark/ ÉUA) / Zoo –Robinson Devor (USA)

Best Short Film

golden prize:
The Fith - Ryan Levin (USA)

Silver prize:
Angel - Paul Hough (USA)

Bronze prize:
Ex æquo: Criticized - Richard Gale (USA) / The Morning After - Daniel Knight (Australia)

Best Putain d’court!

Public’s Prize “BEST Putain d’court!”
(Award includes a 500 Euros grant)
GRATTE-PAPIER - Guillaume MARTINEZ (France)

The popular success of this year’s edition was made possible thanks to the notable, close collaboration of Ubisoft (presenting sponsor), Vision Globale (founder and owner of the event), Sympatico/MSN, Paradox Entertainment, many sponsors and partners (the Admission network, Anchor Bay/Starz Home Enterinment, Bell Mobilité, Belle Gueule, Burger King, CBS Affichage, Concept Audio-Visuel, Consulat général de France à Québec, Drive In Classics, Entreprises Vidéo Service, Génération mobile, HMV, Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office (Canada), Kodak Film Cinématographique, Location
Michel Trudel, Magra Multi Média, MusiquePlus, Nintendo, Office Nationale du Film, Pepsi Canada, Space Channel, SuperClub Vidéotron, Sympatico Optimax, Unifrance, Zip.ca and Z télé).  The Fantasia festival was also the beneficiary of a $35,000 grant from Ministère des Affaires municipales et des Régions via the Fonds de développement de la métropole program, of a $25,000 grant from Tourisme Québec, of a $20,000 grant from la Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC) and of a $10,000 grant from the City of Montreal.

The Fantasia Festival would like to thank all its public and private
partners, its advertisers, the various local and international distributors
and producers and its various collaborators, as well as its army of
volunteers and film buffs, who believed again this year in the commercial,
artistic and touristic potential of the event.

The Fantasia Festival will be back again next summer to celebrate his 12th
edition, from July 3th to July 21st, 2008.