Part Four: Closing Night
Tribute to Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF)
Click the above image to see the closing night video for part four.
Closing night at the Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) brings the festival to a larger movie theater venue complete with a balcony. Balcony movie theaters always fascinate me for some reason as they do tend to make non-balcony ones look rather boring by comparison. Each year closing night at NIFFF brings about the announcement of what films win what awards and an honoring of the main festival guest of honor. In this video we will see the awards announced, some winners speaking, brief appearances by Xavier Gens, Joe Dante, Pascal Forney and Hideo Nakata.
For their 8th edition, the big prize winners were Sleep Dealer and Let the Right One In. Pascal Forney who directed the short Vincent le Magnifique won the H.R. Giger Prize for the best Swiss Short Film. Those in Austin may recall his short after NIFFF screened at Fantastic Fest.
The guest of honor was Hideo Nakata, who also had his most recent film, L: Change the World screened immediately following the awards being announced.
Closing night was a perfect end to the festival and the audience was extremely enthusiastic with applause and energy. Everyone that got up on stage certainly felt their appreciation. L: Change the World suffered too much from its own weight and seeming unsure on what it wanted to be, which seemed to zap some of the audience energy until the ending act which is so gleefully outrageous it kicked everyone full force on the front of their chair and cheering along. The film took awhile to get to a high note and luckily it was its ending, which put a perfect exclamation point on a very memorable week and first time in Neuchatel and NIFFF for me.
Full list of winners for 2008 are (source):
* Prize H.R. Giger for the Best International Film : Sleep Dealer by Alex Rivera (USA/Mexico)
* Special note from the International Jury : Let the Right One in by Tomas Alfredson (Sweden)and Tokyo! by Bong Joon-ho, Leos Carax and Michel Gondry (France/Japan/Germany/South Corea)
* Melies d’argent for the best European Film : Let the Right One in by Tomas Alfredson (Sweden)
* Prize H.R. Giger for the best Swiss Short Film and Price SSA/Suissimage: Vincent le Magnifique by Pascal Forney.
* Melies d’Or for the best European Short Film : Scary by Martijn Hullegie (Netherland)
* Prize TSR du Public (Swiss french-speaking television) : CJ7 by Stephen Chow (Hong-Kong)
* Prize Mad Movies for the best Asian Film : Om Shanti Om by Farha Khan(India)
* Prix de la Jeunesse : Let the Right One in by Tomas Alfredson (Sweden)
* Prize Titra Film : Tokyo! by Bong Joon-ho, Leos Carax and Michel Gondry (France/Japan/Germany/South Corea).
The jury who made all these decisions were the below with filmmaker Joe Dante heading everything up:
International Jury
Joe Dante, realisateur (USA)
Xavier Gens, realisateur (FR)
Lien Jens, Realisateur (NO)
Lucius Shepard, critique de cinema et ecrivain (USA)
Melies Jury
Veronika Grob, charge de programmation TV SF (CH)
Max Ruedlinger, acteur (CH)
Annette Scharnberg, Journaliste (CH)
Best Swiss Short Film Competition Jury
Denis Rabaglia, realisateur (CH)
Izabella Rieben, realisatrice et chargee des acquisitions animation a la TSR (CH)
Francois Junod, automatier-sculpteur (CH)
ACTUAL FEARS (Swiss Video Art Competition) Jury
Raffael Dorig, historie de l’art et curateur
Genevieve Loup, historienne de l’art et professeure a l’ECAV
Frederic Fisher, artiste
(Source)
Tribute to Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) – March 2009 (Archive):
::: March 8 – Part Four: Closing Night
::: March 7 – Part Three: Photo Gallery #1 – The Town of Neuchatel Switzerland
::: March 6 – Part Two: Opening Night NIFFF
::: March 1 – Part One: Ride into NIFFF
::: February 25 – Preview
About Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) Month:
All month long in March 2009, Cinema is Dope will be profiling and paying tribute to the Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) that takes place annually in Switzerland. Most coverage will feature their 8th edition which took place in 2008.
Please note that their 2009 dates are June 30th-July 5th.
It was the summer of 2008 and I found myself for the first time in Neuchatel, Switzerland, to take part in one of the worlds most blissful film festivals. What adjectives you say and yes they many and all do apply sincerely. To a certain degree you could call this a small genre fest and you in a way would be right but still so damn wrong at the same time. There is something so intoxicating and refreshing going on here each year at the Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) that regardless of size it feels infinitely grand and magical. Every screening is filled with energetic but respectful audiences and with its newly added outdoor screenings where you can gush over Wong Kar Wai’s Ashes of Time Redux set against the backdrop of the Swiss Alps, there are few things in life that can compare, let alone film going experiences. Many people put Venice, TIFFF, Cannes and more on their dial as must fests to attend and I’m sure those are great and all, but seriously you have not lived until you have stepped foot here. Recommended for film lovers of all kinds, treat yourself right someday. Please follow along in March of 2009 as I profile this film festival.
Please help and spread the word on Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) Month here at Cinema is Dope. Tweet your friends. Mention it in your Facebook status or Friendfeed. Link to it on your blog. Any support is greatly appreciated!!!!!
You can follow along at these specific urls/web addresses:
::: www.cinemaisdope.com/category/film-festivals-nifff-month
::: http://tinyurl.com/nifff-fest
Related Links:
::: NIFFF Web Site
