Summary - Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival

Summary

1. EDITO ................................................................................................................................. 4

2. NEWS ................................................................................................................................. 5

2.1 The BIFFF Guild ......................................................................................................... 5

2.2 The Vampire Ball at the Beaux-Arts ............................................................................ 8

2.3 Body Painting Contest 2.0 ........................................................................................... 9

2.4 Tarquin : the comeback! ............................................................................................ 10

2.5 Prosthetic Reality ...................................................................................................... 11

2.6 Fantasy & Manga Market .......................................................................................... 12

2.7 Boulevard du polar .................................................................................................... 13

2.8 Gaming Madness Zone .............................................................................................. 17

2.9 VR Screening Room .................................................................................................. 18

2.10 Sharing Box ........................................................................................................... 19

2.11 iGoTo ......................................................................................................................... 20

2.12 SÉMA Éditions ..................................................................................................... 21

2.13 The 501st FanWars Garrison comes to the BIFFF ................................................. 23

3. BIF MARKET .................................................................................................................. 24

4. THE OFF OF THE FESTIVAL ....................................................................................... 25

4.1 Zombifff Day ............................................................................................................. 25

4.2 35th Make Up Contest ............................................................................................... 28

4.3 3rd international Art Contest ..................................................................................... 29

4.4 Artbifff ....................................................................................................................... 30

4.5 Animations ................................................................................................................. 34

TaKaPa ................................................................................................................................. 34

Puck Company ..................................................................................................................... 35

Art&Smile ............................................................................................................................ 35

Magic Land Theatre ............................................................................................................. 36

Tultétar Co. ........................................................................................................................... 36

Predator ................................................................................................................................ 36

4.6 PointCulture ............................................................................................................... 37

5. MASTERCLASS .............................................................................................................. 39

5.1 Guillermo del Toro .................................................................................................... 39

5.2 League of Human Rights ........................................................................................... 40

5.3 Deon Meyer ............................................................................................................... 41

6. APPETIZERS ................................................................................................................... 42

6.1 Belgian Short Film Competitions .............................................................................. 43

6.2 Belgian short film: non-competitive section ............................................................. 48

6.3 European Short Film Competition (Méliès) .............................................................. 50

6.4 International Shorts .................................................................................................... 52

6.5 The year of the Contestation ...................................................................................... 54

6.6 Kim Jee-woon retrospective ...................................................................................... 55

6.7 Cronos Retrospective ................................................................................................. 56

6.8 Mexico Focus ............................................................................................................ 57

6.9 Courts mais Trash ...................................................................................................... 58

6.10 Mad in Belgium ..................................................................................................... 60

6.11 Fantastikids ................................................................................................................ 62

6.12 50 years of Belgian cinema: "Tueurs" by François Troukens ............................... 63

6.13 Special Screening « I Kill Giants » ........................................................................ 64

7. THE MAIN COURSE ...................................................................................................... 65

7.1 Opening / Closing : .................................................................................................... 65

7.2 Midnight X-Tremes ................................................................................................... 67

7.3 Fantastic Night ........................................................................................................... 73

7.4 7th Orbit Competition ................................................................................................ 75

7.5 Thriller Competition .................................................................................................. 82

7.6 European Competition ............................................................................................... 87

7.7 Critics' Prize ............................................................................................................... 95

7.8 International Competition ........................................................................................ 100

7.9 Out of competition ................................................................................................... 108

7.10 Schedule of BIFFF 2018 ...................................................................................... 125

8. KNIGHTS OF THE ORDER OF THE RAVEN ............................................................. 127

9. KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF THE RAVEN 2018 ...................................................... 129

10. PRACTICAL INFORMATION .................................................................................. 130

11. THE PARTNERS ........................................................................................................ 133

1. EDITO

The BIFFF stands for 36 years of passion, self-denial, sweat, and sometimes blood. Hundreds

of hours that make you feel like your eyes will give in or that make you want to light a candle.

Since 1983, the BIFFF has been a fierce defender of genre movies, a section of the cinema that

is now the most popular in the world. Thanks to its co-productions and talented technicians,

Belgium is increasingly asserting itself as a key player in cinematic fantasy art.

This year, we are proud to present eleven Belgian films, six of which are world premieres!

Internationally, Belgium is holding a set of winning co-production cards: Muse (Jaume

Balagueró), I Kill Giants (co-produced by Chris Colombus of Harry Potter fame), Mandy (with

Nicolas Cage), and The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (Terry Gilliam). Quite something, isn’t

it?

All this justifies, more than ever, the BIFFF’s risky bet to create the first European genre film

market in 2017. For its second edition, the BIF Market is again welcoming sellers and buyers

from all over the world. We will also be launching the “Work in Progress” section and offer a

perfect forum for Belgian professionals to showcase their talents in an international context.

But above all, the BIFFF remains a popular festival, made for and by the public. Of all Belgian

film festivals, we have the highest percentage of paying spectators. Our reputation exceeds

national boundaries, which becomes evident from the number of submissions (nearly 2,000

films!) from the four corners of the globe. This year, we’re having a record number of twelve

world premieres, thirteen international premieres, and nine European premieres. Thirty-five

debut films will be programmed alongside work by top names such as Ryuhei Kitamura, John

Cameron Mitchell, Paco Plaza, Lloyd Kaufman, Xavier Gens, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and Kim Ki-

duk.

Genre cinema, as an uncompromising mirror of our time, addresses topical themes: from

feminism via the rise of nationalism to migration. Our selection is clearly an indication of

current moral and ideological tendencies.

But rest assured: zombies, ghouls, vampires, monsters unknown to Merriam-Webster, time

loops, zany, daring, and hardcore movies are still part and parcel of the festival’s DNA!

As to novelties, it's a real feast: an Augmented Reality exhibition (unique in Belgium), a full-

fledged Virtual Reality section, our Vampire Ball (for the first time at BOZAR), a monstrous

Gaming Madness Zone, and a self-evident collaboration: the second edition of the Boulevard

du Polar Festival. This will take place on April 13th and 14th at BOZAR, with illustrious literary

guests such as Craig Johnson and Deon Meyer.

Speaking of guests, hundreds of actors and directors will once again be present at the BIFFF to

celebrate genre cinema. Among them, we welcome Julia Ducournau, Stéphanie Crayencour,

and Laurent Lucas to our international jury, which will be chaired this year by Lloyd Kaufman.

Ah yes, one last thing: a promising young Mexican director will also appear at the BIFFF. He

has just won four Oscars with The Shape of Water, including Best Film and Best Director. It’s

a certain Guillermo del Toro... who will graciously be giving an exceptional master class, co-

hosted by Fabrice du Welz and Jonas Govaerts.

Welcome to Brussels, fantasy capital of the world. Welcome to the BIFFF!

2. NEWS

2.1 The BIFFF Guild

Rest assured: everything is going well in the BIFFF kingdom! Valiantly resisting the hurricanes

of streaming, VOD, and budget cuts, the festival wants more than ever to keep its place on the

world festival stage. Rather than passing the buck to our public by raising ticket prices, we

prefer going about it in a fun way. How? By having two armies of loyal fans slug it out against

one another on the virtual battlefield, by way of warming up for the festival itself. Would you

like to play with us? Welcoooome!!!!!

To whet the appetite, have a look at the superb coats of arms designed by David P., who will be

showing some of his works at the BIFFF this year!

THE BRIGHT SIDE

WARRIOR GUARDIAN

LADY LORD

THE DARK SIDE

GREMLIN

DRAGON

WIZARD

2.2 The Vampire Ball at the Beaux-Arts

A picture speaks more than a thousand words, doesn’t it?

Yes, it does! This year, the mythical Vampire Ball will take place at the

Centre for Fine Arts! On Saturday, April 7th, lots of strange creatures

will be seen running around in the proximity of Fernand Léger’s

paintings...

So if you feel like spending an unusual evening among stars in make-up and disguised festival-

goers who wiggle their feet to wild rhythms, don't hesitate. This time, the Ball is at the CENTRE

of the European capital, yak yak yak!!

And if you find it hard to make yourself look like a freshly dug-up corpse, don't hesitate to leave

your fate in the expert hands of our makeup artists and hairdressers.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Saturday, April 7, 2018 9PM - Horta Hall – BOZAR/Centre for Fine Arts

Makeup/hairdressing: € 3 (from 9 PM to 1 AM)

Contest for the best disguise: 2 hours

Advance booking: 13.50 €

On site: 15 €

www.bifff.net

http://www.bifff.net/

2.3 Body Painting Contest 2.0

The BIFFF launched the BODY PAINTING CONTEST more than thirty years ago and since

then it has been taken up all over the world. But now it arises from its ashes, like the phoenix.

Thanks to AIR EUROPA and MIKIM FX (who are supporting this competition with an

avalanche of prestigious prizes) international participants will be able to compete in the BODY

PAINTING CONTEST on Sunday, April 8th at the BIFFF. The wildest, most fantastic and

colorful creations will be presented during an unusual fashion show in the superb HLB hall and

will then put to the vote by a jury of professionals.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Sunday 8 April 2018

Centre for Fine Arts

2 – 4.30 PM: public access to the contest (free)

4.30 – 6 PM: unusual fashion show (10€ on-site – free tickets available via your registration

on www.mikimfx.com)

http://www.mikimfx.com/

2.4 Tarquin : the comeback!

Didier Tarquin, a legend of cartoon art, drew the poster

for the 2017 BIFFF and he was a member of our

Thriller jury, too. But above all, he is a human being

like any other. Like thousands of you, he got the post-

BIFFF blues at the end of last April. The only remedy

for this chronic illness is to wait until the next edition,

so Didier Tarquin took the initiative and started

preparing his brushes for the 36th edition. But not just

any which way! With a skillful system of post-it notes

before certain sessions, the audience will be able to jot

down ideas to inspire this outstanding artist. Because

during the second week of the festival, he will be

drawing live at the BIFFF!

2.5 Prosthetic Reality

The future is coming to the BIFFF! Witness the Belgian premiere of the AR exhibition

Prosthetic Art in the corridors of the BIFFF, in partnership with the festival Courant 3D from

Angoulême (France), a collection of unforgettable works curated by the artist Sutu. Download

the application for free and succumb to the art of the future! You won't believe your eyes!

2.6 Fantasy & Manga Market

Sunday, April 15th 2018

FANTASY & MANGA

MARKET

HORTA HALL

BOZAR – CENTRE FOR FINE ARTS

36th Brussels International Fantasy Film Festival

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Fantasy and Manga Market is being held for the 7th time and takes place in the prestigious

Horta Hall, next to the exhibitions entry. The Market is free for visitors and operating hours

will be 10 AM till 8.30 PM. This event is a must for fans and collectors of posters, comics,

DVDs and other film memorabilia! But it’s also a nice outing for the entire family, because on

the same day we’re having a children’s program (with make-up, games, and a movie screening).

Want to have a stand at the Market? Please contact [email protected]

2.7 Boulevard du polar

Spectacular robbery at the BIFFF – deposition by Boulevard du Polar!

Minutes of the trial

Preliminary hearing: South African suspect Deon Meyer (Monday,

April 9th)

Deon Meyer is the internationally acclaimed author of seventeen best-

sellers and also a director. He will present his latest film and will

participate in a master class.

Profile

Boulevard du Polar is an international multimedia festival. Its motive is to pay tribute to

a genre that makes people’s hearts race and stirs up their neurons.

One book out of five is a mystery. The genre has continued to grow in popularity and notoriety.

The culprits are talented artists; it’s not clear whether they are novelists, filmmakers,

screenwriters or illustrators. Literature and cinema revel in these stories rooted in the real world

and that hold up an unflattering mirror.

Mysteries (novels, comic books, and films noirs) rely on the careful observation of society and

report their findings in a critical and even controversial manner. They delve into our behavior,

our instincts, our weaknesses, and our souls. In its slipstream were born modern knights and

evil geniuses, like all mortals full of humanity, compassion, and frailty.

The Suspects

The investigators are looking into a French connection. The sponsors’ identity is known. They

are the repeat offenders Nadine Monfils and Patrick Raynal. The list of suspected accomplices

illustrates the scope of the network, with various profiles: screenwriters, novelists, and

cartoonists with ink spots on their hands and film strips in their clutches! They are Belgian and

maintain tight relations with their counterparts in mostly France.

The following persons have confessed:

Ian Manook: author of a Mongolian thriller trilogy, including the award-winning Yeruldelgger

Serguei Dounovetz: continues the Nestor Burma series and also wrote a novel about a

mourning aging rocker behind the wheel of a hearse in infernal Texas

Stanislas Petrosky: is it any wonder that this former embalmer and fan of Frédéric Dard

succeeded in getting Nadine Monfils to write a preface for his humorous and mocking stories?

The underworld’s women (also known as femmes fatales) are inevitably guilty. The conspiracy

includes:

➢ Barbara Abel

➢ Lijn Alexandre

➢ Armelle Carbonel

➢ Sophie Chabanel

➢ Laurence Fontaine

➢ Pascale Fonteneau

➢ Kate Milie

➢ Elsa Roch

Suspicions also weigh heavily on a probable international network:

Craig Johnson (USA): will be summoned to shed light on Walt

Longmire’s tenth adventure (master class: Saturday, April 14th at 4

PM).

Juan-Carlos Méndez Guédez (Venezuela): the man who considers

life to be a lucha libre-style fight will also be brought in.

Autopsy of the festival

Signature sessions in Polar&Co’s bookstore at the festival

Friday and Saturday from 10 AM to 7 PM (free entrance)

Panel discussions and master classes in the BIFFF Village (full program on www.boulevard-

du-polar.be)

Screenings in Theatre 3:

Friday, April 13th: Tueurs

Saturday, April 14th: Une part d’ombre

Visits to unusual places and tastings of “bad taste” beer are also planned.

Event – Friday, April 13th

You can win thirteen autographed novels. If you liked Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of

Water on the silver screen, you’ll just love his novel!

“A captivating work of art... that sheds light on the psychology of the characters, greatly

enhances our understanding of their personality and dilemmas, and offers a broader and more

engaging storyline.” (Booklist)

2.8 Gaming Madness Zone

Gaming Madness Zone: 12 days of Gaming Mayhem in one spot!

There’s an ever thinner line between genre movies and video games. We both love getting

scared, killing orcs, having bad ass battles in space and so on. But even if we look like brothers

from another mother, there is still so

much we can learn from each other.

That is why after three years of

introducing all kind of gaming activities

at the festival, we’re giving the gamers

their very own space: The Gaming

Madness Zone.

This multifunctional space will start its

activities on Wednesday 4 April, which

will go on till Sunday 15 April. You’ll get access to the best new board games programmed by

the Brussels Games Festival, you’ll be able to test new games and meet some old friends like

Brotaru, Blending Game Jam, Brussels Game Festival,… And, as the cherry on the cake,

there’ll be a masterclass devoted to games!

2.9 VR Screening Room

Horror in 2D is out; soon shuddering in 3D will be

the new normal. Technology is evolving at

supersonic speed and full immersion remains the

Holy Grail of genre moviemaking! That’s why the

BIFFF is opening its first Virtual Reality Screening

Room, with nine Gears and a line-up of fifteen

international titles, including the first VR films by

Jaume Balagueró and Lloyd Kaufmann, as well as

the masterpieces by Dark Corner Studios (screened

every day from 2 to 11 PM)!

And you know what? Admission is absolutely free!

2.10 Sharing Box

Since you will spend an unforgettable moment at the BIFFF, why not immortalize it thanks to

the Sharing Box? Sharing Box is a photo booth for today’s generation. With its 23-inch screen,

it doesn’t just take pictures: it can make videos, add backgrounds, make gifs and printouts, and

especially share them on social networks!

Enter posterity with your most fantastic mug shot, in partnership with RedSports.be, Sharing

Box and the BIFFF!

2.11 iGoTo

This year, the BIFFF program is coming to life! It will have a brand new feature. With the

iGOTO app, you can scan the program’s pictures that have the iGOTO Play logo. You’ll then

be able to watch the trailers of those movies on your smartphone.

2.12 SÉMA Éditions

Séma Éditions is a Belgian publishing house run by Michaël Schoonjans. Their

favorite genres are the literature of the imaginary (science fiction, fantasy, and

horror), thrillers, esotericism, and youth. New collections are currently in

preparation.

The publishing house and its authors will be present at the BIFFF 2018. It’s a marriage made

in heaven, given their preferences and their desire to introduce new genre writers. It will present

the collections Séma'gique, Séma'cabre, Séma'galaxie, Séma'lice, Séma'lsain, Séma'phore, and

Phénix!

Authors signing their books at the BIFFF include:

Tuesday 3, Friday 13, Saturday 14, Sunday 15

Emmanuelle Nuncq: Les Chercheurs du Temps

Wednesday 4, Thursday 5, Friday 6, Saturday 14

Frédéric Livyns: Les Grisommes, parts 1, 2 & 3; Le

Miroir du Damné; The Dark Gates of Terror; Les

Contes d'Amy; Phénix 59; Petites histoires à faire

peur... mais pas trop

Thursday 5, Saturday 7, Thursday 12, Saturday 14

Denis Labbé: Les Aventures de Bérénice et

Profitroll, parts 1 & 2; Projet Cornélia, part 1

Friday 6, Monday 9, Tuesday 10

Daph Nobody: Nu sur le balcon

Friday 6, Saturday 7

Priscilla Grédé: Les Aventures de Bérénice et Profitroll,

parts 1 & 2; Petites histoires à faire peur... mais pas trop

Saturday 7, Sunday 8

Philippe Dumont: Pour quelques grammes

d’éternité

Sunday 8, Sunday 15

Southeast Jones: Il sera une fois…

Wednesday 11

Delphine Schmitz: Elixir de nouvelles steampunk

2.13 The 501st FanWars Garrison comes to the BIFFF

As part of this year’s partnership between the BIFFF and the Star Wars Identities exhibition, which ends

its European tour at Palace 2 of the Heysel from April 2nd, the BIFFF invites the Dark Side of the Force.

The 501st FanWars Garrison is part of the 501st Legion, a worldwide non-profit organization

whose activity is Star Wars costumed animation at official and charity events. Officially

recognized by Lucasfilm, it is composed of more than 12,000 members around the world,

spread across several national clubs.

The Stormtroopers accompanied by a Sith will brighten things up on April 15th. During the

children’s afternoon, the young ones will even be allowed to sit in the Emperor’s Throne. The

Stormtroopers will also be in charge of the festival-goers’ safety at the closing event ...

3. BIF MARKET

After having hosted the co-production market for genre films for several years, the BIFFF

set up its own market, exclusively dedicated to the sale of genre films. The BIF Market saw

the light of day in 2017.

For the second edition, the BIF Market team has gone the extra mile and this time it’s even

more innovating and welcoming, sometimes even with access for the general public.

The big novelty is the creation of a "Work in progress" section. Foreign producers will be

showcasing current projects with a view to perhaps finishing them in Belgium, a cinema

country with a strong expertise when it comes to post-production. It’s also an opportunity

to highlight financing possibilities, not only via the tax shelter, but also through Belgian

producers and post-production companies.

The films Muse, I Kill Giants, Mandy, and The Year of the Plague were all co-produced in

Belgium and/or benefited from the excellent special effects available here. Muse, directed

by Jaume Balagueró, will be shown at the festival in a classical version, but also in a special

VR version. As VR or virtual reality is becoming bigger and bigger, we will highlight the

phenomenon with a conference in collaboration with Wallimage, which helped finance the

film.

The market also entails masterclasses and conferences led by professionals active in genre

cinema and with a solid experience. For instance director Franck Ribière will come and talk

about The Most Assassinated Woman in the World, the first 100% Belgian Netflix film,

which will have its world premiere at the festival.

These masterclasses are generally reserved for professionals, attending in ever larger

numbers from all over the world. A number of foreign production companies well-known

to genre fans will be present, including Showbox (South Korea), Shoreline (United States),

Reel Suspects (France), Nikkatsu (Japan), and Jinga Films (United Kingdom).

Which goes to show the reputation of the BIFFF and the BIF Market is well established!

4. THE OFF OF THE FESTIVAL

4.1 Zombifff Day

This year, the Zombifff’lympics welcomes Lloyd Kaufman as its

godfather. He will open the 4th Olympic Games for Zombies

during an unforgettable ceremony: after 13 days of racing… uh,

walking starting from Drakulen Pis, the zombie flame-bearer will

finally arrive!

In addition to the usual events such as spinal column-throwing or

bridal gut-pitching, we will join the parade/marathon in the Royal

Park.

We will be holding a live concert and the much-

awaited replay between journalists and zombies.

On the occasion of the Football World Cup, a soccer

game will be organized at the Parc Royale between

zombies and journalists. Four years ago, the latter

lost due to the lack of live players on the pitch.

The zombies will then prepare some dance moves

for an unforgettable flashmob.

The BGF (Brussels Games Festival) organizes the following event:

Apocalypse at Carson City Zoo “Live”

Presentation:

It’s a displacement game in which the players compete in teams of four. They have to save the

animals of the Carson City zoo, fight the mutants and, above all, try and survive!

Each team will consist of four players, with a value of 3 to 6. In each round, they will have to

decide on one of the following actions:

- Bring a player into the zoo (the team then gets the points of the animal whose case

they conquer but beware: there might be a mutant hiding in there);

- Move a character inside the zoo (idem);

- Attack another character (this one then removes his chasuble and gives it to the at-

tacking team: one can attack only a character whose value is less than or equal to

one’s own value).

The ZomBIFFF Day will end with two special ZomBIFFF films:

RETURN TO RETURN TO RETURN TO NUKE 'EM HIGH AKA VOL. 2 in the

presence of Lloyd Kaufman (9.30 PM – Cine 2)

SOCCER KILLER (0.30 AM – Cine 2)

Timing:

11.30 AM: Arrival of the participants (make-up etc.)

12 noon: Opening ceremony with Lloyd Kaufmann

12.15 PM: Start

1.15 PM: Live concert

2.00 PM: Football match “Zombies vs Journalists” and break

2.30 PM: Carson City BGF animation

3.30 PM: Flashmob/choreography

4.00 PM: 2nd session Carson City BGF

5.00 PM: Closing and awards ceremony

9.30 PM (Cine 2): RETURN TO RETURN TO RETURN TO NUKE 'EM HIGH AKA

VOL. 2 in the presence of Lloyd Kaufman

0.30 AM (Cine 2): SOCCER KILLER

4.2 35th Make Up Contest

Free entrance

Wednesday, April 4 to Thursday, April 12, 6 to 10 pm, Make Up Stand

Award Ceremony on Friday, April 13, 9pm, Cine 3

Free make-up contest: open to all!

Beginners, amateurs or semi-professionals, come in large numbers and

demonstrate your creativity on the theme of fantasy, imagination, horror,

science fiction and marvel at the 35th Face Makeup Contest. Turn human

figures into monstrous or divine creatures, delirium into special effects

and, above all, have fun!

Register in one of the three categories: amateur, semi-pro, special FX.

Registrations are compulsory and must be made the same evening at the

make-up stand.

Products are at your disposal but it is nevertheless advisable to bring your

own material: brushes, sponges, latex, prostheses,...

The jury will determine the winners (based on photos taken during the

competition) on Friday, April 13th. See you at 9pm at the Festival to

receive your prizes!

Responsible: Georges Stevens ([email protected])

With the participation of the make-up school Jean-Pierre Finotto:

www.finotto.be

Prizes are generously donated by:

MiKim FX :

www.mikimfx.com

Squidlab :

www.squidlab.be

Arkel Body Art Gallery : www.arkel.be

Hair Club : www.hairclub.be

Jean-Luc Maitrank ; 0478/251.276

Optique Vicqueray : 02/343.5450

http://www.mikimfx.com/

http://www.squidlab.be/

http://www.arkel.be/

http://www.hairclub.be/

4.3 3rd international Art Contest

From Thursday 5 to Friday 13 April 2018, every other day, from 5 pm till 10 pm

Award Ceremony: Saturday 14 April 2018 - 7 pm

1st Prize: official participation to the ArtBIFFF 2019 exhibition

The competition will take place every other evening from 5 till 13 April with Fantastic Art as

theme. The candidates will have to create their work at the Artists Workshop of the BIFFF at

the Center for Fine Arts. The paintings need to have a size of 80/100 cm and will be shown in

the exhibition space during the festival. All techniques are allowed. A professional jury,

composed of Palix, David P, Patrick Van Craenebroeck, Monique Sterckx, Bettina Meermans,

Jonathan Lenaerts, Alain Poncelet and Patrick Cornelis will judge each creation for the

competition.

1st Prize 2017:

PALIX

The BIFFF is organizing the third edition of its International

Art Contest, an event that was an immediate success at its

first edition in 2016. Dozens of participants realized a

painting in 5 hours during a Live Performance.

Organized in collaboration with

• Art Projects Pieterpauwel ([email protected])

• Curator : Marleen De Schryver

• Sponsor : Le Géant des Beaux-Arts (http://www.geant-beaux-arts.be)

4.4 Artbifff

PALIX

During my first fifteen years of making illustrations (mainly watercolors), I was a drawer at

large trials for the Belgian media, from Marc Dutroux to Salah Abdeslam. I illustrated many

posters, beer labels, cars, records, and a dozen books. There are few disciplines I didn’t try my

hand at.

For five years now, I’ve been improvising with large-format oil paintings in order to push the

limits of my imagination. A bit like an archaeologist who meticulously digs the ground without

knowing what he will find there I seek traces of life hidden under the virgin white of the

canvases.

I invite you for a graphic walk through infinite landscapes and inner worlds.

DAVID P.

David P. is a busybody who, in order to tirelessly create his paintings,

sometimes dips his pen in blood red, sometimes in the darkest black. Each

of his works opens the door to a parallel world or a different dimension,

populated with teasing little monsters, demonic creatures, and

treacherously erotic nymphs. Since he suffers from Peter Pan syndrome,

it is not surprising that he also produces a whole range of cuddly monsters

and amazing animal drawings. This born and bred Bruxellois has already

published many books including Le livre secret du dégoûtant, Elephant

man, anatomie d’un monstre, the series Il était une fois… (about the

history of Belgium), as well as the series Beurk, la cruelle histoire de

l’humanité, in which he shows us a new facet of his art: playful and

educational books tinged with the sort of humor that will delight

teenagers fond of spectacular imagery. Dive straight into his historical-

fantastical-erotic-burlesque universe.

ALAIN PONCELET & PATRICK CORNELIS

When two cartoonists and absolute fans of the zombie genre decide to do a joint project, it’s a

safe bet they will not be pulling punches. Patrick Cornelis (Virus) and Alain Poncelet (Omega

Thanatos, Rusalka) give full reign to their imagination in Mortinfernum, halfway between

comic and art book. It contains three short stories in comics format, twenty works of art remade

in “zombie fashion,” a “hot” chapter, and many other gory details! The book, which will be

published at the end of March, will be presented at the BIFFF, including signing sessions and

an exhibition.

SERGE BOULAROT

Approach

My research focuses on the representation of the human body. My job as a plastic arts teacher

naturally led me to analyze the work of past masters, those of Greco-Roman Antiquity as well

as of later periods.

Homer uses the terms “thumos”,

“psukhé”, and “aion” to describe

what animates man, what pushes

him to act, what makes him live.

These notions, quite abstract for

us, were for the ancient Greeks

concrete physiological

substances. “Thumos” is the spirit,

the ordinary consciousness of

man. It’s a breath: vaporous,

linked to the heart and lungs. The

head is the seat of the “psukhé”:

the soul or principle of life which,

according to the Greeks, is not limited to the brain but extends to all the clear substances of the

body: marrow, fat... The “aion”, on the other hand, is the paragon of all fluids: tears, sweat... In

this sense, the “aion” is a sign of life, opposed to dryness, a sign of aging and death.

I seek to implement this interiority of man, already thought of as a material conjunction by the

Greeks, through matter. I endeavor to transpose the assimilation of moods, feelings, and human

psychology with substances and organs to the soil. I try and find the structures and rhythms that

spontaneously express the essence of man. How can we externalize physical and psychological

beings through matter only?

My work questions this representation of the body through the implementation of various

techniques pertaining to today’s array of plastic possibilities. Made with paint, paper, and

especially ceramic sculpture, my figurative work is plastic first and foremost. This double

dimension of the image of the body inscribed in earth matter signifies a correspondence between

man and his representation. Whether they are deaf or imperious, the same impulses animate the

represented body and the ceramics that constitute it. This way, matter takes on meaning and the

human form expressive force.

4.5 Animations

TaKaPa

Four-legged Monsters

Don't be afraid! Their hustle and bustle notwithstanding, they’re just two

friendly balls of hair. That is, if they’ve eaten enough beforehand, of

course... Will you dare approach them?

The Witches

With their impressive broomsticks, our witches will not go unnoticed during

your Halloween and medieval parties. Laughter and thrills guaranteed!

The Demons

Run, they're coming! These quick and mischievous demons

appear out of nowhere and make a mess wherever they go!

Mrs. Pumpkin

She doesn't like princesses, children, old people, beauties or ugly ducks... In short,

she doesn't like anything much, except maybe to talk, grumble and sing! But she’ll

make you laugh!

Voodoo Magic and Cartomancy

Meet Madame Nostra. Your past, present and future has no secret for

her. Want even more magic? Baron Samedi is quite skillful at levitating

objects. All you need for a magical BIFFF!

www.takapa.be

Puck Company

Once more, Puck Company is present at the BIFFF!

Not only will they present a zany closing show, they

will make you move your ass during the

ZomBIFFF’lympics! They also come in the guise of

trolls: small, big, beautiful, and cuddly.

Bring on the mud!

www.puckcompany.be

Art&Smile

Monstrous Beauties

Visual and acrobatic show of two Monstrous Beauties,

with a hideously poetic program. Keep your eyes and

ears open and don't lose a minute of their opening

show!

www.art-smile.be

http://www.takapa.be/

http://www.puckcompany.be/

http://www.art-smile.be/

Magic Land Theatre

The Magic Land Theatre has been a part of

the BIFFF folklore for years. Founded in

1975, the company has seen its activities

diversify from puppet shows to television

programs, but has always remained faithful

to its first love: street arts. During the

festival, these wickedly funny actors put on

their wildest costumes and shape-shift into

fantastic and zany creatures.

www.magicland-theatre.com

Tultétar Co.

The Yeti

Remember the yeti? You know: hairy, half animal,

half man, with big feet and hands, known to scream

his head off. Well, he’s out! In 2018, with all kinds

of species dying out, he has reincarnated as a new

creature: no thicker than an envelope, hair as good as

gone, with tiny feet, and fond of dancing and

hugging. How’s that sound?

Predator

He is back like a wrathful warrior! This

time, the Predator has chosen Brussels as

his hunting ground. Festival-goers beware,

you are his new target! Whether for a photo

or to see his trophies up close: come and

meet the Predator!

http://www.magicland-theatre.com/

4.6 PointCulture

From E.T. to Stranger Things, what's changed? Zone Geek

The conference begins with a wide array of 80s pop culture and ends with Netflix, big data and

Stranger Things!

There's nothing like a mini conference to revive a bygone era: a time when you could meet

aliens, ghost hunters, and gremlins and wander a whole day with Ferris Bueller!

Rewinding your cassettes with a pencil to save the batteries of your walkman was an absolute

art, just like learning karate by attacking fences...

Jérôme di Egidio & Kamal Messaoudi

Jerome and Kamal met each other while studying screenwriting. Among these geeks’

shenanigans is the short film Le souvenir de Gally, which pays homage to 1980s science fiction.

Find their geeks reports on the Zone Geek channel: www.ZoneGeek.be

Practical information

March 27th from 5.30 to 7.00 PM at PointCulture ULB Ixelles

Admission: € 3 / € 2 (students), includes a free Cuvée des Trolls beer

http://www.zonegeek.be/

Hate, Fear and Love | Francesco Serafini

After his latest exhibition My Vision of Japan, Francesco Serafini is back with a project based

on his second passion: cinema.

Following a long collaboration with the BIFFF as a photographer, Francesco Serafini presents

a new and original project: Hate, Fear and Love–three feelings that one often feels after

watching a film. The photo ID format was chosen in order to give the model complete freedom

and in order to maintain the same field of vision for everyone. Each shooting session took no

more than thirty seconds, with a fake snapshot effect. The final result is amazing.

Biography

Francesco Serafini has been working as a photo reporter for more than twenty years. He has

worked in such places as Panama, Vietnam, and Japan, but has also explored other fields as a

director and event organizer. He now lives and works in Brussels and every year, he faithfully

attends the BIFFF, yes sir!

Practical information

04 > 28/04 (Tuesday to Saturday) at PointCulture ULB Ixelles

Opening: Wednesday, April 4th from 5.30 PM

5. MASTERCLASS

5.1 Guillermo del Toro

The young Mexican who had to sell his car to finance Cronos has come a long way. Yes indeed,

we’re talking about Guillermo del Toro, who’s just won the Best Director and Best Movie

Academy Awards for The Shape of Water!

During an exceptional master class at the 2018 BIFFF, he will be talking about his amazing

career. You will hear it all, from writing The Devil’s Backbone while still at school to the

temporary blindness of his entire crew while shooting Blade 2, from his long collaboration with

buddies Ron Perlman and Doug Jones to the 22-minute ovation at the Cannes festival after

screening Pan’s Labyrinth… Expect some funny asides, too. Does he really have a second house

to store his gigantic comic book collection? Is it true he and James Cameron once hit Harvey

Weinstein?

Guillermo del Toro is a passionate and fascinating speaker, especially when it comes to cinema.

The conversation with one of the world’s greatest filmmakers will be led by Fabrice du Welz

and Jonas Govaerts, two of Belgium’s most talented genre movie directors.

Wednesday, April 11th 8:30 PM – Theatre 1

5.2 League of Human Rights

Thursday April the 15th Theatre 1 (Q&A space)

Fear in the city!

Cities and Citizenship in Fantasy and Science Fiction

A few months before the municipal elections, the Ligue

des droits de l’Homme (LDH) is organizing a master

class about the image of the city in genre, fantasy, and

science-fiction cinema. The debate will take place after

the film Survival Family (Shinobu Yaguchi).

Speakers: Yannick Hustache (PointCulture), Gauthier

Keyaerts (artist and journalist), David Morelli (Ligue des

droits de l'Homme) and John Pitseys (researcher CRISP);

chairman: Jean-Jacques Jespers (administrator).

Many films tell the story of the city, and by extension of

society and the world at large. Many filmmakers have

projected the aspirations and anxieties of their time onto

metaphorical cities: Metropolis, Elysium, Dark City, Sin

City, Escape from New York... But here is quite a gap between the utopian Tomorrowland (a

harmonious, rational, and cold city) and the dystopian Gotham (corrupt, anarchic yet so vivid).

What happens when, as in Survival Family, a city (and society as a whole) stops working after

a general blackout? Can the rule of law survive? How about democracy? And what happens

outside the city walls?

5.3 Deon Meyer

From novel to screenplay: a meeting with Deon Meyer

During the 36th edition of the BIFFF, literature and film enter into a fruitful relationship. With

the cooperation of the Festival Boulevard du Polar, we present a meeting with Deon Meyer.

Originally from South Africa, Deon Meyer is a novelist of popular and critically acclaimed

mystery novels. Apart from his literary work, this

prolific author has been active in the South African

film and television industry for more than ten years. In

2013, Deon Meyer wrote and directed his first feature

film, Die laaste tango. The screening of Jagveld

(Hunting Emma), an adaptation of his novel, at this

year’s BIFFF is the perfect opportunity to ask Meyer

about his trade secrets. What are the essential

ingredients for a good story? How did he make the

transition from literature to film? How do you turn a novel into a screenplay? Does he filter his

ideas before developing them? Did he ever turn an idea for a novel into a screenplay? According

to what criteria? Are all ideas suitable for any medium? And what are the specifics of the novel

and the screenplay? What works in one medium and does not in the other? All these questions,

along with excerpts from his films and novels, will provide ample material for an exciting

discussion on the relationship between literature and film.

The meeting will be led by Boris TILQUIN and Gaëtan

DELFERIÈRE (Association des Scénaristes de l' Audiovisuel); it

will be followed by a signing session.

Monday, April 9th from 4 to 6 PM

6. APPETIZERS

The Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival continues to support short films and defends

the work of directors who have made the genre their favorite means of expression. This year,

we have expanded our program with a non-competitive section of foreign shorts and the

European Méliès competition.

These prizes will be awarded:

- The Silver Méliès for the best short movie at the BIFFF, which will be chosen by

the public on Sunday, April 8th (starting at 12.30!) and announced during the closing

ceremony on April 15th;

- The Grand Prix of the festival (Prix Michel Devillers), also winner of the FedEx

Prize; the winner will take part in the competition for the best Belgian Short

(Saturday, April 7th, beginning at 12.00!), the winner of which will take part in the

Silver Méliès competition the following day;

- The Sabam Prize, the BeTv Prize, the La Trois Prize;

- The prize of the Youth Jury (consisting of the winners of the screenplay

competition organized by the Confédération Parascolaire).

We continue to expand our Belgian program with non-competitive sections and also a brand

new, not to be missed Courts Mais Trash session (Friday, April 13th at 10 PM)

6.1 Belgian Short Film Competitions

Jury

GUY ASTIC

President of the Festival Tous Courts in Aix-en-Provence, Guy Astic

teaches cinema at high school and university. He’s the managing director

of the publishing house Rouge Profond and has written books on fantasy,

horror, David Lynch, and Stephen King.

CHRISTIAN BONTINCKX

Born in 1954, Christian Bontinckx studied psychology, pedagogy and

cinematography at the ULB in Brussels. He also finished studies in art

at the art academy of Sint Josse and Anderlecht, worked as a psy and

helped on papers like “does cinema make you a mean person? “ that

was presented at BIFFF in 2001. He participated at at the writing of

pedagogic short movies made by Fredeirc Dumont in 1994 and Vincent

Lannoo in 1996. He also curates expos.

BÉNÉDICTE BOURGOIS

Since 2006 she's been the head of the RTBF's

Short Films Acquisitions and TV shows,

especially with La Trois Channel's "Tout

Court".When the RTBF started coproducing

Belgian short films, back in 2009, she also

became a member of the selection committee for

the pending scripts. For several years now, she's

been working with the editing short film

committee at the WEBKey of the Centre of

Wallonia Brussels imagery promotion tool

which aims at putting our directors' works on the

big screens of foreign markets and festivals.

XAVIER D’HONT

Xavier was born in the province of Liège in 1993, graduated in Public Relations in Namur, and

recently joined the Centre du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles.

He turned towards the film sector after several interesting experiences in his student days: he

was a reporter for local radio station AFM, production assistant at Canal C (a television station

in Namur), director/cameraman at trade fairs and sporting events, Community Manager at the

FIFF/Festival International du Film Francophone etcetera. At the BIFFF, he will be a juror for

the very first time!

MICHEL DEVILLERS

Born in Tournai on June 20th 1950, a painter and a sculptor, he is one of

these artists whose voice never fades and constantly brings food for

thought to the world surrounding us.

GOKHAN KULAK

Gökhan's early fascination with movies was encouraged by his father,

who took him to Sunday Matinées, where he saw his first sword-and-

sandal film as well as lots of martial arts movies. He was performing as

an extra in several short films and TV series. Gökhan is responsible for

the selection of the short films for the Fantasy Film Fest which takes place

in the late summer in several cities in Germany.

NATALIE LEBEL

Studied literature and cinema at the University of Paris VIII. Since

2006, head of Sales and Acquisitions at the short films Agency,

Broadcast service: "I've had the pleasure of discovering many

short films masterpieces, all by working in collaboration with

producers, directors and buyers to put forward and valorize a

thousands short films filled catalog made for all types of

broadcasters around the world."

TOM POUCE

This die-hard fan has been a BIFFF-regular since the 2nd edition. He's

crazy enough to spend his holidays each year at the festival. He's a member

of our short film jury and responsible for the smooth progress of the

Audience Award. His name is Alain Galand, but everybody knows him as

Tom Pouce.

GILLES REUNIS

After working for 5 years as marketing manager at the Cinéart movie

distribution company, Gilles Reunis now is head of acquisitions at

Betv-VOO and is in charge of broadcasting, selecting and buying

feature films, movies made for TV and short films for PayTV and

VOD. He’s also in charge of coproducing Belgian full length and

short films.

FRANÇOIS STASSENS

François Stassens is the head of the SABAM’s audiovisual department.

His mission is to be the go-to person between the SABAM and the

French-speaking members of the audiovisual business.

His main role is to be present on the field, handle communication,

operating files as well as the requests for sponsorship in the audiovisual

business. He’s also very active at the Pro Spere federation, which is

consisted of many authors’ associations specialized in audiovisual, as

well at the movie department’s Consultation Committee of the Wallonia-

Brussels Federation.

One screening session on Saturday 07/04 at 12:00 (competition) and 3.10PM (outside

competition), in Theatre CINE 3.

The Short Film Competition is organised with the support of the “Fédération Wallonie-

Bruxelles“

Saturday 7th, at 12:00, Theatre 3

Dynaman / Michiel Blanchart / 20 min. / Belgium / 2017 Cast: Guillaume Kerbusch, Lucile Vignolles, Yvain Juillard, Didier, …

Screenplay by Michiel Blanchart

Music: Simon Fransquet

D.O.P.: Marion Descy

Contact: [email protected]

Hidden and dressed in a red cape, Dynaman patrols the streets of Brussels, ready to save

everyone!

The day the dogs disappeared / Ruth Mellaerts & Boris

Kuijpers / 20 min. 27 / Belgium / 2017

Cast: Leen Van Diependaele, Nico Sturm, Peter De Graef,

Boris Van Severen, …

Screenplay by Ruth Mellaerts & Boris Kuijpers

Music: Jens Bouttery

D.O.P.: Robrecht Heyvaert

Version: Ned. O.V., Eng. ST


Anna tries to protect her family, while a feeling of fear slowly creeps into their lives. The

familiar becomes progressively strange...

Deer Boy / Katarzyna Gondek / 15 min. / Poland/Belgium/Croatia / 2017

Cast: Janusz Chabior, Katarzyna Sobiszewska, Eryk Maj,

…

Screenplay by Katarzyna Gondek

Music: D.J. Lenar

D.O.P.: Maciej Twardowski

Version: No dialogue


A tragicomic story about a hunter’s son born with antlers on his head...

mailto:[email protected]


Het Nest / Matthias De Bondt / 22 min. / Belgium / 2017

Cast: Sid Van Oerle, Laurence Roothooft, Janelle Vanes, …

Screenplay by Matthias De Bondt

Music: Ruben De Gheselle

D.O.P.: Xavier Van D’Hyunslager

Version: Ned. O.V., Eng. ST


He thought he was in heaven in the care of two lovely nurses, but he soon realizes that he’s in

hell!

Lost in the Middle / Senne Dehandschutter / 16 min. 42 / Belgium / 2017

Cast: Soufiane Chilah, Matthieu Sys, Dahlia Pessemiers, Koen Van Impe, …

Screenplay by Senne Dehandschutter & Kevin Ingelbrecht

Music: Liesa Van der Aa

D.O.P.: Robrecht Heyvaert

Version: Ned., Eng. & Arabic O.V., Eng. ST


Two young Belgians leave for Syria. One is a journalist and the other a fighter... but

nevertheless, they will find common ground!

Les Naufragés / Mathieu Mortelmans & Cécile Delberghe/ 15min. / Belgium /

2018

Cast: Cécile Delberghe, Babetida Sadjo, …

Screenplay by Cécile Delberghe

Music: Vincent Ternest

D.O.P.: Guillaume Simonin

Version: Fre. O.V., Eng. ST


World premiere! Lou is a lawyer, Nina is a detainee; the meeting between

these two women in prison will change their lives for ever.

6.2 Belgian short film: non-competitive section

Fugazi / Laurent Michelet / 28 min. 30 / Belgium/France / 2017

Cast: Alexia Depicker, Vincent Londez, Adena De Leener, …

Screenplay by Fred Castadot

Music: Pierre-Antoine Durand

D.O.P.: Patrice Michaux



Adèle has been working on a space station for three years and she has just one more mission

to accomplish. But a grain of sand will change her destiny...

Caducea / Christophe Mavroudis / 25 min. / Belgium / 2017

Cast: Marie-Jeanne Maldague, Guillaume Alexandre, Vincent Delré,

Maïlyse Hermans, …

Screenplay by Christophe Mavroudis

Music: Icarius Projektz

D.O.P.: Guillaume Simonin



Behind this Italian mask hides a distorted face with a macabre secret...

Sepsis / Pierre-Michel Chevigné & Loren Claessens / 30 min. / Belgium / 2018

Cast: Jean-Michel Vovk, Stéphanie Lowette, Yannick Rosset, …

Screenplay by Pierre-Michel Chevigné & Loren Claessens

Music: Lorris Gisana

D.O.P.: Thomas Wilski

Version: Fre. O.V. , Eng. ST


World premiere! After a contamination, Fred and Catherine barricade themselves in a house.

An infection turns people into zombies and the only cure is… booze!

Muil / Jasper Vrancken / 18 min. / Belgium / 2018

Cast: Matthieu Sys, Pascal Maetens, Myrthe Kramer,

Anny Goddyn, …

Screenplay by Jasper Vrancken

Music: Kreng

D.O.P.: Hyun De Grande

Version: Ned. O.V.


Richard has a rather original sexual fantasy: to be completely devoured!

6.3 European Short Film Competition (Méliès)

One projection session on Sunday 8/04 at 12.30 (with 2 breaks)

36th INT. FESTIVAL OF FANTASY FILMS - SHORT FILMS - PROPORTIONAL

VOTE

The European Short Film Competition is organised with the support of the “Fédération

Wallonie-Bruxelles“.

Psycho Kino / Guillem Dols / 18 min. / Spain / 2017

Teddy Bear Picnic / Tom “The Dude“ Hodges / 5 min. / U.K. / 2017

El aleteo del colibri (The Flapping of the Hummingbird) / Meritxell A. Valls / 15 min.

/ Spain / 2017

L’ora del buio (The Hour of Darkness) / Domenico de Feudis / 11 min. / Italy / 2017

Alicia / Daniel M. Caneiro / 10 min. / Spain / 2017

A child outside / Panos Eliakopoulos / 7 min. / Greece / 2017

Ivy / Ruben Abarca / 14 min. / Spain / 2017

Splendida Moarte Accident (The blissful accident dead) / Sergiu Negulici / 16 min. /

Romania / 2017

R.I.P. / Pinto & Caye / 17 min. / Spain / 2017

Mi-temps / Marie Sauvion & Lotfi Bahmed / 15 min. 45 / France / 2017

Marta / Lucia Forner Segarra / 15 min. / Spain / 2017

Scaramouche Scaramouche / Arthur Môlard / 25 min. / France / 2017

Sons of Bitches / Arnaud Baur / 20 min. / Switzerland / 2017

The Belgian short winner the day before

The Elephone Man / Magarditch Halvadjian / 23 min. / Bulgaria / 2017

Pandora / Daniel Rübesam / 14 min. / Germany / 2017

Belle à croquer / Axel Courtière / 15 min. / France / 2017

6.4 International Shorts

Part one: Saturday the 14th 10PM

We summoned a demon / Chris McInroy / 6 min. / U.S.A. / 2017

Atomic Spot / Stéphanie Cabdevila / 14 min. / France / 2017

Imbroglio / Christopher Zatta / 15 min. / U.S.A. / 2017

DaemonRunner / Kiah Roache-Turner / 4 min. 41 / Australia / 2016

Red Ash / Yuta Sano / 22 min. / Japan / 2017

Hypocondriaque / Carnior / 5 min. 22 / Canada / 2017

Le Cow Boy du Mont Laurier / Gabrile Vilandré / 11 min. / Canada (Québec) / 2017

Chainsaw Charlie / Dan Lesser / 7 min. / U.S.A. / 2017

Alfred J Hemlock / Edward Lyons / 14 min. / Australia / 2017

Stay / David Mikalson / 8 min. 40 / U.S.A. / 2017

Part two: Saturday the 14th 8PM

Overrun / Pierre Ropars, Antonin Derory, Diane Thirault, Jérémie Cottard, Matthieu

Druaud & Adrien Zumbihl / 7 min. 42 / France / 2017

9 Pasos (9 steps) / Moises Romera & Marisa Crespo / 7 min. / Spain / 2017

Transmission / Varun Raman & Tom Hancock / 17 min. 26 /. U.K. / 2017

Alleycats / Alejandro Jiménez / 8 min. 30 / Spain / 2017

Un Loft au Paradis / Alexandre Lança / 17 min. 30 / France / 2016

Angel Caido / Fran Parra / 17 min. / Spain / 2017

Memoria interna / Andrea Braga / 22 min. 16 / Argentina / 2017

A la Hora Marcada" (The Appointment) / José Luis Rivera / 15 min. 54 / Mexico / 2017

Part three : Monday the 9th 8PM

Mehua / Camille Aiglonz, Simon Anding, Michiru Baudet, Margo Roquelaure, Diane Tran

Duc, Lucy Vallin Holmes / 4 min. 52 / France / 2017

Nouvelle Cuisine / Manuel Reyes Halaby / 5 min. / Spain / 2017

The Prank / Hervé Faula / 2 min. / France / 2017

Review / Filipe Traslatti de Mello / 16 min. / Brazil / 2017

Les fines bouches (The Foodies) / Arnaud Tabarly & Julien de Volte / 17 min. / France /

2017

Revelation – The City of Haze / Mao Qichao / 13 min. 38 / China / 2017

The Milkman / Giovanni Sabbagh / 12 min. 40 / Lebanon / 2017

Fe / Fran Parra / 10 min. 49 / Spain / 2017

Hezar Afsan (One thousand myths) / Asghar Safar & Abbas Jalali Yekta / 8 min. / Iran /

2017

Part four : Sunday the 8th 8PM

Marta no viene a cenar (Marta is not coming for dinner) / Macarena Astorga / 17 min.

/ Spain / 2017

Write off / Diego Hidalgo Lizana / 9 min. / Chile / 2017

The cleaner / Bowon Kim / 19 min. / South Korea / 2017

Exodus 20 / Jana Nedzvetkaya / 9 min. 04 / Russia / 2017

No Caminho Da Escola (On the way to school) / 9 min. / Brazil / 2017

Crying free sex / Iwasaki Tomohiko / 15 min. / Japan / 2018

Compatible / Pau Bacardit / 15 min. / Spain / 2017

The Replacement / Sean Miller / 16 min. 15 / U.S.A. / 2018

6.5 The year of the Contestation

https://contestation2018.bruxelles.be/en

This year marks the 50th anniversary of May 68 and its ensuing

protest movements, of which contemporary society is the heir.

The City of Brussels, at the initiative of its alderman of Culture,

Karine Lalieux, has decided to bring together all of the city’s

cultural institutions to address today’s contestation. In the 21st century, extremism, nationalistic

narcissism, and simplistic divisions are once again rearing their ugly head. Fantasy has always

been the ideal genre to denounce totalitarianism, anticipate ideological and technological

aberrations, and sound the alarm through fiction. From Soylent Green to 1984 to Hunger

Games, there is no shortage of examples. In 2018, the BIFFF features two outstanding films:

with its bold tone Wrath of Silence contradicts the Chinese tendency to censorship, while Five

Fingers for Marseilles advocates civil disobedience in post-Apartheid South Africa.

Five Fingers For Marseilles

A clearly tribute to classical westerns, Five Fingers for Marseilles transposes Sergio

Leone's mythical universe in post-colonial South Africa with its majestic landscapes.

Cheeky for a first film, Michael Matthews can be proud of his work: complete

immersion in the field, archetypes very present, polished plans that are waiting to hear

a fragment of a harmonica to enter the legend; this modern version of the lonely

cowboy is made in the image of The A-Team with Stetsons, where everyone would

like that the plan unfolds without a hitch!

Wrath of Silence

When Zhang Baomin returns to his native village in the arid north of China, he

immediately notices that something is wrong. His son has disappeared and life in the

village has come to a standstill. It looks like one of those forgotten places in spaghetti

westerns where men only find solace in drinking at the local saloon. When he starts

investigating he crosses the path of a man as evil as the devil in person. Chang Wannian

(played by Jiang Wu, seen in Jia Zhangke’s epic A Touch of Sin) is a man with a plan:

he wants to control all the coalmines in the region, by any means necessary… Life

will bring these two men together in a duel without a happy end.

https://contestation2018.bruxelles.be/en

6.6 Kim Jee-woon retrospective

Wednesday 11 at 8 PM – Theatre 3

A tale of two sisters (2003-South Korea)

Screenplay by Jee-woon Kim Casting : Kap-su Kim, Jung-ah Yum, Soo-jung Lim,… Duration : 115 minutes

After an unspecified traumatic event, two sisters go back home with their father, where

they’re not exactly getting a warm reception from their wicked stepmother. Nothing is

quite what it seems in this masterful horror thriller which keeps you guessing until the

last moment as to how it all fits together. With this story about unconditional sisterly love, director Jee-

woon Kim won a string of prizes all over the world, including a Silver Raven for his graceful actress

Jung-ah Yum at the 2004 BIFFF. Kim doesn’t need cheap shocks but relies instead on convincing

characters, sinister atmospherics, and agonizingly slow camera work. Forget the inferior American

remake The Uninvited and just witness how strong a cast-iron concept can be if you meticulously stick

to it!

Friday 6 at 8 PM – Theatre 3

The good, the bad, the weird (2008- South

Korea)

Screenplay by Jee-woon Kim and Min-suk Kim

Casting : Kang-ho Song, Byung-hun Lee, Woo-sun Jung,…

Duration : 139 minutes

Following a mysterious map and armed with multifarious

armaments, three wily individuals each go on a separate treasure hunt in the Manchurian desert during

the turbulent 1940s, with the Japanese army, Korean independence fighters, Chinese bandits, and all

sorts of gangs and hoodlums hot on their heels. The plot is obviously just a pretext in this eastern full

of crazy characters, virtuoso shootouts, and wild camera capers. The body count is immeasurable and

blood often spurts right onto the camera lens in the most expensive movie in South Korean film history.

Throughout, Jee-woon Kim pays homage to the Sergio Leone of Fistful of Dollars and Once Upon a

Time in the West, including an Ennio Morricone-like soundtrack in which flamenco guitars and Balkan

brass bands vie for your attention. Two and a half hours of unbridled pleasure!

Wednesday 4 at 8 PM – Theatre 3

I saw the devil (2010-South Korea)

Screenplay by Jee-woon Kim and Hoong-jung Park

Casting : Byung-hun Lee, Choi Min-sik, Joon-hyeok, Lee, …


The wife of a big shot in the South Korean intelligence agency is brutally murdered by a serial

killer, upon which the grieving husband sets out on a revenge mission that remains unmatched

on the silver screen. In film history, I Saw the Devil (our 2011 Golden Raven) was a watershed

moment because from then on all thrillers would be classified in the pre or the post Devil era. With this

masterpiece, filmmaker Jee-woon Kim reached new heights regarding intelligent storytelling, blood-

curdling suspense, eerie atmospherics, and clever direction. The Bollywood remake came out in 2014,

the Hollywood version is in the works as we speak, but the original remains unsurpassed!

6.7 Cronos Retrospective

Thursday 12 at 2 PM-Theatre 2

An antiquarian accidentally discovers a golden scarab in

the base of a wooden statue. The legendary actor

Federico Luppi gave one of his best performances, while

young director Guillermo del Toro became the golden

boy of genre cinema. With a budget of 2 million dollars

(the largest at the time for a Mexican film, a quarter of

which came from its director) Cronos won 22

international awards, particularly in Cannes, but

especially at the BIFFF with a Silver Raven in 1994.

Universal wants to buy the rights for a remake, but Del

Toro refuses. It’s the kind of Faustian pact that he

reserves for the characters of his movies. The rest is

history, crowned last March by 4 Oscars. At the occasion

of his exceptional appearance at the BIFFF, we want to

screen the movie that started it all and finally give him

his Silver Raven in person!

6.8 Mexico Focus

Some people want to build a wall, we’d rather build bridges. Some only see

cocaine and tacos, Mexico’s worst export clichés; we see a rich culture that

craves exposure on the silver screen. Because, no, Mexico is not just El Chapo,

drug cartels, and Selena Gomez’s stolen pictures from Puerto Vallarta! When it

comes to cultural heritage, the native country of Frida Kahlo and the adoptive country of Luis

Buñuel has nothing to be ashamed of. Its talented filmmakers are ready to do away with any

preconceived ideas: Alejandro Iñárritu, Alfonso Cuarón, Gabriel García Bernal, and that little

upstart named Guillermo del Toro.... The entire world envies Mexico these talents and that’s

why we at the BIFFF want to honor its extraordinary cinema.

6.9 Courts mais Trash

Friday the 13th, at 10 PM-Theatre 3

Once more the Brussels Independent Short Film Festival is present at the BIFFF. Its creator and

organizer, François Marache, has selected the best genre shorts of the latest edition. On the

program: Pétage de plomb, Serial Killer, Jésus et ses potes, a Desperate Housewives-remake à

la John Waters, and a bloody karaoke!

Tundra / Karim OUELHAJ / 2017 / Belgium / 29 min.

Le Crayon / Basile VUILLEMIN / 2017 / Belgium / 0 min 40

In Nomine Debiti / Bilal BAHADIR / 2016 / Germany / 1 min. 29

Les Rescapés de l'Impossible : Le convoi de la peur / Mathieu

BERTHON / 2017 / France / 14 min. 51

Le monde étrange du LSD / Lenny & Harpo

GUIT / 2017 / France / 1 min. 02

Nocturnally yours / David FERINO / 2017 / U.S.A. / 11 min. 17

Cries in Spanish / Giancarlo LOFFREDO / 2017 / U.S.A. / 4 min. 42

I-Medium / Alfonso GARCIA LOPEZ / 2016 / Spain / 6 min.

The Contract / CHRZU / 2015 / Finland / 6 min. 35

Don't ever change / Don SWAYNOS / 2017 / U.S.A. / 9 min. 44

6.10 Mad in Belgium

It’s no secret to anyone that the few Belgian movies that get released in the theatres of the

Kingdom are just the tiny tip of a giant film production iceberg. Some of the pictures that are

floating underneath are completely deranged, experimental, improbable or underground, but all

are craving to find their place in the sun (or under the Belgian drizzle, if you prefer). And as

this kind of cinema is exactly our piece of cake, these films can only be enjoyed at the BIFFF,

together with our always enthusiastic and jovial audience. That’s why this year we’re offering

you a few slices of… Typically Mad in Belgium!

Ca tourne près de chez vous (2018-Belgium)

Directed by Arno Pluquet

Screenplay by Arno Pluquet and Olivia Robert

Casting : David D'urbano, Annick Cornette, Arno Pluquet, …


Two amateur filmmakers make a documentary about the Moeraske in Evere, a sleepy,

swampy corner of the Belgian capital. On a sunny summer day in 2017, seven corpses and

a car are found there. A DVD and a camera on the scene contain proof of an actual suicide. Before they

know what’s what, our private eyes are up shit creek without a paddle... For Ça tourne près de chez

vous, Brussels filmmaker Arno Pluquet, a self-proclaimed fantasy buff, was inspired by Man Bites Dog,

The Blair Witch Project, and other Cloverfields. With a combination of found footage, film-within-the-

film, and tragicomedy, he finishes his fantasy trilogy, the first parts of which were also shown at the

BIFFF: Papillon noir (2016) and La caravane du cafard (2017). This time, he shares

screenwriting and directing credits with Olivia Robert.

Doubleplusungood (2017-Belgium)

Directed by Marco Laguna

Screenplay by Wild Dee and Marco Laguna

Casting : Delfine Bafort, Georges Beguin, Jonathan Borms, …


A man with a nasty face and a criminal record returns to the urban jungle that he had to

leave 15 years ago for an extended stay in the can. Now he’s back with an axe to grind:

he wants to kill off Lucifer’s Twelve Apostles. Methodically he goes through the list, if need be with

extreme measures. Not exactly someone we care to meet at midnight in a dark alley… but in a dark

movie theater we rather like this kinda fella!

In a previous life, Marco Laguna (a.k.a. Marc du Marais) toured the European concert circuit with the

legendary indie band La Muerte. His first full-fledged fiction film, a labor of love five years in the

making, is a no-nonsense cross between a revenge movie and a spiritual western. Among the thesps, we

recognize national talents like actress/model Delfine Balfort (You Go to My Head, Steve + Sky) and

dramatic heavyweight Bouli Lanners (Above the Law, Raw, The First, the Last).

Ex Funeris (2018-Belgium)

Directed by Alexandre Drouet

Screenplay by Alexandre Drouet

Casting : David Leclercq, Anne-Pascale Clairembourg, Erika Sainte,…

Duration :80 minutes

A firm finds a revolutionary solution to an age-old problem: how to resuscitate the

dead? But soon after, a cosmic disaster takes place and it’s back to year zero. Eight

months later, a mysterious man wanders around amidst what’s left of society, while

the survivors try and organize as best they can. Ex funeris by Walloon filmmaker

Alexandre Drouet is not just a genre quickie. Rather than the umpteenth cheap zombie

flick, this intelligently constructed film is a profound reflection on consumer society and the place of

man in it. Thanks to Drouet’s lo-fi approach and no-nonsense black-and-white photography, his

apocalyptic story ends up having more in common with The Road than with Mad Max or World War Z.

Joanne (2018-USA/Belgium)

Directed by Christopher Morrison

Screenplay by Christopher Morrison

Casting : Alex Reid, Christopher Morrison, …

Duration: 85 minutes

Picture a world where women have to face institutionalized conspiracy. Picture a

world where they are kidnapped and brainwashed to make them docile and easy to

manipulate. This time, Joanne has been kidnapped and held in an ancient chapel by

the Conspiracy. Unbeknownst to the Conspiracy (and herself) Joanne harbours many

secrets that will change the Conspiracy and herself forever. She has no idea what’s coming for her and

she won’t be the only one to face the unexpected.

The BIFFF presents the very first feminist “huis-clos” ever made! This reflection on a misogynist near-

future society is brought to us by two Brussels’ expats, Ioana Mattei and Christopher Morrison.

Intertwining dystopia and psychological thriller, Joanne, which was entirely shot in our beautiful capital,

is driven by Alex Reid’s impressive performance. There are also some big names in the crew: Gabi

Norland (Attack the Block) as DOP and Olivier Merckx (a notorious member of the Bifff Collectifff) as

steadycam operator.

Memento Mori (2018-Belgium)

Directed by Michael Vermaercke

Screenplay by Michael Vermaercke

Casting : Charlotte De Wulf,Felix Meyer,Aaron Roggeman,...


A beautiful girl in a coma on a hospital bed. Inside her head, the traumatic events of the day

before keep playing on and on. What began as a modern day Cinderella story turns into a

Lynchean nightmare. Genre film lover Michaël Vermaercke (remember his two shorts Void

and The Disturber), makes his feature film debut with Memento Mori. A birthday party by

the swimming pool is the perfect setting to ventilate the anxieties of puberty through a trashy and often

violent fantasy. The title says it all. It’s a Latin quote that roughly means "remember that you're going

to die".

6.11 Fantastikids

Sunday Movies & workshops for kids

FR : 4.30 PM April the 15th ciné 2 - NL : 2 PM April the 15th ciné 2

For a marvelous end to the Easter holidays, we invite you to a double bill that the whole family

will enjoy. Fantasti’Kids is an event entirely dedicated to our little cherubs. This year, The

Incredible Story of the Giant Pear will be screened in a Dutch and French dubbed version.

This will be the occasion for kids and parents to share a magic movie moment and to make

them discover or rediscover genre cinema. You'll get to know the arts and crafts of cinema in

the beautiful setting of BOZAR.

At the end of the movie, every child will receive a tote bag full of surprises. There will also be

a playing ground for toddlers with toys to play with before and after the screening. The BIFFF

organizes this event in partnership with The Brussels Capital Region, de Vlaamse Overheid,

The VAF, la Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles, La Ligue des Familles, OUFTiVi and Vivacité.

Thanks to Bioviva, Playmais, Brussels Games Festival, Alice Editions, the 501st FanWars

Garrison and Pastel Candy.

The Giant Pear (2017-Denmark)

Directed by Amalie Naesby Fick, Jorgen Lerdam and Philip Einstein

Lipski

Screenplay by Bo Hr Hansen and Jakob Martin Strind

Casting : Alfred Bjerre Larsen, Liva Elvira Magnussen, Peter Frödin, …


As usual, everything is calm and quiet in the small village of Solby. Sebastien the

elephant and Mitcho the cat enjoy fishing on the pier when, suddenly, something

bites at the end of the line. Intrigued, our two friends discover a bottle hooked to their hook. But not just

any bottle! It contains a message from the mayor of Solby who has mysteriously disappeared. In it he

explains that he’s on Mysterious Island and that he made an incredible discovery! Sebastian and Mitcho

decide to rescue the mayor and embark on a crazy adventure, full of dangers, pirates, ghosts and dragons.

But, on the way, they will discover something that may change their little quiet village forever: a giant

pear!

The Giant Pear, inspired by Jakob Martin Strid's classic children's tale, marks the first collaboration

between three Danish animation specialists, including Philip Einstein Lipski (Ronal the Barbarian,

BIFFF 2012). Determined to escape the standard aesthetics of animation, our trio of directors followed

three key words: fun, imagination and joyful anarchy! This film, sold to more than 50 countries, will

make our beloved toddlers very happy!

https://www.laligue.be/leligueur/

https://www.rtbf.be/ouftivi/

http://www.rtbf.be/vivacite/

http://www.bioviva.com/

http://www.playmais.com/

6.12 50 years of Belgian cinema: "Tueurs" by François Troukens

Snipers in sight, run for cover! On the occasion of the fiftieth

anniversary of French-speaking Belgian cinema and the second

edition of the Boulevard du Polar festival, we wanted to choose a film. But a classic by André

Delvaux or an intimate portrait by Chantal Ackerman didn’t exactly seem like a good idea.

Above the Law by François Troukens and Jean-François Hensgens, on the other hand, is an

obvious choice. Not only does it revitalize a genre we tend to forget in this country, but its

international success is a perfect alibi to program it once again! And on what better date than

Friday the 13th?

Tueurs (2017-Belgium)

Directed by François Troukens and Jean-François Hensgens

Screenplay by François Troukens

Casting : Olivier Gourmet, Bouli Lanners, Lubna Azabal, …


Frank Valken is a gangster who has always followed a strict moral code: no bodies and

as less violence as possible. After what is supposed to be his last score, he already sees

himself retiring under a palmtree. But what looked like a smooth robbery, turns into a

nightmare when a much more violent gang reappears after decades of silence. The corpses are piling up,

among whom a magistrate who uinvestigated the notorious affair of the Mad Shooters. Valken and his

gang are now suddenly blamed for the bloody murders.

The international media were quick to pick it up. Tueurs was as interesting behind the scenes as in front

of the camera. François Troukens, scriptwriter and co-director with Jean-François Hensgens, was

himself a notorious gangster in the 90ties. Tueurs is, of course, inspired by the (still unresolved)

bloodbaths of the Brabant Killers in the 80ties and by the bombing on the Bologna train station in 1980.

This ruthless crime thriller premiered at the Venice Film Festival before filling up seats in Belgian

cinemas. And that’s something that can only make us proud.

6.13 Special Screening « I Kill Giants »

Afternoon movie: I Kill Giants at the 36th BIFFF

What would a new edition of the BIFFF be without any novelties? This screening is for all

young people between 12 and 16 and their youth and partner organizations that want to have a

unique experience in one of the most breath-taking places to watch a movie: The Grand Salle

Henry Le Boeuf at BOZAR.

We offer each of you the chance to partake in this special screening of ‘I Kill Giants’, a tale

mixing fantasy and the daily struggles of teenagers. It’s a bold coming of age story where

dreams and reality get intertwined.

Date: 12th of April

Time: 2pm

Price: Free (if you come with your youth organization)

How do you register? Send us an email through your youth organization to to

[email protected] with the number of participants and we will put you on the guest list.

Entrance is free. You just need to get to BOZAR in Brussels to enjoy this one in a kind

experience!

I kill giants (2017- UK/USA/Belgium)

Directed by Anders Walter

Screenplay by Joe Kelly

Casting : Zoe Saldana, Imogen Poots ,Jennifer Ehle, …


In his first feature, Danish director Anders Walter, who won an Oscar for

his short Helium in 2014, adapts the widely praised graphic novel I Kill

Giants by Joe Kelly and J. M. Ken Niimura. In this Belgian co-production, partly shot in

Flanders, he strikes a delicate balance between psychological drama and a fantastical dream

world. Among the choice cast, we recognize Zoe Saldana (Guardians of the Galaxy, Avatar,

Star Trek), Imogen Poots (Green Room, V for Vendetta), and Jennifer Ehle (Contagion).


7. THE MAIN COURSE

7.1 Opening / Closing :

Theatre 1 - Opening:

Ghostland (2017 – France/Canada)

Directed by Pascal Laugier

Screenplay by Pascal Laugier

Casting : Mylène Farmer, Rob Archer, Tony Braga, …


After the death of her aunt, Colleen and her two daughters Beth and Vera

inherit a house in the heart of the American countryside. From the outside,

it could easily be the location for the 14th remake of the Texas Chainsaw

Massacre. And the interior’s a feast for rednecks. But the family will have

little time to do some interior decorating. On their very first night, they’re

invaded by a gang of bloodthirsty barbarians who’ve invited themselves to an improvised housewarming.

The assault is extremely violent, with furniture shattering all over the place and blows and punches

coming from everywhere. Colleen's maternal instinct transforms her into a tigress and she manages to

save her offspring from the invaders. Sixteen years later, they are still marked by that horrific night.

Beth has become a successful fantasy author, while Colleen still lives in the same house with Vera. And

if the latter refuses to leave the nest, it's because she suffers from a destructive paranoia which makes

her relive those traumatic events every night. As if nothing has ever ended.

Ten years ago French director Pascal Laugier unleashed Martyrs upon the world, a modern genre classic

whose unrelenting violence still leaves many reeling today. This year we open the festival with his latest

terror feast. Ghostland is a visual and narrative tour de force, a true rollercoaster of jump scares. And

what’s remarkable is that he managed to convince famous French singer Mylène Farmer to play a part

that totally goes against her image. She’ll release her deepest demons in this nerve shattering horror pic.

Closing:

The Gringo (2018- Australia/USA)

Directed by Nash Edgerton

Screenplay by Anthony Tambakis and Matthew Stone

Casting : David Oyelowo, Joel Edgerton, Charlize Theron,…


In a growing series of countries, the medicinal use of marijuana is legally

permitted. We just had to wait for a few smart American (who else?) business

sharks to put the stuff into a pill and market it. Harold Soyinka works for one such company and is sent

to Mexico to handle the manufacturing of the product. He rather likes it in Mejico (what with tequila,

good food, and easy chicks...), but one day he’s kidnapped by a drugs cartel that has an ax to grind with

his bosses. The latter quickly hire a fixer to get Harold out of harm’s way but that proves to be a little

more complicated than they had expected. The odd couple can only rely on each other and ends up

having to survive one outrageous situation after another. Will they ever make it across the border before

The Donald puts up his Great Wall of Defense against Illegal Aliens?

For his first big studio project, Australian filmmaker Nash Edgerton succeeded in getting a dream cast.

Or how do you fancy his brother Joel Edgerton (Red Sparrow), Charlize Theron (Atomic Blonde, Mad

Max: Fury Road), David Oyelowo (Selma, Jack Reacher), Sharlto Copley (District 9, Free Fire), and

Amanda Seyfried (Red Riding Hood)? They shine in this berserk action comedy that draws inspiration

from the work of crime writer Elmore Leonard, as adapted by the likes of Quentin Tarantino (Jackie

Brown), Steven Soderbergh (Out of Sight), and Barry Sonnenfeld (Get Shorty).

Theatre 2 - Opening:

Marrowbone (2017-Spain)

Directed by Sergio G. Sanchez

Screenplay by Sergio G. Sanchez

Casting : George MacKay, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, …


A large British family attempts to escape the abuse brought upon them by their

sadistic, monstrous father who has murdered scores of victims. Mother Rose’s

idea of a fresh start involves moving her children back to her family home in

America. Twenty-one-year-old Jack, 19-year-old Jane, 18-year-old Billy and

five-year-old Sam try to keep going after Rose passes away, maintaining a low

profile in their large, rural estate, with only a close friendship with the

neighboring girl, Allie to keep them sane. And their sanity will be tested to the limits, as a monstrous

presence start to make itself felt.

Marrowbone might be Sergio C. Sanchez feature debut, but he’s far from being a novice in the film

industry. He’s none other than the genius screenwriter of The Orphanage, The End and The Impossible.

He presents us with a gothic horror tale worthy of Edgar Allen Poe, while infusing solid layers of

mystery to create an unbearable atmosphere of tension. It’s no wonder that J.A. Bayona was eager to

produce the film of his favorite scriptwriter, before tackling the dinosaurs of Jurassic World: The Fallen

Kingdom!

Closing:

Maquia : when the promised flower blooms (2018-

Japan)

Directed by Mari Okada and Toshiya Shinohara

Screenplay by Mari Okada

Casting : Manaka Iwami, Miyu Irino, Yûki Kaji, …


Maquia is from a clan where all the members stop aging in their mid teens.

She has no parents and, although her days are peaceful, she feels lonely. The

clan leads an isolated life on an island, passing their days weaving their lives

into beautiful cloth. Their peace is shattered when an army invades, seeking

the secret to her people's immortality. Leilia, the most beautiful girl in her clan, is taken away, and the

boy Maquia has secret feelings for disappears. Maquia is able to escape, but she loses her friends and

her home. Wandering alone in the forest, she finds a dead woman who clasps a newborn baby firmly in

her arms. Maquia decided to save the child and raise him as her own son. She names him Erial. Years

later, the baby has become a boy and he starts to ask questions about his mother’s eternal youth.

Mari Okada is one of the most famous screenwriters of Japanese anime: from SF to horror and live

adaptations, she is a true genius who masters all genres, infusing them with a subtle analysis of human

relationships. After the scripts for The Anthem of the Heart (2015), The Dark Maidens (2017) and My

Teacher (2017), Okada finally debuts as a director with the magical, enchanting and very moving

fantastic tale Maquia: When The Promised Flower Blooms. The score is courtesy of legendary composer

Kenji Kawai (Ghost in the Shell, Avalon, Ip Man).

7.2 Midnight X-Tremes

Boar (2017-Australia)

Directed by Chris Sun

Screenplay by Kirsty Dallas and Chris Sun

Casting : Nathan Jones, Bill Moseley, John Jaratt, …


The Australian wilderness, what a sight! With a territory that could easily fit

in Belgium 200 times and a population the size of Brussels, you’re right to say

that it’s a god damn desert. You’ll probably see a few kangaroos but that

quickly gets boring. So, all that’s left to do is farm cattle or drink your way

through the heat. Ken and Blue decide to do both as they guard their sheep

while gulping down some brewskis. Our jumping friends are no danger to their herd but dingoes

certainly are and trhe duo have had it with the beasts. Encouraged by their beer consumption, they decide

it’s time to teach the wild dogs a lesson and they set off into the desert. After a few miles they come

across a polluted camping site and curse those stupid city folk who have no respect for nature. Seriously,

who leaves a leg in the bushes, a head on a camping pole and blood all over the ground?! By the time

they realize what they’re looking at and understand that no dingo could have done this, it’s already too

late. A monster is coming and by the sound it’s making the only option left is to… run!

Asking if Boar would be a good fit for the BIFFF was but a rhetorical question. Who wouldn’t want to?

Especially when it comes from Chris Sun, the guy who sweetened up our appetites with Charlie’s Farm.

(BIFFF 2015). Get ready for a creature feature that’ll give Russel Mulcahey’s legendary Razorback a

run for its money!

Corbin Nash (2017-USA)

Directed by Ben Jagger

Screenplay by Ben Jagger, Dean S Jagger and Christopher P Taylor

Casting : Corey Feldman, Malcolm McDowell, Rutger Hauer, …


Hard boiled Corbin Nash is having a time almost as tough as his jawline in

sin city Los Angeles. The incorruptible cop never runs out of citizens to save

or crimes to solve. And there’s his tragic past. Nash’s parents were

mysteriously murdered years ago and the case has become his life-long

obsession. All leads have turned into dead ends. Then, one fateful night, Corbin discovers that he comes

from a long line of demon hunters. Queeny and Vince, two suspects with an unquenchable thirst for

blood, could have something to do with him being an orphan. It’s time to follow in his parents’ footsteps.

Corbin Nash, directed by Ben Jagger and co-written with his brother Dean S. Jagger (Game of Thrones,

Travelers), is a love letter to vintage B-movies, a clash between Death Wish and The Lost Boys. Todd

Matthew Grossman (Mad Max: Fury Road, John Wick) held the production reins, while an entire legion

of genre veterans make their appearance: Rutger Hauer, Malcolm Mc Dowell, Druce Davision and Corey

Feldman, the latter in a succulent over-the-top performance as a transvestite bloodsucker. This world

premiere is a bloody must see at the BIFFF!

Dead Ant (2017-USA)

Directed by Ron Carlson

Screenplay by Ron Carlson, Hank Braxtan and Dan Sinclair

Casting : Tom Arnold, Sean Astin, Martin Blasick, …


A glam metal band that’s run out of hits and ideas is attending a music festival in

the middle of the Californian desert. Before they get there, they make a quick

stopover to buy “mind-altering substances” from a wise old Indian. He warns them not to harm any

living creature as long as they are on the drug because the consequences would be disastrous. But when

one of them wilfully hurts an ant, they get their comeuppance in the form of a non-stop attack by killer

ants. And each time they kill one, his siblings come back bigger and deadlier. Before they know what’s

what, they’re running for their dear life, while at the same time fighting off the cruel creatures. Till the

bitter ant!

Dead Ant is an entertaining, no-nonsense horror comedy that looks like an update of 1950s monster

movies. Among the actors, we recognize some well-known faces from B movie fun and recent TV series.

Jake Busey (From Dusk till Dawn, Starship Troopers) is one of the band members and Michael Horse

(Twin Peaks 1990 and 2017) is the peyote providing Indian, while good old Tom Arnold (True Lies,

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare) as the band’s manager takes care of the

business ant… I mean end.

Ruin me (2017-USA)

Directed by Preston DeFrancis

Screenplay by Preston DeFrancis and Trysta A. Bissett

Casting : Marcienne Dwyer, Matt Dellapina, Chris Hill, …


A scout camp for die-hard BIFFF fans, that’s what this film is all about.

Wouldn’t you just love to go to Slasher Sleepout, a 36-hour fright experience

with the mechanics of an escape room, slasher gore props and… a real

psychopath on the loose? But before you enroll for this once-in-a-lifetime experience, let’s look at how

the main protagonists get through the exercise. Recovering heroin addict Alexandra (Marcienne Dwyer)

is participating, along with her boyfriend Nathan (Matt Dellapina). They are joined by four strangers

eager to see if the Slasher Sleepout is as scary as people say. After just a few hours, the first blood is

shed and panic takes over. Is this a game or the demonic plan of a serial killer? Who knows, but we’ll

have lots of fun watching it enfold!

Ruin Me is the perfect festival movie. It’s fast-paced, full of funny dialogues, and the setting is right on

the nose. After experimenting with short films and TV movies Preston DeFrancis now makes his feature

debut. Let’s hope he continues like this and maybe next time we’ll be able to show you a movie about a

fast-food experience where you have to eat your dinner mates.

Selfie From Hell (2017-Canada/Germany)

Directed by Erdal Ceylan

Screenplay by Erdal Ceylan and Paul Burton

Casting : Alyson Walker, Tony Giroux, Meelah Adams, …


When German vlogger Julia visits her cousin Hannah in America, strange things start to

happen. After falling ill, Hannah has a feeling that her cousin’s internet behavior could be

the source of all evil (not in a Christian conservative, ban all porn kind of way, but still

evil). She finds a gateway that opens towards the dark web, and from then on there is no

turning back. After watching Selfie from Hell, the only thing you’ll be thinking of when

making a duck face or a dab is: it’s just a selfie, it’s just a selfie, it’s just a selfie…

Finally, the millennials have their own horror movie. This feature film is actually a follow-up to a two-

minute short internet buzz by the same director, made in 2015. It got more than 25 million views and

made director Erdal Ceylan a viral sensation. We were pleased to hear it got the feature film it deserved:

the jump scares are all over the place and the atmosphere is right on the nose. After watching this movie,

you can always go back to a 3310 if you don’t trust your phone anymore.

Soccer Killer (2017-Hong Kong/China)

Directed by Jeffrey Lau

Screenplay by Jeffrey Lau

Casting: Jiong He, Gillian Chung, Charlene Choi, …


China and surrounding countries during the Song dynasty, sometime between the

tenth and the thirteenth century: a Mongolian football team made up of freaks

with superpowers challenges teams from neighboring countries to a soccer game.

The defeated are systematically forced to give up their land (a nice alternative for

wars of conquest, don’t you think?). One day, the Mongolians publicly challenge

the Song to a match. The Song Emperor, not willing to lose face, is left with no

choice but to accept the challenge. A nationwide competition is held to scout for the best players. The

patriotic princess Chang Ping leaves the safe environment of the imperial palace to form a squad

comprising the eight greatest martial arts sects. Finally, the first international football match on Chinese

soil can take place…

“Football is the extension of war by other means,” that seems to be the motto of the historical football

comedy Soccer Killer. Hong Kong director Jeffrey Lau (better known for his Chinese Odyssey franchise)

stages the comic tricks of his star players… I mean actors as if he were the Zhang Yimou of Hero and

House of Flying Daggers shooting a remake of Shaolin Soccer!

Sunny (2017-Japan)

Directed by Kazuya Shiraishi

Screenplay by Izumi Takahashi

Casting : Rie Kitahara, Pierre Taki, Mugi Kadowaki …

Some are fascinated by beer coasters or stamps. But Kashiwabara and Oda are completely

obsessed with Sunny, the cutest killer ever. When she was 14 years old she murdered her

classmate right after taking a selfie with her. And that image has become one of the most

famous and notorious images on the internet. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the birth

of their muse, our two lads decide to kidnap her and take her to a cabin in the woods. It’s

certainly remote, but it has a high speed wi-fi connection to stream everything live for

Sunny’s many fans. She will soon realize her power. Far from being a vulgar prisoner, she

is a true goddess, and her followers are at her mercy. That is until another woman claims to be the real

Sunny. What first starts as a pitched battle on social networks, soon turns to carnage.

You might think that director Kazuya Shiraishi (The Devil’s path) wants to teach us a lesson about our

social media obsessed society, but nothing could be further from the truth. What you get is mind boggling

psychedelic satire, which puts him on the same par with Takashi Miike en Sion Sono, who also couldn’t

care less about cinematic or social conventions.

The Tag Along 2 (2017-Taiwan) Directed by Wei-Hao Cheng

Screenplay by Shih-Keng Chien

Casting : Rainie Yang,Wei-Ning Hsu, Francesca Kao, …


In 2016 we brought you Tag Along, a movie so scary the director of the film had to have

a witch doctor on set to comfort the actors. Based on the Taiwanese urban legend The

Girl in Red, this second part continuous the story about demon babies, enchanted forests,

and obsessed moms. Something every baby shower needs, no? Tag Along 2 starts with

a missing pregnant daughter. Her mother, social worker Shu-Fen, knows something

weird is going on and sets out to find her child. While searching, she encounters Mei-hua, a mysterious

woman who has imprisoned her own daughter in a house haunted by demonic spells. As if that wasn’t

weird enough, the dynamic duo meets a third musketeer: a pregnant teenager living in an abandoned

hospital. A real dream team to fight the evil spirits haunting their lives!

Cheng Wei-hao made his name in the Asian horror scene with Tag Along. We’re not at all surprised that

he made this follow-up, yet to be rebooted by the Americans (potential franchise)! It contains all the

elements of a first class scary movie. Abandoned locations, possessed protagonists, demonic children:

you name it and he brings it on to haunt your wildest nightmares!

Taste of Life (2017-Germany) Directed by Roland Reber and Mira Gittner

Screenplay by Roland Reber, Mira Gittner and Antje Mönning

Casting : Antje Mönning, Andreas Pegler, Wolfgang Seidenberg, …


What if the meaning of life was as simple as mixing up sperm with pineapple juice?

That’s what Nikki, a German independent vlogger, has found out. The media, who of

course are “fake news”, work for the deep state and big pharma (the pharmaceutical

companies only interested in selling antidepressants). The only way to spread the

word about her findings is to go down on as many guys as possible. Religion, social injustice, economic

crisis… it’s all a form of opium to hide the truth from the masses. Even feminism is just a means of

castrating men and rendering women who wish to be submissive powerless. So what is the solution to

save the world from damnation? Get yourself butt naked and kiss patriarchy goodbye!

Roland Reber, German cinema’s eternal outsider, has fought from the start to keep his independence.

Time and again, he breaks conventions and makes you rethink societal premises. We didn’t expect

anything else from Taste of Life, and he delivered, oh my God did he deliver! This non-narrative

experiment, which was shot with the help of co-director Mira Gittner, shatters every social convention.

It’s a libertarian pamphlet, with at its center the well-known face of Marina Anna, one of our jury

members in 2013. But because 2018 isn’t exactly the 70s, you will need to be born before 2000 to enjoy

this bacchanal feast.

Trauma (2017- Chile/New Zealand)

Directed by Lucio Rojas

Screenplay by Lucio Rojas

Casting : Catalina Martin, Macarena Carrere, Ximena del Solar, …


When four female friends decide to take a holiday trip to the Chilean countryside, things

do not go as planned. The week-end starts fine. It’s sunny, the place is gorgeous and to

top it all, there's plenty of wine to kick-off the girls-only party. But there's something

dark lurking in this peaceful setting. As the party heats up, two unwelcome visitors arrive. A man and

his son transform this fiesta into a nightmare. The next morning, what’s left of the group desperately

searches for help in the nearby village, not knowing that their perpetrators are products of the most brutal

period of Chile's dark, dictatorial past. And the worst part, for them it has never ended.

This is probably the most violent and deranging movie since A Serbian Film. Director and writer Lucio

A. Rojas (Sendero) transcribes the horror unleashed by Pinochet and his minions during the dictatorship.

He frames the relentless and shocking violence of Trauma as a product of the barbaric practices from

those dark days. It goes without saying that this screening is off-limits to those under 18 (R-rated) and

sensitive souls should better abstain from watching.

Vidar The Vampire (2017-Norway)

Directed by Thomas Aske Berg and Fredrik Waldeland

Screenplay by Thomas Aske Berg and Fredrik Waldeland

Casting : Thomas Aske Berg, Brigt Skrettingland, Kim Sonderholm, …


“This story won’t make no fucking sense,” we are warned at the beginning but don’t

worry; you’ll be able to laugh your ass off. Vidar is 33 – the age at which Jesus Christ

became a superstar. This sturdy farm boy still lives and works with his strictly religious

mother. But he’s fed up with country life and dreams of wild rolls in the hay with

voluptuous women. In a moment of despair, he prays to God to release him. After a

nightly vision, during which he meets a babe with horns and a Christ figure with vampire

teeth, he wakes up with a hangover. All of a sudden he’s become allergic to sunlight, so

he outsources the farm and moves to the city, where he indulges in a life of debauchery. Maybe a session

with a therapist will finally bring redemption?

Ever since his childhood, Thomas Aske Berg has had only one wish: to play in a vampire movie.

Unfortunately, there’s no such tradition in Norway, so what did he do? He wrote, produced and directed

Vidar the Vampire, the very first one, and while he was at it he also played the leading part and wrote

the soundtrack. The result is a wacky horror comedy which pokes fun at sex, religion, and the Norway

of life.

7.3 Fantastic Night

Victor Crowley (2017-USA)

Directed by Adam Green

Screenplay by Adam Green

Casting : Parry Shen, Kane Hodder, Laura Ortiz,…


True horror fans know the name of their favourite fictional serial killers: Michael

Myers, Jason Voorhees, Norman Bates, Damien Thorn, and … Victor Crowley.

After the Hatchet trilogy (2006-2014), this crossbreed between Toxic Avenger and Swamp Thing comes

back to life to kill once more! Based in spooky Louisiana, this instalment goes back to the origin of the

Victor Crowley legend. Before becoming a supernatural monster Victor was quietly living with his dad,

till a prank-gone-wrong changed his life dramatically. Burned alive in his house while his dad was trying

to save him, Victor is now hell-bent on only one thing: getting revenge every time he is resuscitated.

You guessed it: you’ll see a lot of gore, a lot of kills and one heck of a killer climbing up the cult ladder

to get a seat next to Hellraiser, Jason and other killer buddies.

Started as a small and independent horror movie, Hatchet became a fast growing cult phenomenon. In

2006, horror fans where eager to have a new serial killer to love/hate and Adam Green, being a horror

buff himself, gave them just that. With this fourth instalment, he continues to demonstrate his talent as

a director. He knows what the audience wants: a monster that doesn’t stop after a few kills or lets his

mom do the dirty work. Yes, I’m looking at you, Leatherface!

Game of Death (2017-France / Canada / USA)

Directed by Sebastien Landry and Lawrence Morais-Lange

Screenplay by Edouard H Bond, Sebastien Landry and Lawrence Morais-Lange

Casting : Sam Earle, Victoria Diamond, Emelia Hellman, …


Kill or be killed is the golden rule of the innocent-looking board game Game of Death, which

sucks for seven decent-looking millennials who decide to play one sunny day. They quickly realize

that if they don’t murder people, their heads will explode like ripe tomatoes. Hence, they go on a

killing spree which would make Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer look like amateurs. The killer-

instinct in each of them bubbles to the surface and without remorse, they take the lives of anyone they

meet in their middle-of-nowhere town. But when they run out of victims they hit rock bottom. Divided,

terrified and confronted with their own mortality, their drive to survive blurs with their desire to win the

game. Will they or won’t they turn on each other?

Don’t get confused! We’re not talking about kung fu legend Bruce Lee’s last film (1972) or the

eponymous Wesley Snipes vehicle (2011) by Giorgio Serafini (see also Flashburn). Game of Death is

the first joint effort by young French Canadians Sebastien Landry and Laurence Morais-Lagace. With

their brutally funny shocker, a clever cross between Jumanji, Battle Royale, Natural Born Killers, and

Scanners, they picked up two prizes at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival and they seem definitely

destined for greater things. It’s enough to blow your mind!

Cannibals and Carpet Fitters (2017-UK)

Directed by James Bushe

Screenplay by Richard Lee O’Donnell

Casting : Darren Sean Enright, Richard Lee O’Donnell, Zara Phytian, …


Ah, carpets! Those woolen or mohair rugs which welcome your bare feet so comfortably…

It generates all kinds of fuzzy feelings, but of course, these things have to be sold as well.

And apparently, business isn’t exactly booming with British carpet retailers. When Cupid

Carpets (what’s in a name?) are given a new assignment, the manager jumps at it as a horny

hound at a bitch in heat. Unsuspectingly he sends his team to a remote country house, the

home of an amiable matron and her sons, all of whom are ugly as sin. They don’t receive a lot of visitors

as they're in the habit of lliterally throwing themselves at their guests. It takes a while before the carpet

fitters put two and two together, but when they finally realize they’re dealing with degenerate man-

eaters, the countdown has already started…

For Cannibals and Carpet Fitters, James Bushe remade his eponymous short from 2014 as a feature film.

You might have seen similar stories in Shaun of the Dead, Cabin in the Woods etc. Yet this is still a

finger-licking good midnight movie. At least if you savor lots of blood, sadistic violence, sardonic

humor, and silly characters who blindly rush towards their destiny!

Framed (2017-Spain)

Directed by Marc Martinez Jordan

Screenplay by Jaume Cuspinera and Marc Martinez Jordan

Casting : Catalina Martin, Macarena Carrere, Ximena del Solar, …


People can make fun of youtubers as much as they want, linear TV is slowly dying.

Especially since ‘Framed’ entered the equation. This live-streaming platform allows

everything! Wanna check out an obese man sitting on a crane while eating a pizza-kebab

for the eighth time? Or watch Granny stuff the neck of the turkey with home-made stuffings,

without gloves? Please yourself: ‘Framed’ is the ultimate everyday Chatroulette and puts Netflix'

algorithm under pressure. Nonetheless, excesses have been witnessed worldwide, and Spain has to face

its very first live-stream murder… And the author of the gruesome and overly exposed video feels he

could become the next big thing. To quote the great poets that are Daft Punk, he wants to go “harder,

better, faster, stronger”. He wants to blow up the views ranking with a brand new concept: a house and

a bunch of young friends who want to party, to have fun, to enjoy a killer moment.... An actual one.

Broadcasted live and with no ads…

Framed, from the brand new production company Creatures From the Dark, transcends traditional home-

invasion movies with its eloquent critique on social media. In this day and age, Warhol’s 15 minutes of

fame come with terrifying opportunities in a hyperconnected world. Marc Martinez Jordan’s first feature

hits hard without warning: gory, violent, unbearable, but also encouraging us, voyeurs that we are, to

bitter-sweet laughs.

7.4 7th Orbit Competition

Jury:

PASCAL VANDELANOITTE

Pascal Vandelanoitte is a film historian. He obtained a Ph. D. in Social Sciences – Film Studies

at the University of Leuven in 2012. He joined DocNomads at LUCA School of Arts (Brussels)

as lecturer in Documentary Film History in

2014 and from 2016 on he also teaches on

Film History at LUCA Genk. Furthermore,

he has been working for more than a decade

as an advisor within the Flemish regional

government (VGC), with responsibilities

for the Brussels arts scene. He has

published on films by directors such as

Pasolini, Tarkovsky, Visconti, and Kubrick.

His main interests are arthouse movies,

experimental film, and an eclectic variety

of music. His recent research focuses

mostly on the intertextual use of existing music in film, such as the innovative use of Mahler’s

music in Ken Russell’s biopic Mahler, or the use and perception of jazz in film noir.

GAETAN DELFERIERE

Gaetan Delferiere is a scriptwriter for TV-series (Champion,

Fils de, Les enfants de la forêt), a comedian and a radio

presenter on la Première. He infuses each of these three jobs

with his own particular brand of crazy. In 2016 he graduates

from the IAD film school, after which he starts working on

several series for French speaking public broadcaster RTBF.

Fiction is his passion and an absolute necessity. It was only

logical then that he grew up with the BIFFF. By becoming a

member of our 7th Orbit Jury, he realizes a childhood dream!

MATHIEU MORTELMANS

Mathieu Mortelmans (1985°) is a bilingual Belgian film director.

Besides his internationally awarded shorts Chambre Double

(2013) and Complices (2016), he directed more than 40 episodes

for several Flemish TV-series (De Kroongetuigen, Vermist, De

Bunker, Gent-West). At the moment he's editing Bastaard, his first

feature, which will hit the theaters in November 2018.

KOEN MONSEREZ

Koen Monserez (1968) is a Flemish actor and director. Since February

2017 he’s also a programmer for Cinema ZED, Leuven. Koen graduated

in 1996 from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (now Rits). He then

studied Schauspiel for one year at the Hochshule der Künste in Berlin. He

worked for 15 years as an actor for Ensemble Leporello, a theater

company of which he was also artistic and business leader for 3 years. He

worked for 3 years on KVS projects with the city of Brussels.He directed

the production A Sleeping Elephant, a performance with 20 young boxers

from Brussels about boxing icon Muhammad Ali with as main inspiration

the young participants themselves and the documentary When we were

Kings (1996). At fABULEUS he also directed the theater production

Game Rules (2004), the musical Candide (2006) and Nothing is what it

seems (2011) and he played and realized "Het Zondagavondgevoel"

(2013). He’s one of the driving forces behind the Max Last vzw art group

and likes to teach (including Luca, School of Arts, Drama Department).

Since 2014 he also forms the comical duo "Beersmans and Monserez"

who went on the road with two shows, One Man Show (2015) and Gewogen en te licht

bevonden (2017). For music theater Transparant and the Flemish Opera he re-worked / directed

" Koningin van de Nacht " by W.A. Mozart, in an adaptation by Jan Van Outryve. For “Jeugd

en Muziek” and the Bruges Concert hall, he also created The Bach Moment, together with

Capriola di Gioia. He could be seen on television and in short films in numerous guest roles.

Rosemary's Baby, The Lair of the White worm, Grave, Häxan, Drag me to Hell & The Exorcist

are among his favorite horror films ... And he’s never been on a film festival jury!

Bees make honey (2017-UK)

Directed by Jack Eve

Screenplay by Jack Eve

Casting : Alice Eve, Hermione Corfield, Joshua

McGuire, …


The English countryside, 1934. Halloween night. Honey,

a young but very wealthy widow, organizes her celebrated yearly costumed ball. The most distinguished

figures of local high society are present, sipping expensive champagne while exchanging exotic holiday

stories. This year, Honey has invited a special guest. Inspector Shoerope, the British version of our

Hercule Poirot, is charged with a very delicate mission. A year ago, Honey's husband was brutally

murdered at the same ball. With the crime being unresolved, our charming hostess has reinvited

everybody who was present at the crime. Once the last guest arrives, the clock starts ticking. Shoerope

now has to blend in and interrogate all potential suspects before they fall wasted on the ground.

You might think you’re getting a new version of Cluedo, but Jack Eve’s second film can not be reduced

to just an adaptation. Bees Make Honey is wildly original and visually sumptuous, as if Baz Luhrmann

had his way with Agatha Christie. It’s a lyrical ode to the whodunnit film, a feast of narrative and visual

styles. And it’s a movie by the entire family… Eve, because Jack sister, Alice (The Raven, Men in Black

3, Star Trek: Into Darkness) plays Honey while father Trevor (Troy, Dracula) plays the commissioner.

Blue my mind (2017-Switzerland)

Directed by Lisa Brühlmann

Screenplay by Lisa Brühlmann

Casting : Luna Weddler, Zoe Pastelle Holthuizen, Regula Grauwiller, …


Your first day at a new school is never easy. Fifteen-year-old Mia is dying to be accepted

by her new classmates and after a rough start she succeeds in becoming friends with

Gianna and her teenage gang. But then her body starts changing, a painful process

characterized by hallucinations and bizarre binge-eating spells. A visit to the doctor

only makes things worse. The relationship with her bourgeois parents goes from bad to worse and she

even starts suspecting she’s been adopted. To cope with her overwhelming sense of loneliness she seeks

solace in booze and sexual experiments. And where do those dreams of water and oceans keep coming

from?

In the dreamlike Blue My Mind, first-time Swiss director Lisa Brühlmann works with an impressive

teen cast. The film, full of teenage angst and feelings of melancholy and isolation, seems to have been

dyed in blue ink. The realistic story takes on increasingly fantastic shades and turns into an audiovisual

trip the likes of which you haven’t seen before.

Dhogs (2017-Spain)

Directed by Andres Goteira

Screenplay by Andres Goteira

Casting : Carlos Blanco, Alejandro Carro, Maria Costas, …


A taxi driver with the face of a beaten-up dog drives through the streets of a desolate

city, like he does every night. This time he picks up a businessman who’s having an

argument with his wife. But when he drops him off at the hotel, lives will be changed

forever. Whether we like it or not, we must follow the untangling of the story, powerless and astonished

at what we’re seeing. Dear BIFFF enthusiasts, the reason your writer is so lyrical is that Dhogs should

be seen as a trip through ‘horror’ lane, just like Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Amores perros and Leos

Carax’s Holy Motors. The film is raw, astonishing, and complex. It is guaranteed to be the “love it or

hate it” movie of the festival!

Andres Goteira’s debut will not go unnoticed. Loved at a bunch of other festivals, Dhogs is a UFO

(Undefined Film Object) from Galicia. That Spanish region is home to some of Europe’s most intriguing

genre films of the moment, like Ignacio Vilar’s A esmorga and Fernando Cortizo’s criminally underrated

stop motion jewel O apóstolo

Freehold (2017-UK)

Directed by Dominic Bridges

Screenplay by Dominic Bridges and Rae Burton

Casting : Javier Botet, Mandeep Dhillon, Kola Bokkini, …


“Karma can’t harm ya if it can’t catch up” says Hussain, a young estate agent who

has a date with destiny, no matter what he claims. He shares a comfy one-room

apartment with his cute girlfriend. Every morning he dresses in London’s loudest

suit and sets off for the office in the best of spirits. After selling houses all day he

goes back home to smoke weed with his pals or roll in the proverbial hay with his

girl. Little does he know that his every move is being watched by the third

inhabitant of the apartment: a shady man who unbeknownst to him shares his living space and wants to

plot his downfall. Might he have something to do with the slick sales practices of smooth-talking

Hussain? Because when his mind is set on getting a commission he’s capable of just about anything…

The hilarious black horror comedy Freehold is the first feature film of two naturals. TV director Dominic

Bridges successfully crosses over to the silver screen, whereas actor Mim Shaikh brilliantly portrays the

alternately foulmouthed and bootlicking protagonist whose life is slowly falling apart. They get help

from the frightfully good Spanish actor Javier Botet (It, The Mummy, Crimson Peak, [Rec], Witching

and Bitching…) as the enigmatic home invader.

The man with the magic box (2017-Poland/Italia)

Directed by Bodo Kox

Screenplay by Bodo Kox and Paulina Krajnik

Casting : Olga Boladz, Piotr Polak, Sebastian Stankiewicz, …


A man wakes up in the year 2030 without any memory of his previous life. He’s

given a job as a cleaner in a corporate building, where he falls for the stunning

office manager Goria. Even though their worlds couldn’t be more opposite,

being amnesic gives Adam a bit more charm and sparks fly between them.

Despite the romance, Adam is still haunted by his lost past. When he comes

across a box with a radio in it playing 1950s music, he immediately connects with his past life. He starts

questioning everything he sees in this dystopian future where he has no role to play.

In 2013 Polish director Bodo Kox made the enigmatic The Girl from the Wardrobe. This time he brings

us another gem: The Man with the Magic Box, magnificently shot by cinematographer Dominik

Danilczyk. While no doubt inspired by retro futurist movies like Blade Runner or Brazil, it brings Polish

sci-fi to an international level. Fans of the time-traveling subgenre will love the new take Bodo Kox has

to offer.

Marjorie Prime (2017-USA)

Directed by Michael Almereyda

Screenplay by Michael Almereyda

Casting : Lois Smith, Jon Hamm, Geena Davis, …


Marjorie has a lot of life behind her. Her memory begins to fail her, but she still has

fond memories of her late husband Walter. But then there is this computer program

which allows you to bring the dead back to life through holographic recreation. That

way she can have nice chats in her living room with a younger version of Walter. Her

daughter and son-in-law don’t always agree with the procedure, but one advantage of these holograms

is that they’re constantly improving and becoming more realistic. And as an added bonus, they don’t

age… Who knows, maybe Marjorie’s offspring will one day crave their own prime version of a deceased

loved one?

Marjorie Prime was a Pulitzer Prize-winning play before being turned into a Sundance prized film.

Veteran director Michael Almereyda (Trance, Nadja, Twister) is a familiar name for the BIFFF audience.

In his hands, the thought-provoking philosophical premise becomes an entertaining audiovisual

experience. The impressive cast includes John Hamm (Baby Driver, Mad Men), Geena Davis (Grey’s

Anatomy, Thelma & Louise, The Fly), and Tim Robbins (Green Lantern, Mystic River, The Shawshank

Redemption). Mica Levi (Under the Skin, Jackie) provides the enthralling music.

The Nightmare (2017- South Korea)

Directed by Jay Song

Screenplay by Lee Moo-ryoung

Casting : Ji-ho Oh


Film director Yeon-woo has had a hard time ever since his little daughter died a few years ago. Unable

to forget her, he decides to write a screenplay about her. After much sweat and toil, the screenplay, titled

The Nightmare, is finally ready for shooting. In the meantime, he suspects his wife of having an affair

and his own sleep patterns get all tangled up. A mysterious, siren-like woman constantly appears in his

dreams and claims she can bring his daughter back. When he wakes up from his nightmare, reality has

totally changed. His daughter, suddenly alive and well, advises him to keep away from the dream

woman, claiming she is the one who caused her death. Soon, Yeon-woo can no longer distinguish

between dreams and reality, between his memories and his own movie…

There’s no better medicine against melancholy than immersing oneself in fantasy. But what if you get

caught by a seductive succubus and, once the game is over, you don’t seem to be able to get back to

level 1 (reality)? The answer is to be found in this intriguing Korean mix of Under the Skin, Inception,

In Dreams, and Mulholland Drive, a world premiere for the BIFFF

The Place (2017-Italia)

Directed by Paolo Genovese

Screenplay by Paolo Genovese and Isabella Aguilar

Casting : Valerio Mastandrea, Marco Giallini, Alessandro Borghi, …


Every day, a mysterious man sits at the same table in a bar called, of all places, The Place... Let’s call

him the Man. People come and go, but this gentleman has ten steady customers who visit him at regular

intervals. Might he be a drug dealer? That’s highly unlikely in such a public place. They’re ordinary

people, all of whom share a secret desire and the belief that the Man can help them make it come true.

Their wishes are widely divergent: one of them wants physical beauty, someone else wants their child

to heal, a third wants to be able to see again... In exchange for his help, the Man wants a small favor in

return. Turns out that, in their burning desire to finally attain the ever elusive happiness, these desperate

citizens are willing to pay a high prize and completely ignore even the most basic moral principles. But

how far can you go?

Italian filmmaker Paolo Genovese made a huge impression with his black comedy Perfect Strangers

(2016). This time, he draws inspiration from the Canadian phantasy series The Booth at the End, which

he adapts into a feature film. It’s quite a wager, a story in a single location, but Genovese pulls it off

thanks to his talented ensemble cast and lots of psychological tension. As to the Man: is he God, the

devil incarnate or the personification of

Wrath Of Silence (2017- China)

Directed by Yukun Xin

Screenplay by Yukun Xin

Casting : Wu Jiang, Yang Song, Wenkang Yuan, …


When Zhang Baomin returns to his native village in the arid north of China,

he immediately notices that something is wrong. His son has disappeared and

life in the village has come to a standstill. It looks like one of those forgotten

places in spaghetti westerns where men only find solace in drinking at the

local saloon. When he starts investigating he crosses the path of a man as evil as the devil in person.

Chang Wannian (played by Jiang Wu, seen in Jia Zhangke’s epic A Touch of Sin) is a man with a plan:

he wants to control all the coalmines in the region, by any means necessary… Life will bring these two

men together in a duel without a happy end.

We are very excited to bring you the third movie by director Xin Yukun, who’s already won Best Actor

and Jury prizes at the very first Chinese Film Festival. In spite of his tender age he’s made a name for

himself with The Coffin in the Mountain, presented at the Venice Film Festival. With Wrath of Silence

he proves to be one of the most interesting contemporary filmmakers in Asia. He combines the visual

mastery of Park Chan-wook and Johnnie To with a critical take on contemporary China, just like Jia

Zhangke and Hou Hsiao-Hsien before him.

Yurigokoro (2017- Japan)

Directed by Naoto Kumazawa

Screenplay by Naoto Kumazawa

Casting : Yuriko Yoshitaka, Tae Kimura, Kaya Kihoyara, …


Ryosuke has a bright future. He just opened a successful restaurant and hopes to

tie the knot soon with his alluring girlfriend. But then his father declares he has

pancreatic cancer and his betrothed vanishes without a trace. In his father’s

belongings, he discovers a secret diary, which starts with an ominous sentence:

“Without remorse, I take a life …” Ryosuke is completely spellbound and reads on, discovering that the

document is actually the confession of someone he’s supposed to know quite well: his very own mother.

Years ago, she disappeared just like his girlfriend and hasn’t been heard of since.

The eerie murder mystery Yurigokoro is based on a 2011 Japanese bestseller. With 200 000 sold copies,

author Mahokaru Numata joined the league of the big guys in literature land (Haruki Murakami and the

like). Director Naoto Kumazawa (Vanished, Tokyo Noir) signs for the inevitable adaptation. Among the

actors, we recognize some well-known faces of Japanese cinema: Ken'ichi Matsuyama (the Death Note

franchise, Norwegian Wood) and Yuriko Yoshitaka (Robo-G, Gantz) among others.

7.5 Thriller Competition

Jury :

FRANÇOIS TROUKENS

François Troukens' life resembles that of a crime novel.

He's about twenty years old when he becomes a

gangster. He'll encounter all the clichés of the

'profession': prison, recidivism, escapes, car chases,

shoot-outs and... redemption. In prison, he gets a

bachelor's degree in Modern Literature and starts writing his first scripts. When he gets out, he's

already an accomplished artist. He writes comics (Forbans), is an activist with his association

Chrysalibre (which uses culture to fight radicalization in jail), works for radio and TV on RTL

and writes books (his novel Resilience Army was released last November). And now he also

directs. Tueurs (Killers) is a riveting crime thriller with a five-star cast which premiered at the

Venice Film Festival, Troukens has definitely completed his transformation. His past as a

gangster feeds his future as an artist. He has turned the page, as they say.

FILMO : Tueurs (2017)

ANTOINE BOURS

After film studies at the IAD, Antoine Bours mainly devotes himself to writing.

This takes him first to the theater with a paranoid and feminist adaptation of

Bram Stoker's Dracula presented at Le Public Theatre in 2011. It’s a show

without Dracula or hemoglobin, where the horror is rooted in human behavior.

He then returns to television with other IAD graduates for Public Enemy, the

hit TV-series of the RTBF that won the Coup de Coeur Award at the 2016 MIP

in Cannes and Best Actor Award at the Series Mania Festival in Paris. The

series was sold to some fifteen international channels including AMC and TF1.

He’s now finished the second season of Public Enemy, which will be aired on our screens in September

2018. Antoine’s future projects include a series based on the novels of Jean Ray.

KOEN MORTIER

Despite being busy with the post-production of Angel and the pre-

production of Rotterdam, I Love You, Koen Mortier agreed to take a

break to join our thriller jury. This controversial and atypical figure of

Belgian cinema already marked the 7th Art with two raw features: Ex

Drummer and 22nd of May. As a fervent defender of pluralistic cinema,

he also co-produced Toon Aerts’ multi-awarded short Perfect Drug, The

Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears from our friends Hélène Cattet and

Bruno Forzani, Alex Van Warmerdam's Borgman and Dick Maas’ Prey,

screened last year at the BIFFF!

FILMO: Ex-Drummer (2007) – 22 Mei (2010)

Crooked House (2017- UK)

Directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner

Screenplay by Julian Fellowes, Gilles Paquet-Brenner and Tim Rose

Price

Casting : Glenn Close, Terence Stamp, Gillian Anderson …


Private investigator Charles Hayward met Sophie de Haviland while he was

stationed in Cairo for the secret service. Their brief affair has long faded away

when she enlists his urgent services for a small matter: the death of her stinking

rich grandfather Aristide Leonides. This Greek immigrant made his fortune with

his own business empire (which has nothing whatsoever to do with chocolate - Belgian, Greek, or

otherwise). One day he’s found quite dead in the luxurious country estate where he holds court with his

extended family. According to the will, his trophy wife stands to inherit everything, but Sophie smells a

rat. It turns out that just about every family member has their own personal reason for offing granddad…

Our Sherlock will have an uphill task in finding the real culprit!

We have known French filmmaker Gilles Paquet-Brenner ever since his murderously efficient horror

thriller Walled In (BIFFF 2009). In Crooked House, he adapts the ever so British Agatha Christie. He

attacks the convoluted plot with lots of style and an impressive list of acting talents, including Glenn

Close (Fatal Attraction), Christina Hendricks (Mad Men), Max Irons (The Host), Terence Stamp (The

Adjustment Bureau), Gillian Anderson (The X Files), and Julian Sands (Warlock).

Downrange (2017-USA)

Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura

Screenplay by Ryuhei Kitamura and Joey O’Bryan

Casting : Kelly Connaire, Stephanie Pearson, Rodd Hernandez,…


A car slams its breaks at the pop of a flat. Inside are Todd (Rod Hernandez) and

Sara (Alexa Yeames), a young couple toting around a bunch of strangers who

pitched in gas money to reach everyone’s shared destination. When trying to

repair the flat tire, the friendly and helpful Jeff gets shot, but no shooter is in sight.

Panic breaks out in this group of people who barely know each other’s names. At

such a time you can trust no one! For a couple of years now, we’ve been trying to tell you cars aren’t

your best friends. Remember Monolith (2017)? Well, once more we have a desert, a car, and some people

who possibly will die! And you still want to do that road trip in the Sierra Nevada?

Behind the camera is an old friend of the festival. Ryuhei Kitamura won a Silver Raven in 2003 with

Aragami, a sublime tale about samurais revealing their true identity. He is also well-known for Azumi

(2003) and the slasher The Midnight Meat Train (2008). In this minimalistic thriller, he once again

reveals his sublime talent for suspense and mise-en-scène.

Hunting Emma (2017-South Africa)

Directed by Byron Davis

Screenplay by Deon Meyer

Casting : Bouwer Bosch, Leandi De Randt, Luan Jacobs,…


Emma looks like a gentle, peace-loving, and caring woman. But when danger

occurs, she gets possessed by the ghost of Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson’s

character in Taken). “Danger” here means a group of six lunatic drug sellers,

whom she saw killing a cop on duty. There remains but one thing to do: kill that

poor little helpless girl. What they haven’t bargained for is that Emma has seen

all the Kill Bill movies and is in for some good ol’ ultra violence.

Hunting Emma, the first movie by South African director Byron Davis, is based on a novel by Deon

Meyer. The film doesn’t have the budget of its examples, but it makes up for that by a resourceful way

of filming, with omnipresent violence, a breathtaking rhythm, and an impressive Leandie De Randt.

Neill Blomkamp, you are no longer South Africa’s only genre film director!

Memoir of a murderer (2017- South Korea)

Directed by Shin-yun Won

Screenplay by Jo-yun Hwang

Casting : Kyung-gu Sol, Nam-gil Kim, Seol-hyun Kim, …


It’s a well-known fact that fathers can be quite defensive when a daughter presents

her new boyfriend. But what if the father recognizes his own killer instinct in the

guy? Byeong-soo is a veterinarian who for 15 years has been suffering from

Alzheimer’s disease. Since then he has given up his hobby: getting rid of society’s scum. But as to his

daughter’s boyfriend, with his murderer’s face and sanctimonious grin... he doesn’t trust him for one

bit. In order to get to the bottom of this, he will have to deal with his failing memory, which has more

holes in it than a ripe Swiss cheese. And all the things he remembers from his past, did they really

happen?

In South Korea, Memoir of a Murderer attracted more than two million spectators in less than two weeks.

The success is no doubt due to the dynamic direction by Won Shin-yun, who forces you to see the world

through the eyes of a serial killer. But the excellent performances certainly add to the effect. Among the

actors, we recognize Kyung-gu Sol from Cold Eyes (BIFFF 2014), whereas Dal-su Oh played in Tunnel

(BIFFF 2017), Veteran (BIFFF 2016), and the instant classic Oldboy.

New trial (2017-South Korea)

Directed by Tae-yun Kim

Screenplay by Tae-yun Kim

Casting : Jung-eun Lee, Jae-young Han, Min Jin-woong, …


The year 2000. Jo Hyun-Woo is 15. He is a good kid, who may no longer believe in

Santa but does believe in justice. That's bad luck for him, as good cops decide to

arrest him for the murder of a taxi driver. He might be innocent, but a few punches

in the face from the arm of the law make him confess to anything. 16 years later, Jo

Hyun-Woo has done his time in jail, but he’s damaged goods. No one wants to hire

him, his mother has become blind and is having trouble putting food on the table and insurances

companies want to rob him blind for victim compensation. That’s when he meets Lee Jun-Young, a

lawyer who used to plead pro bono, who dreams of a more lucrative professional future. But the more

the lawyer digs into the case, the more he realizes that he's drowning in a sea of corruption.

Kim Tae-Yun promised he would never deal with stories based on true events that stigmatize injustice

and corruption in Korea after his 2014 movie Another Family. Nonetheless, the filmmaker couldn’t

resist. Not only is New Trial based on real events, the trial is still ongoing! Cleverly, Kim does not look

into the trial itself, but he untangles the web of a legal system that is rotten to the core. In the end, the

Korean director offers a breath-taking thriller which will want you to make the world a better place.

Shock Wave (2017-Hong Kong/China)

Directed by Herman Yau

Screenplay by Erica Lee and Herman Yau

Casting : Andy Lau, Wu Jiang, Jia Song, …


J.S. Cheung is one of Hong Kong’s best policemen. He fearlessly infiltrates the

gang of the merciless gangster Blast (what’s in a name?) who has made an art form of relieving local

banks of their cash. Seven years later, Cheung has retrained as a demining expert. When a series of bomb

attacks spark fear among Hong Kong’s citizens, the clever policeman quickly smells a rat. Blast is

challenging him to a cat-and-mouse game: will you be able to deactivate this bomb before innocent

people get hurt? And he still has his biggest trick up his sleeve… With a gang of no-goods, Blast takes

hold of a major underground tunnel, including a hundred or so hostages, and he threatens to blast

everything to smithereens if his demands aren’t met. Will our bold-hearted hero succeed in defusing the

situation in time?

Andy Lau needs no further introduction for the BIFFF public. The star of House of Flying Daggers and

Infernal Affairs 1 and 3 is the unmistakable center of gravity in this energetic and tightly paced thriller.

Director Herman Yau is no unknown quantity either because we previously saw his Gong Tau (BIFFF

2008), Ghost Within (BIFFF 2006), and Troublesome Night (BIFFF 2000). A fine piece of workmanship

made in Hong Kong!

A Special Lady (2017-South-Korea)

Directed by An-kyu Lee

Screenplay by An-kyu Lee

Casting: Hye-su Kim, Sun-kyun Lee, Hee-joon Lee, …


It’s a man’s world, but it would be nothing without a woman. Apply that to Seoul’s criminal

underworld and never a truer word was spoken. A crime syndicate specializes in

blackmailing prominent citizens by secretly taping their sexual affairs. Platinum blonde Hyun-Jung is

the gang’s factotum. She not only advises the big boss but if push comes to shove she also kicks a mean

ass and to top things off she has an uncanny sense of looming danger. Just when the syndicate wants to

reinvent itself as a bona fide company, its designated killer is no longer willing to play second fiddle,

which threatens the whole organization. The boss’s son, who’s just been expelled from school for bad

behaviour, doesn’t want to heed her good advice either. And what to do about the public prosecutor, who

has vowed to bring the gangsters down because they don’t want to return his sex tape?

A Special Lady is a hard-boiled crime drama, a genre which the Koreans seem to have monopolized

these last 15 years. It boasts enough plot developments to fill ten movies, impressive performances,

stylish direction, a pulsating rhythm… Lee An-gyu used to assist Kim Jee-woon (I Saw the Devil, A

Bittersweet Life, A Tale of Two Sisters) and now delivers a first feature in his own name. For the leading

lady, he succeeded in getting tough cookie Kim Hye-Soo, known for a.o. Coin-Locker Girl.

Who Killed Cock Robin (2017-Taiwan)

Directed by Wei-hao Cheng

Screenplay by Yen Chi-Chen, Yu Shan Chen, Yuli Chen and Wei-Hao Cheng

Casting : Wei-Ning Hsu, Kaiser Chuang, Chia-Yen Ko, …


Investigative journalist Wang Yi-chi is a real charmer. Everyone instantly likes him and

he can get away with almost anything. But then he makes the mistake of selling a scoop

without checking the facts first. The juicy extramarital affair he wanted to expose turns

out to be a fluke because the senator is legally married to the buxom babe he was seen with… On top of

that, Wang wrecks his brand new wheels. Upon investigating, he finds out his shiny sports car isn’t so

new after all and that it was involved in a fatal hit-and-run incident some years ago. When he delves into

the case, things get murky and before you know it he discovers a dark web of secrets, scandals, and

corruption that goes to the heart of the system. Meanwhile, he gets fired by his newspaper because of

the fake scandal. At his most vulnerable he’ll have to go at it alone to uncover the dirty truth.

Who Killed Cock Robin? is the second film by Taiwanese director Wei-Hao Cheng in this year’s

program. But don’t expect Tag-Along 3, because he has crafted a crime drama with a persistent film noir

atmosphere. Among the impressive performers, we recognize Wei-Ning Hsu from the Tag-Along

franchise and a certain Mason Lee (son of Ang “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” Lee

7.6 European Competition

Jury :

PHILIPPE LOGIE

Since 2001, Philippe Logie has been running the Acquisitions

Department of the Belgian pay-channel Be TV (formerly Canal +

Belgium), where he was secretary general and legal counselor

from 1995 till 2001. He now selects and negotiates the rights for

features, TV-series and documentaries with Belgian and

international studios, producers and distributors for VOO and Be

TV. Since 2010, he has been a board member of André Delvaux

Academy and he functions as Be TV’s artistic producer for the

organization of the Magritte Award ceremonies. In 2014, he began

working as an associate producer, managing the investments of

VOO and Be TV for the co-production of films and documentaries

(more than 80 to this day).

OLIVIER IMFELD

Olivier Imfeld, born in Switzerland from a Swiss mother and a Dutch

father, left his native country after finished his BA., as he wanted to

discover the world. He ended up in Arles, France. There, he studied

photography at the Ecole Nationale de la Photographie and then moved to

Nice for studies in contemporary art at the National School of Art. His first

real contact with cinema in Switzerland (after seeing Mary Poppins as a

kid) is when he works at an underground cinema, on the weekends. The

free tickets he gets from this job are used for total immersion in the 7th Art.

Then, during his photography studies, he's asked to take pictures on a film

set, which definitely gets him hooked on cinema. After his studies, he

works on productions in the south of France, where he meets people like

Armin Müller Stahl, Max von Sidow and Roman Coppola (scriptwriter of

Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic). Olivier is chief operator and second team DOP on Ricky

Bates Jr’s slasher Excision, shot in Los Angeles. His most recent feat is DOP on Jerome

Vandewattyne’s docufiction Spit 'n' Split, which had its world premiere at the BIFFF and

was nominated for the 2018 Magritte Awards.

MARIE MANZAH

Born in Paris of a Spanish mother and a Cameroonian father, Marie moved to

Belgium in 2012.After studying Spanish, she was attracted to the airline sector.

She began her career at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, after which she

became a supervisor at Air Europa, the Spanish airline specializing in Latin

America. In 2005, she started working as a sales representative in Air Europe’s

Marketing and Sales department in Paris. For fun, she got involved in the world

of media, for example as co-author of commercials, to which she also lent her

voice on Radio Latina 99FM.At the end of 2012, Air Europa asked her to open

the company’s Belgian office in the European capital, and Marie accepted the

challenge! Since then, she has been very active in the Belgian business world

and, as part of the sales team based in the company’s offices in Brussels, she does

not intend to leave ever again.

MICHEL NABOKOFF

Belgian actor Michel Nabokoff (1973°) is indeed the great-nephew of

Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov. The latter is, of course, much better

known, but much less alive. Which gives Michel the advantage! In 2007,

he decided to pursue his dream to become an actor. He first appeared in

commercials, before obtaining his first part in 2009 in a French TV-movie!

Since then, he hasn't stopped shooting: La chance de ma vie with Virginie

Efira, Un heureux événement with Louise Bourgoin, La Tour 2 Contrôle

Infernale and more recently one of the best comedies of 2017, Problemos

by Eric Judor. Currently being stuck on the set with Cécile de France and

Fabrice Luchini, Michel Nabokoff asked the BIFFF to give him a break so

that he could participate to our Europen Jury. Consider it done, Michel!

JEAN-YVES ROUBIN

Jean-Yves Roubin founded FraKas Productions in 2007. The company is

active in development and international co-productions. In its catalog, you can

find recent films such as Repair the Living by Katell Quillévéré (2016), Je suis

à toi by David Lambert, Grave by Julia Ducournau (2016), Ms. Hyde by Serge

Bozon, Daguerrotype by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, La Fidèle by Michaël R. Roskam

and Muse by Jaume Balaguero. Jean-Yves Roubin is committed to working

with young Belgian or international filmmakers, capable of taking a critical

look at society, with a preference for genre cinema. 2018 promises to be a rich

year for FraKas Productions, as the company has chosen to co-produce Lorcan

Finnegan's Vivarium, Neasa Hardiman's Sea Fever, Gavin Rothery's Archive

and La fille au bracelet by Stéphane Demoustier. On its Belgian slate are David Lambert's

Third Wedding, Alone to My Marriage by Marta Bergman and will especially Inexorable,

the new feature by Fabrice du Welz.

Charismata (2017- UK)

Directed by Andy Collier and Toor Mian

Screenplay by Andy Collier and Toor Mian

Casting : Sarah Beck Matter, Jamie Satterthwaite, Andonis Anthony, …


It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it. Easier said than done for rookie police

inspector Rebecca, who has to pry into the sleaziest crimes. As if that weren’t

enough, she has to put up with her male chauvinist pig colleagues and their sick

sense of humor. Especially the other half of her detective duo enjoys making fun

of her. When they stumble upon a series of ritually murdered victims, they succeed

in apprehending a possible perpetrator. But this slick bastard doesn’t flinch an inch and on top of that,

he shows up as an uninvited guest in her dreams–or should we say “nightmares”? Soon she starts

questioning her own mental sanity, which wasn’t rock solid to begin with…

Brits Andy Collier and Tor Mian won a bunch of prizes at American genre festivals with their first

feature as a duo. And for good reason, because Charismata is an intelligent mix of crime drama and

satanic horror. Just like in Manhunter (the first cinematic sighting of our favorite creep, Hannibal

Lecter), heavy emphasis is put on the uncanny similarities between detectives and serial killers. Add to

that a creepy atmosphere in the vein of Polanski and you’re all set for a first-rate fright night!

Cold Skin (2017- France/Spain)

Directed by Xavier Gens

Screenplay by Jesus Olmo and Eron Sheean

Casting : Ray Stevenson, David Oakes, Aura Garrido, …


1914. A ship drops off a weather official at a remote island in Arctic waters. He’s

supposed to stay for a year to do meteorological research. The man he replaces is

reported to have succumbed to typhoid fever. At least that’s what the island’s sole

other inhabitant, the grumpy lighthouse-keeper, claims. He’s not exactly a

charming man and he tries to make his new neighbor’s stay as uncomfortable as possible. And why does

his lighthouse look like a fortress, including an armor-plated door and razor-sharp spears? It seems

they’re not the only inhabitants of the tiny island. Night after night they’re being visited by malicious

creatures that rise from the sea and want to kill them with a vengeance. Or maybe the monsters are being

lured by their next of kin, who lives with the lighthouse-keeper like a tamed animal?

Cold Skin, based on a Catalan bestseller, is a stimulating breed of horror thriller and philosophical tale.

We know filmmaker Xavier Gens (The Hitman) from The Divide (BIFFF 2012) and Frontiers (BIFFF

2008). With the help of Ray Stevenson (Thor-trilogy, The Big Game, Divergent) as the misanthropic

lighthouse-keeper and eye-watering visual effects, he pins you to your chair for two hours straight.

The Cured (2017-Ireland)

Directed by David Freyne

Screenplay by David Freyne

Casting : Ellen Page, Sam Keeley, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, …


Four years after a viral epidemic turned the infected into rabid brain-eaters, a cure

has finally been found. 75% of patients are in complete remission and can re-enter

civil society. Senan is one of them. He is relieved to be reunited with his sister-in-

law and his nephew without wanting to eat their limbs. However, it’s not really a happy end. He might

be cured, but he has not forgotten the atrocious acts he’s committed. Moreover, in addition to a difficult

reintegration, the ex-infected have to face hatred and discrimination. Some even want to intern them in

camps. And then there are the 25% who can not be cured. While the army starts to impose a final solution,

some of the cured turn to violence to be heard.

In his debut feature, director David Freyne uses the allegory of the infected as a metaphor for social

discrimination. It reminds you of The Revenants, but here the filmmaker adds a political layer. His

subtext is quite flexible and allows him to give xenophobes, neo-liberals and eurosceptics the finger. As

you will have understood by now, The Cured is far from being an ordinary zombie-flick. Carried by the

incredible Ellen Page (Inception, Hard Candy) and acclaimed by international critics, it is almost your

duty to come and watch it at the BIFFF!

Ederlezi Rising (2018-Serbia)

Directed by Lazar Bodroza

Screenplay by Dimitrije Vojnov

Casting : Sebastian Cavazza, Stoya, Marusa Majer, …


2148. Milutin is a skilled astronaut working for the Ederlezi Corporation. He

just finished his training to participate in the most dangerous mission ever; an expedition to Alpha

Centauri, the only planet suitable for human life. As the journey is going to be very long, the astronaut

might risk getting bored. The Ederlezi Corporation has provided a partner for Milutin. Nimani is an

android adapted to the astronaut’s psychological profile. Because of Milutin’s misogynist nature, his

sexualized tamagochi is in serious risk of breaking down before they reach their destination. Thousand

light years away from Earth, Milutin feels like a god with his remote controlling Nimani’s desires. She

evolves from colleague to lover and from lover to sexual slave. As boundaries are being broken,

Milutin’s lust for domination can no longer be fulfilled by a piece of software. He decides to reboot

Nimani and to implant the final touch: real emotions!

Ederlezi Rising, aesthetically reminding us of Tarkovski’s Solaris, is a bold science-fiction movie from

Serbia. Our Serbian friends are not known to hold back when it comes to cinema (A Serbian Film,

anyone!?) and in Ederlezi Rising they live up to their reputation. Lazar Bodroza’s first feature delves

deeply into our most primal desires. It also evokes fellow countrywoman and renowned shock-artist

Marina Abramovic’s 1974 performance, where she let herself be abused by the audience. Adult movie

enthusiasts will recognize Stoya, who has put her porn career aside to put us men firmly in our place.

Errementari (2017-Spain) Directed by Paul Urkijo Alijo

Screenplay by Paul Urkijo Alijo and Asier Guerricaechevarría

Casting : Kandido Uranga, Eneko Sagardoy, Uma Bracaglia, …

Duration : 98minutes

Sure, we all have our demons to contend with but Patxi, a blacksmith in a Basque village

in the early 19th century, has quite a special demon. For years, he’s been fighting off a

low-level devil to whom he once pledged his soul and who wants to present him with a

one-way ticket to hell. In order to buy time, Patxi has locked up the horned creature in

his smithy, which is as dark as night and as hot as a furnace. The pious and superstitious

village where he lives shuns the smith as if he were a leper, but then Usue enters the

scene. As the young daughter of a woman who killed herself, she too is being snubbed by the closed

community. Usue becomes the bone of contention between the smith, the demon, and the villagers.

Maybe she will succeed in keeping the gates of hell closed for just a while longer…

A horror story in the Basque country and spoken in Euskera (the Basque language), that’s something we

don’t get to see every day. This production by BIFFF regulars Álex de la Iglesia and Carolina Bang is

the first full-fledged film by writer-director Paul Urkijo Alijo. His Errementari (“blacksmith”) is an

entertaining mix of gothic horror, folklore, and satanic shenanigans told with a great sense of style.

La femme la plus assassinée du monde (2017-

Belgium/USA/UK)

Directed by Franck Ribière Screenplay by James Charkow, Vérane Frédiani, David Murdoch

and Franck Ribière

Casting : Anna Mouglalis, Niels Schneider, Eric Godon, …


Who was the most assassinated woman in the world? This dubious

honor befell Paula Maxa, the star of the Grand Guignol Theater in the Pigalle district of Paris at the

beginning of the 1930s. On stage, she was murdered more than 10,000 times in at least 60 different ways

and raped at least 3,000 times. In the dramatized film version, we meet an imperturbable woman who

hides a terrible family secret. Writer and director André de Lorde, nicknamed “The Prince of Terror”,

practically keeps her under lock and key with the help of a psychiatrist. Until one day, a young journalist

pays a visit for an article he’s writing and he starts suspecting the famous theatre is somehow involved

with a series of gruesome murders. Upon meeting Paula, he falls head over heels in love and he also

learns about her painful past. Will he be able to save her from the clutches of the shady characters

surrounding her?

The name Franck Ribière may not ring a bell, but what if we told you he’s the producer of Álex de la

Iglesia (Witching and Bitching, The Perfect Crime, The Oxford Murders, The Last Circus) and a string

of other Spanish movies (Cell 211, Extinction, El niño)? His fiction debut, freely inspired by historical

events, is a suspenseful theatre thriller in the vein of The Illusionist and The Prestige.

Frontier (2018-Russia)

Directed by Dmitriy Tyurin

Screenplay by Aleksandr Shvetsov

Casting : Kristina Brodskaya, Alexander Korshunov, Elena Lyadova, …


Mikhail Chourov is a young, cynical and ruthless businessman. He works for an

unscrupulous real estate agent, managing the grounds for future housing estates

in St. Petersburg. But one of his projects has stalled since activists accuse him of

wanting to destroy a historical site. Chourov doesn’t give a damn about the

remains of Red Army soldiers. Determined to subdue this rebellion, he decides to confront the activists.

But a sudden landslide on the spot throws him into a temporal vortex. Chourov is still at the same

historical site… but in 1943 during the siege of Leningrad. The banks of the Neva are about to become

an open tomb for more than two hundred thousand soldiers and Chourov is in the middle of it.

Frontier, dedicated to Operation Iskra, about the breaking of the siege of Leningrad, is a gigantic project

that took ten years to complete. It’s a patriotic homage to the sacrifice of Russian soldiers and a fantastic

blockbuster about time jumps. Dmitriy Tyurin’s film is a maze of stories, from the most intimate to the

most epic. This visually astounding adventure (with a budget of 300 Rubles, you do the math) could

count on a crack team of sfx artists (responsible for a.o. Logan, Nightwatch and Chronicle). Get swept

away by a spectacular story about one of the biggest bloodbaths of the 20th century.

How To Talk To Girl At Parties (2017- UK/USA)

Directed by John Cameron Mitchell

Screenplay by Philippa Goslett and John Cameron Mitchell

Casting : Alex Sharp, Elle Fanning, Nicole Kidman, …


If you’re an outcast, your teenage years are the dark ages of your

personal history. Especially talking to girls can turn out to be an insurmountable challenge. Enn is right

in the middle of his dark ages, until he meets Zan at the wrong party. Wrong party? Convinced they are

going to the after-party of a punk rock show, they stumble upon an alien infested “introduction to earth”

gathering, where they learn that cannibal aliens are trying to conquer planet earth. The only solution is

to rally the punk troops led by designer Boadicia (Nicole Kidman no less) and fight back! In the middle

of all these shenanigans Enn and Zan (most definitely an alien ... or not?) need to find a moment to

“consume” the night. And you thought punk was dead?

It’s been a long time since we heard something from John Cameron Mitchell, who made the amazing

Hedwig and the Angry Inch and the weird Rabbit Hole, but we weren’t expecting this high-class movie.

Starring Elle Fanning (groundbreaking in The Neon Demon), repeat offender Nicole Kidman (who

played a major role in Rabbit Hole), and newcomer Alex Sharp, this sci-fi comedy provides two hours

of pure joy in the vein of Scott Pilgrim and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. That’s entertainment!

Killing God (2017-Spain)

Directed by Caye Casas and Albert Pintó

Screenplay by Caye Casas and Albert Pintó

Casting : Eduardo Antuña, Itziar Castro, Emilio Gavira, …


A remote country house in a mountainous region sounds like the perfect place

for a New Year’s Eve family dinner, right? There’s quite a bit of tension

between the different family members, but when an uninvited guest shows up,

all hell breaks loose. Disguised as a homeless midget, none other than God

himself comes on the scene. And this time he brings bad tidings: when the sun

rises, all of humanity will be wiped out. The “good news” is they can choose two people who will survive

the ordeal. Things quickly get out of hand and soon the cozy family get-together turns into a sinister

version of And Then There Were None …

Killing God, which won the Audience Award at the latest Sitges film festival, is the first feature by young

Catalan filmmakers Caye Casas and Albert Pintó. It’s a pitch black comedy with a religious alibi, in the

vein of Álex de la Iglesia’s The Day of the Beast (BIFFF 1996). Among the actors we recognize well-

known faces of Spanish cinema: Emilio Gavira (Blancanieves, Mortadelo and Filemón), Eduardo

Antuña (De la Iglesia’s 800 bullets, Torrente 4) en Itziar Castro ([REC] 3: Genesis).

Painkillers (2018- Belgium)

Directed by Roxy Shih

Screenplay by Giles Daoust

Casting : Madeline Zima, Mischa Barton, Naomi Grossman, …


After a car accident that killed his son, John is suffering from an extremely

rare form of post-traumatic stress disorder: constant tremors, raw nerves and terrible headaches. This is

now the daily cocktail of this renowned surgeon. Obviously, no one lets him go near a scalpel. John tries

everything to calm his pain: drugs, horse tranquilizers, the collected works of Leonard Cohen, but

nothing works. Until the day he accidentally wounds his hand and decides to suck on the wound. To his

astonishment, he discovers that this dose of hemoglobin makes all his pains disappear. But if John

thought that a glass of A+ every morning will end his suffering, he quickly realizes that drinking his

own blood is not enough. He’ll also have to feed on other humans. And it has to be fresh!

Giles Daoust, the director of The Room and the producer of Soulmate and Starry Eyes, is a familiar

guest at the BIFFF. This time, he’s back, together with co-producer Catherine Dumonceaux, as the

screenwriter and producer of Painkillers, a modern twist on the vampire tale that ask poignant ethical

questions. Shot entirely in California, with Roxy Shih (The Tribe) at the helm, this Belgian production

could count on a terrific cast with Madeline Zima (The Collector, Twin Peaks), Grant Bowler (Killer

Elite, Defiance) and Mischa Barton (Lawn Dogs, The O.C.).

Party hard, Die young (2018-Austria)

Directed by Dominik Hartl

Screenplay by Robert Buchschwenter and Karin Lomot

Casting : Edita Malovcic, Michael Ostrowski, Michael

Glanschnig, …


Finally, graduation! No more high school! In order to celebrate Julia,

her classmates and thousands of fellow graduates are on their way to an island resort in Croatia. It’s

supposed to be the party of their lives. The harmless fun, however, soon turns dead serious. When a

friend is killed in a tragic accident, the party people’s euphoria is crushed. Moreover, Julia’s best friend

Jessica has been missing and she is the only one who believes in a connection between the two incidents.

Unfortunately soon after, her suspicion is confirmed when Jessica’s lifeless body is washed up on the

shore. Now the trip is about sheer survival, as Julia realizes that she’s probably the next victim. Could

it all be connected to a long buried incident from the clique’s past?

We don’t often get to see films from Austria, so two years ago we were pleasantly surprised by Dominik

Hartl’s whacky Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies, which was nominated for a Golden Raven and was

awarded two prizes by our Fantaspoa friends. In Party Hard, Die Young, the young filmmaker renews

the familiar genre tropes of the slasher genre (Scream, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street…) with

a whiff of Spring Breakers and a dash of The Beach.

Snowflake (2017-Germany)

Directed by Adolfo Kolmerer and William James

Screenplay by Arend Remmers

Casting : Reza Brojerdi, Erkan Acar, Xenia Assenza, …


The near future: German society is in the doldrums and Berlin is the scene of

street battles. Tan and Javid get into a fight with the manager of a kebab joint

and swiftly send him to the netherworld. Also killed are some innocent

bystanders, including the parents of Eliana, who retaliates by sending a series

of whacky contract killers after them. In fact, Tan and Javid were looking for

the leader of a fascist organization who’s responsible for wiping out their entire family. They then find

a screenplay in which their every adventure is described in great detail, including their untimely demise.

While they go on a desperate search and destroy mission for the script’s author, they meet guardian

angel Snowflake. And what the dickens does Hyper Electro Man have to do with all this?

Snowflake’s slogan is “the most beautiful German fairy tale since the Brothers Grimm,” but don’t take

that too literally! This mindfuck if ever there was one takes the unsuspecting viewer on a thrill ride, with

crazy characters, satiric jibes at German politics, a story that bites its own tail, and dialogues Tarantino

would relish. The winner of a Silver Méliès in Lund was shot guerrilla style and the result is a bombshell

of a movie.

7.7 Critics' Prize

The Film Critics Award, launched at the BIFFF in 2013 and was attributed to the Best Belgian

Short Film during the first four years. Since last year it moved to the feature film category, with

the current titleholder being the South Korean film The Tunnel by Kim Seong-hoon. The award

is a collaboration between two national media associations (the Film Critics Union and the

Union of the Belgian Movie Press). This prestigious prize is supported by the Univerciné

platform.

BJORN GABRIELS

Bjorn Gabriels studied languages and literature at the University of Antwerp.

This discreet and lucid thirty-year-old began his career at Cinémagie, the

predecessor of Filmmagie, of which he's now editor-in-chief. He has a

voracious appetite for movies since discovering the work of David Lynch

and Quentin Tarntino as an adolescent. He also writes for Flanders Today and

Sabzian, among others. If there's a festival somewhere, you'll find him there.

This member of the Union of the Belgian Movie Press joins for the first time

the Film Critics jury at the BIFFF.

DIDIER STIERS

This familiar face at the festival has been covering the BIFFF for many years now

for Le Soir. He's also a regular collaborator for L’Echo. This ULB graduate might

look detached, but he is actually very rigorous and professional. His passions are

cinema as well as music and there are not many festivals in Belgian that escape

his radar. This 'old skool' reporter was a member of our 7th Orbit jury in 2009.

He became a member of Union of the Belgian Movie Press in 2017.

ERIC VAN CUTSEM

This independent journalist (since 1989) has always wondered whether he's

a journalist, a computer scientist, a biologist ... or an alien ... Maybe he's a bit

of everything !

Bees make honey (2017-UK)

Directed by Jack Eve

Screenplay by Jack Eve

Casting : Alice Eve, Hermione Corfield, Joshua McGuire,…


The English countryside, 1934. Halloween night. Honey, a young but very

wealthy widow, organizes her celebrated yearly costumed ball. The most distinguished figures of local

high society are present, sipping expensive champagne while exchanging exotic holiday stories. This

year, Honey has invited a special guest. Inspector Shoerope, the British version of our Hercule Poirot,

is charged with a very delicate mission. A year ago, Honey's husband was brutally murdered at the same

ball. With the crime being unresolved, our charming hostess has reinvited everybody who was present

at the crime. Once the last guest arrives, the clock starts ticking. Shoerope now has to blend in and

interrogate all potential suspects before they fall wasted on the ground.

You might think you’re getting a new version of Cluedo, but Jack Eve’s second film can not be reduced

to just an adaptation. Bees Make Honey is wildly original and visually sumptuous, as if Baz Luhrmann

had his way with Agatha Christie. It’s a lyrical ode to the whodunnit film, a feast of narrative and visual

styles. And it’s a movie by the entire family… Eve, because Jack sister, Alice (The

Raven, Men in Black 3, Star Trek: Into Darkness) plays Honey while father Trevor

(Troy, Dracula) plays the commissioner.

Charismata (2017- UK)

Directed by Andy Collier and Toor Mian

Screenplay by Andy Collier and Toor Mian

Casting : Sarah Beck Matter, Jamie Satterthwaite, Andonis Anthony, …


It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it. Easier said than done for rookie police

inspector Rebecca, who has to pry into the sleaziest crimes. As if that weren’t

enough, she has to put up with her male chauvinist pig colleagues and their sick sense of humor.

Especially the other half of her detective duo enjoys making fun of her. When they stumble upon a series

of ritually murdered victims, they succeed in apprehending a possible perpetrator. But this slick bastard

doesn’t flinch an inch and on top of that, he shows up as an uninvited guest in her dreams–or should we

say “nightmares”? Soon she starts questioning her own mental sanity, which wasn’t rock solid to begin

with…

Brits Andy Collier and Tor Mian won a bunch of prizes at American genre festivals with their first

feature as a duo. And for good reason, because Charismata is an intelligent mix of crime drama and

satanic horror. Just like in Manhunter (the first cinematic sighting of our favorite creep, Hannibal

Lecter), heavy emphasis is put on the uncanny similarities between detectives and serial killers. Add to

that a creepy atmosphere in the vein of Polanski and you’re all set for a first-rate fright night.

Dhogs (2017-Spain)

Directed by Andres Goteira

Screenplay by Andres Goteira

Casting : Carlos Blanco, Alejandro Carro, Maria Costas, …


A taxi driver with the face of a beaten-up dog drives through the streets of a desolate city, like

he does every night. This time he picks up a businessman who’s having an argument with his

wife. But when he drops him off at the hotel, lives will be changed forever. Whether we like it

or not, we must follow the untangling of the story, powerless and astonished at what we’re

seeing. Dear BIFFF enthusiasts, the reason your writer is so lyrical is that Dhogs should be seen as a trip

through ‘horror’ lane, just like Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Amores perros and Leos Carax’s Holy

Motors. The film is raw, astonishing, and complex. It is guaranteed to be the “love it or hate it” movie

of the festival!

Andres Goteira’s debut will not go unnoticed. Loved at a bunch of other festivals, Dhogs is a UFO

(Undefined Film Object) from Galicia. That Spanish region is home to some of Europe’s most intriguing

genre films of the moment, like Ignacio Vilar’s A esmorga and Fernando Cortizo’s criminally underrated

stop motion jewel O apóstolo

Hunting Emma (2017-South Africa)

Directed by Byron Davis

Screenplay by Deon Meyer

Casting : Bouwer Bosch, Leandi De Randt, Luan Jacobs, …


Emma looks like a gentle, peace-loving, and caring woman. But when danger occurs,

she gets possessed by the ghost of Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson’s character in Taken).

“Danger” here means a group of six lunatic drug sellers, whom she saw killing a cop on duty. There

remains but one thing to do: kill that poor little helpless girl. What they haven’t bargained for is that

Emma has seen all the Kill Bill movies and is in for some good ol’ ultra violence.

Hunting Emma, the first movie by South African director Byron Davis, is based on a novel by Deon

Meyer. The film doesn’t have the budget of its examples, but it makes up for that by a resourceful way

of filming, with omnipresent violence, a breathtaking rhythm, and an impressive Leandie De Randt.

Neill Blomkamp, you are no longer South Africa’s only genre film director!

Man Divided (2017-Sweden / Finland/ Denmark)

Directed by Max Kestner

Screenplay by Dungan Gry Jensen

Casting: Carsten Bjornlund, Sofia Helin, Marijana Jankovic,…


Ever heard of the butterfly effect? In chaos theory (and of course in science fiction

flicks) it refers to the fact that minimal changes in a given situation can later cause

gigantic problems. In 2095, the world is overrun with salt water and all forms of life

are in danger of extinction. Fang Rung, head of the secret intelligence service, has

himself cloned by molecular fission and sends his double to the past to go and find a

solution for the impending ecological disaster. But then a slight problem arises: his double refuses to

come back and his extended stay causes a great deal of trouble back home. Fang Rung has but one

option: go back to 2017 and retract his lost half before irreparable damage is done…

Man Divided is a prime example of intelligent science fiction. The ecological doom scenario is totally

believable and looks stunning on the silver screen (thanks to Rasmus Videbæk, the visual poet behind

Nikolaj Arcel’s The Dark Tower and A Royal Affair). For his lifelike characters, Danish director Max

Kestner can count on top performers: his compatriot Carsten Bjørnlund and Swedish Sofia Helin are

well-known from The Killing and other Scandinavian marvels (Ragnarok, Metropia etc.).

New trial (2017-South Korea)

Directed by Tae-yun Kim

Screenplay by Tae-yun Kim

Casting : Jung-eun Lee, Jae-young Han, Min Jin-woong, …


The year 2000. Jo Hyun-Woo is 15. He is a good kid, who may no longer believe

in Santa but does believe in justice. That's bad luck for him, as good cops decide to

arrest him for the murder of a taxi driver. He might be innocent, but a few punches

in the face from the arm of the law make him confess to anything. 16 years later,

Jo Hyun-Woo has done his time in jail, but he’s damaged goods. No one wants to hire him, his mother

has become blind and is having trouble putting food on the table and insurances companies want to rob

him blind for victim compensation. That’s when he meets Lee Jun-Young, a lawyer who used to plead

pro bono, who dreams of a more lucrative professional future. But the more the lawyer digs into the

case, the more he realizes that he's drowning in a sea of corruption.

Kim Tae-Yun promised he would never deal with stories based on true events that stigmatize injustice

and corruption in Korea after his 2014 movie Another Family. Nonetheless, the filmmaker couldn’t

resist. Not only is New Trial based on real events, the trial is still ongoing! Cleverly, Kim does not look

into the trial itself, but he untangles the web of a legal system that is rotten to the core. In the end, the

Korean director offers a breath-taking thriller which will want you to make the world a better place.

Snowflake (2017-Germany)

Directed by Adolfo Kolmerer and William James

Screenplay by Arend Remmers

Casting: Reza Brojerdi, Erkan Acar, Xenia Assenza,…


The near future: German society is in the doldrums and Berlin is the scene of street

battles. Tan and Javid get into a fight with the manager of a kebab joint and swiftly

send him to the netherworld. Also killed are some innocent bystanders, including the

parents of Eliana, who retaliates by sending a series of whacky contract killers after

them. In fact, Tan and Javid were looking for the leader of a fascist organization who’s

responsible for wiping out their entire family. They then find a screenplay in which

their every adventure is described in great detail, including their untimely demise. While they go on a

desperate search and destroy mission for the script’s author, they meet guardian angel Snowflake. And

what the dickens does Hyper Electro Man have to do with all this?

Snowflake’s slogan is “the most beautiful German fairy tale since the Brothers Grimm,” but don’t take

that too literally! This mindfuck if ever there was one takes the unsuspecting viewer on a thrill ride, with

crazy characters, satiric jibes at German politics, a story that bites its own tail, and dialogues Tarantino

would relish. The winner of a Silver Méliès in Lund was shot guerrilla style and the result is a bombshell

of a movie.

Terrified (2017-Argentina) Directed by Demian Rugna

Screenplay by Demian Rugna

Casting : Ariel Chavarria, Maximiliano Ghione, Norberto Gonzalo, …


Imagine for a moment: you are peacefully asleep, your wife

quietly gets up to do what she has to do on the toilet and,

suddenly, you hear a thunderous pounding on the other side of the wall.

Furious at your neighbour for hammering at three in the morning, you knock at his door,

determined to make him swallow his toolbox, but he doesn’t answer. Back home, you notice

that these sounds actually come from your own bathroom. And when you finally open the door,

you discover your wife, turned into a bloody pinball and eating all the tiles in the room...

Imagine now that your entire neighborhood has become a giant paranormal freak show and all

your neighbours are subjected to the worst of the worst regarding unexplained phenomena.

Even the cops dare not set foot. Only a couple of special investigators decide to lock themselves

in to study the phenomena. What they discover is really terrifying...

Here is an excerpt from an e-mail sent to James Wan with regard to Terrified: “Hi James, we

know you’re quite busy with Aquaman and we don’t want to be demoralizing but ... there is a

certain Demian Rugna who’s just finished a film that makes yours look like a seventies BBC

production. Furthermore, it has jump scares like the turns of an endless roller coaster!” With

Terrified, Argentina has just found its maestro of the freak...

7.8 International Competition

Jury :

LLOYD KAUFMAN

In 1971, Kaufman met his future partner Michael Herz at Yale.

The Troma Universe was born in 1974 with a series of highly

original, raunchy comedies. These movies, independent

precursors to such later smash hits as National Lampoon’s

Animal House and Porky’s, did well financially, although

Kaufman continued to work on such outside productions as

Rocky and Saturday Night Fever. Kaufman’s relationship with

mainstream Hollywood would not last long. In 1984, Lloyd gets

finally his breakthrough movie, The Toxic Avenger. The success

of The Toxic Avenger was followed by a string of commercial

and artistic triumphs in a similar vein, blending fantasy, heavy

action, comedy, and eroticism in a style that can only be

described as “Tromatic”. These films, including the Class of

Nuke ‘Em High trilogy, Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD, and Troma’s

War, were often ignored or scorned by the intelligentsia of the

time but spoke to an entire generation of young people who

rejected the pandering, commercial films of the mid-to-late

80’s. Some of these Troma fans went on to become filmmakers themselves, including Quentin

Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Mike Judge, Peter Jackson, and Trey Parker. Thanks to these admirers,

Kaufman has been asked to make cameo appearances in films like Trey Parker’s Orgazmo, Eli

Roth’s Cabin Fever and James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy.

FILMO : The Toxic Avenger (1984) – Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986) - Troma's War (1988) –

The Toxic Avenger : Part II (1989) – The Toxic Avenger III : The Last Temptation of Toxie

(1989) – Sgt Kabukiman NYPD (1990) – Class of Nuk'Em High II : Subhumanoid Meltdown

(1991) – Tromeo and Juliet (1996) – Terror Firmer (1999) – Citizen Toxie : The Toxic Avenger

IV (2000) – Poultrygeist : Night of the Chicken Dead (2006) – Return to Nuke'Em High Volume

1 (2013) – Return to Return to Nuke'Em High AKAK vol.2 (2017)

JULIA DUCOURNAU

It's fascinating to follow Julia Ducournau’s trajectory which led to her

feature debut Grave. As the daughter of a gynecologist and a

dermatologist, she became familiar with all possible transformations of

the human body at an early age. Her favorite director is David

Cronenberg and especially his movie Crash about the sexuality of

mutilated corpses, a theme which fascinates her. She studies literature,

starts writing scripts and develops a love for genre cinema. In 2015 she

visits the Frontières coproduction market at the BIFFF with a project

called Grave. The rest is history. Grave is the revelation of the Cannes

film festival and makes people faint at the screening in Toronto. The

critics adore the film and awards start piling up. And now this great promise of genre cinema

is a member of our International Jury.

FILMO: Grave (2016)

STEPHANIE CRAYENCOUR

Not only is she from Brussels, she’s alto multi-talented. This niece of

Marguerite Yourcenar was only 20 when she decided to leave Belgium

for a career in Paris. Her decision finally paid off when, three years

later, she managed to get her first part in Eric Rohmer’s Les Amours

d’Astrée et de Céladon. Not wanting to be labeled, Stéphanie

Crayencour showed her versatility as a singer wity the hit La Fille qui

sourit de chagrin, followed by an album composed with popular

French singer Saule. She made us laugh in the comedy Les Mythos

(2011), which got her a nomination for Best Female Promise at the

Magrittes. She then starred in Tom le Cancre and the TV-series Les

Hommes de l’Ombre. In 2016 she played in the short film Ice Scream

(shown at the BIFFF) and Les Visiteurs 3 (not shown at the BIFFF).

Since then she played in Bienvenue à Marly-Gomont, Un Petit Boulot,

Faut pas lui dire and Un Profil sur Deux alongside the legendary Pierre Richard.

FILMO : Les Amours d'Astrée et de Céladon (2009) – Oscar et la Dame Rose (2009) – Kill

Me Please (2010) – Les Mythos (2011) – Tom le Cancre (2012) – Les Visiteurs 3 (2016) –

Bienvenue à Marly-Gomont (2016) – Un Petit Boulot (2016) – Faut pas lui dire (2016) – Un

Profil sur Deux (2017)

LAURENT LUCAS

After attending a one-man show in Paris, Laurent Lucas got

addicted to theatre. It didn’t take long for him to get drawn

in by French cinema. In 2000, he was nominated for the

Césars as Best Male Promise for Haut les Coeurs. He then

went on tour with theatre pieces by Marivaux and Harold

Pinter, directed by Bertrand Bonello and Leos Carax. But he

exploded on the big screen in With a Friend Like Harry,

alongside Sergi Lopez. On a roll, he gave strong

performances in Marina de Van’s In My Skin and Gilles

Marchand’s Who Killed Bambi? before running into our

friend Fabrice du Welz. They’ll embark on the famous

Ardennes trilogy Calvaire, Alleluia and Adoration (in

preparation). More recently, he also caught the TV-series

virus with parts in The Returned and Le Bureau des

Légendes. That doesn’t stop him from appearing in

outstanding genre fiction, as we could see from his

performance in Julia Ducournau’s shocker Raw.

FILMO: Pola X (1999) – Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien (2000) – Le Pornographe (2001)

– Dans ma peau (2002) – Qui a tué Bambi? (2003) – Calvaire (2004) – Lemming (2005) –

Contre-

Ajin : demi-human (2017-Japan)

Directed by Katsuyuki Motohiro

Screenplay by Masahiro Yamaura and Hiroshi Seko

Casting : Mamoru Yimano, Takeru Satoh, Tetsuji Tamayama, …


Very good news for Kei Nagai! The teenager survived after being run over by a five-ton truck. Bad

news: it’s not because luck is on his side, but because he turns out to be an Ajin. In other words,

he’s immortal. This particularity frightens the Japanese government so much that they decide to

imprison Kei. He becomes a guinea pig of the state. Every day his limbs are cut off, only to grow

back again. Kei gets liberated by Sato, another Ajin, who’s fed up with seeing his peers chopped up like

lizard tails. Sato wants to enroll Kei in his crusade against mankind. Who cares if this involves hijacking

planes and flying them into Tokyo’s skyscrapers? After all, all that Sato wants is a piece of land where

he can live in peace, even if this takes millions of dead. Kei will put his immortality at the service of his

enemies, those puny mortals, to stop his mentor.

When X-Men met Highlander, this is how you could summarize this Japanese blockbuster. Ajin Demi-

Human is the long awaited live-adaptation of Gamon Sakurai’s eponymous manga. With Katsuyuki

Motohiro (Bayside Shakedown trilogy) in the director’s seat, Ajin: Demi-Human smashed the Japanese

box office as soon as it got released. This big budget extravaganza, with amazing SFX by the team of

Ghost in the Shell and Logan, begs to be seen on the biggest possible screen.

Along with the gods (2017-South Korea)

Directed by Yong-hwa Kim

Screenplay by Ho-min Ju and Yong-hwa Kim

Casting : Jung-woo Ha, Tae-hyun Cha, Ji-hun Ju, …


Firefighter Kim Jo-hong falls out a burning building after rescuing a little girl. He dies

on the spot. There are no angels, no requiem and no white light at the end of the tunnel.

Kim’s welcoming committee consists of two guys who look like undertakers. They

introduce themselves as his lawyers in the hereafter. In order to get his green card to

paradise and reincarnation, Kim's soul will have to go through the seven circles of hell and as many

celestial lawsuits. All of this in order to prove his worth for each of the sins on the agenda; namely:

treason, violence, murder, filial piety, deception, injustice and indolence. It takes just one sin for eternal

hell, which is customized according to the sinner. And you thought life was hard!

Along With The Gods, based on a popular Korean webcomic, can only be defined in superlatives. This

Taoist reinterpretation of Dante, the third highest-grossing movie at the Korean box office, is definitely

not kidding when it comes to pulling out all the stops. Kim Yong-hwa's (Mr Go) new film is a visual

aphrodisiac of action and emotion that puts one money shot after another at a breathtaking pace. We

can’t wait to screen the second part at next year’s BIFFF.

House of the disappeared (2017-South Korea)

Directed by Dae-woong Lim

Screenplay by Jae-hyun Jang and Alejandro Hidalgo

Casting : Do-bin Baek, Jae-yoon Jo, Yunjin Kim,…


After serving 25 years in prison for killing her husband and son, Mi-hee returns

to her derelict home. A young priest visits her and asks what really happened on

the day she supposedly murdered her family. She tells him: “They killed my

husband and took my child.” When the priest digs into the archives he finds

several strange articles dating back 75 years ago. He notices a bizarre pattern in

which every 25 years on November 11th, people go missing in Mi-hee’s house. That same night is

November 11th and she is convinced strangers are in the house once again …

If this plot outline sounds familiar, you’re damn right because House of the Disappeared is the South

Korean remake of the Venezuelan film The House at the End of Time (Silver Raven at the 2015 BIFFF).

Ever since Horror Stories (BIFFF 2013), we’ve known that director Dae-wung Lim knows the tricks of

the trade. In the starring role of this macabre haunted house film, we recognize Yunjin Kim (from the

legendary television series Lost), whereas her co-star Taecyeon is more widely known for being a rapper

and a member of the Korean One Direction.

Inuyashiki (2018-Japan)

Directed by Shinsuke Sato

Scénario of Hiroshi Hashimoto

Casting : Noritake Kinashi, Takeru Satoh, Yûsuke Iseya, …

Ichiro Inuyashiki is pushing sixty. With his dull office job and a family that treats him

like a leper, you could hardly call his existence on our Blue Planet very exciting. Dur-

ing a medical check-up, he’s told a cancer is eating his insides and he’s got little time

left in this world. Completely dejected, he drags himself to a park to cry on a bench.

But then suddenly, an alien spaceship stops right above him and Ichiro conks out.

When he comes to, it feels like he has concentrated Red Bull molasses running through

his veins instead of blood! Without asking his opinion, the extraterrestrials have turned him into a bionic

killing machine. Ichiro is over the moon and decides to become the superhero that nobody has ever seen

in him. But then someone else who suffered the same fate goes on a crazy killing spree. Inevitably, the

two are heading for a showdown...

A nincompoop might be forgiven for thinking this is a remake of Kick-Ass for the elderly by the Shinya

Tsukamoto of Tetsuo. But that’s overlooking BIFFF-regular Shinsuke Sato. In 2016, the Japanese

filmmaker was awarded the Golden Raven for I Am a Hero and the following year, he presented Death

Note: Light Up the New World. For this adaptation of Hiroya Oku’s manga, he can count on Noritake

Kinashi, world famous at home as one half of a singing comedy duo. His co-star is Takeru Satoh, well-

known for the Rurouni Kenshin-films (BIFFF 2013 + 2015), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Real (BIFFF 2014),

and … Ajin: Demi-Human (BIFFF 2018)!

Legend of the Naga Pearls (2017-Hong Kong/China)

Directed by Yang Lei

Screenplay by Tan Cheung and Xu Zhaoqing

Casting : Darren Wang, Tian Ai’Zhang, Simon Yam, …

Duration:108 minutes

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, the mythical city of Uranopolis went through a

decisive battle between humans and the Winged Tribe. It was pretty much the same as

Real Madrid vs PSG, except that this time humans played in Zidane’s team. Almost

extinct, the Winged Tribe is finding it difficult to survive. Xue Lie, the Tribe’s royal

descendant, is eagerly waiting for the return match. In order to avenge his clan, the ambitious king

desperately needs the Naga Pearls. The latter are the Asian version of the Avenger’s Tessertact. They

would ensure the total eradication of those pesky humans. However, there’s one small issue. Said pearls

are in Ni Kongkong’s possession. And Ni is a small-time crook who doesn’t realize his new balls have

such destructive power.

In the early 2000s, inspired by Lord of the Rings, seven Chinese writers created a new fantasy world.

Novoland was born, an imaginary, elaborate and very detailed universe. It’s a clever mix between

traditional wuxia and heroic fantasy. Surely, Novoland is a dream come true for all fantasy buffs. It

didn’t take long for written poetry to be transformed into visual prose. Legend of the Naga Pearls is the

feature debut of Yang Lei. And he could count on Gordon Chan (Painted Skin, The Medallion, The Four)

to take the production reigns. The dazzling sfx were taken care of by the entire Star Trek team. Last but

definitely not least, it’s Simon Yam (PTU, Lara Croft, Ip Man, Iceman) who plays the bad guy in this

highly-anticipated blockbuster.

Man Divided (2017- Sweden / Finland / Denmark)

Directed by Max Kestner

Screenplay by Dungan Gry Jensen

Casting : Carsten Bjornlund, Sofia Helin, Marijana Jankovic, …


Ever heard of the butterfly effect? In chaos theory (and of course in science

fiction flicks) it refers to the fact that minimal changes in a given situation can

later cause gigantic problems. In 2095, the world is overrun with salt water and

all forms of life are in danger of extinction. Fang Rung, head of the secret intelligence service, has

himself cloned by molecular fission and sends his double to the past to go and find a solution for the

impending ecological disaster. But then a slight problem arises: his double refuses to come back and his

extended stay causes a great deal of trouble back home. Fang Rung has but one option: go back to 2017

and retract his lost half before irreparable damage is done…

Man Divided is a prime example of intelligent science fiction. The ecological doom scenario is totally

believable and looks stunning on the silver screen (thanks to Rasmus Videbæk, the visual poet behind

Nikolaj Arcel’s The Dark Tower and A Royal Affair). For his lifelike characters, Danish director Max

Kestner can count on top performers: his compatriot Carsten Bjørnlund and Swedish Sofia Helin are

well-known from The Killing and other Scandinavian marvels (Ragnarok, Metropia etc.).

Mon Mon Mon Monster (2017-Taiwan)

Directed by Giddens Ko

Screenplay by Giddens Ko

Casting : Eugenie Liu, Kent Tsai, Yu-Kai Teng, …


Ah, adolescence! That beautiful age when youngsters explore their personalities

and take their first steps in the grown-up world, supported by their loving parents

and teachers… Not so for Lin Shu-wei. Although quite a good student, the

Taiwanese adolescent is the laughing stock of his classmates, especially the tough

guys. They steal the money for their school trip and blame it on him. Their teacher’s reaction is

unexpected: the wimp and his bullies must perform “voluntary” community service (the kind for which

they don’t ask your advice). In a housing block for old people, they run into a filthy, flesh-gobbling

monster. The tormenting teenagers make her a captive and subject her to a series of sadistic games. But

then the creature’s older sister sets out on a desperate quest for her sibling, targeting those wearing a

squeaky clean blue and white school uniform …

Mon Mon Mon Monsters (winner of the Audience Award at the Bucheon Fantastic Film Festival in

South Korea) is a film by Giddens Ko. In his home country, this Taiwanese wonder boy is an acclaimed

author and lately, he’s also successfully ventured into film making. His latest is a powerful indictment

of the global social phenomenon of school bullying. Fortunately, he tells his tale like a clever, wickedly

funny mix of a vampire flick and a teen high school comedy.

Parallel (2018-Canada)

Directed by Isaac Ezban

Screenplay by Scott Blaszak

Casting : Kathleen Quinlan, Georgia King, Aml Ameen, …


As long as we can remember, time travel and parallel dimensions

have been staples of classical science fiction. But what would happen if you were to apply them to our

contemporary world of advanced technology, social media, and start-ups? The result would probably

look something like this. A group of young app entrepreneurs discovers a mirror in the attic of their

rental house. It turns out to be a portal to a series of parallel universes, which they can access and mine

for specific details to bring back home. And that’s exactly what they do in pursuit of personal gain and

success. But if you play with fire, you risk getting your fingers burned! Soon, the techies find out that

what they’re doing has dangerous consequences…

Mexican filmmaker Isaac Ezban is the new wunderkind of science fiction. The Incident and The Similars

were intelligent, allegorical fantasy films that we proudly presented at the 2015 and 2016 editions of the

BIFFF. For Parallel, his English-language debut, he can count on a talented cast including Kathleen

Quinlan (The Hills Have Eyes), Martin Wallström (Mr. Robot), Aml Ameen (The Maze Runner), and

Mark O'Brien (Arrival).

The Scythian (2017-Russia)

Directed by Rustam Mosafir

Screenplay by Vadim Golomanov and Rustam Mosafir

Casting : Aleksey Fadeev, Vitaly Kravchenko, Saido Kurbanov, …


Centuries before our Lord and Saviour taught men to turn the other cheek, great warriors

were using the Central Asian steppes as their playground. Civilizations were eaten alive

one after the other. This time, the Scythians are going to bite the dust. From brave nomad

warriors, they've been reduced to ruthless mercenaries, willing to kill anyone for a fistful of coins. Their

last job is pretty impressive. A king needs to be sent to the great beyond. And they've chosen the perfect

scapegoat; Lutobor, the king’s right arm. The conspiracy works like a charm. The king dies and Lutobor

goes straight to jail. That is, until the king doesn't seem to be dead at all. Lutobor gets the chance to find

out who's behind this high treason. His investigation turns into a bloodbath when he finds out that his

child and wife have been kidnapped by the Scythians.

This epic movie is one of the big Russian hits of 2018. Surrounded by critical acclaim, The Scythian

wasn’t even completed when it got sold internationally. Some think of Apocalypto, others regard it as a

worthy successor of Gladiator. We at the BIFFF see it as a pagan Mad Max, a visual fantasy from a

Russian distant past, when skull splitting was every man's favorite hobby. Get ready for a blood drenched

extravaganza that will want you to hit the gym!

Terrified (2017-Argentina)

Directed by Demian Rugna

Screenplay by Demian Rugna

Casting : Ariel Chavarria, Maximiliano Ghione, Norberto Gonzalo, …


Imagine for a moment: you are peacefully asleep, your wife quietly

gets up to do what she has to do on the toilet and, suddenly, you hear a

thunderous pounding on the other side of the wall. Furious at your neighbour for hammering at three in

the morning, you knock at his door, determined to make him swallow his toolbox, but he doesn’t answer.

Back home, you notice that these sounds actually come from your own bathroom. And when you finally

open the door, you discover your wife, turned into a bloody pinball and eating all the tiles in the room...

Imagine now that your entire neighborhood has become a giant paranormal freak show and all your

neighbours are subjected to the worst of the worst regarding unexplained phenomena. Even the cops

dare not set foot. Only a couple of special investigators decide to lock themselves in to study the

phenomena. What they discover is really terrifying...

Here is an excerpt from an e-mail sent to James Wan with regard to Terrified: “Hi James, we know

you’re quite busy with Aquaman and we don’t want to be demoralizing but ... there is a certain Demian

Rugna who’s just finished a film that makes yours look like a seventies BBC production. Furthermore,

it has jump scares like the turns of an endless roller coaster!” With Terrified, Argentina has just found

its maestro of the freak...

Tigers are not Afraid (2017- Mexico)

Directed by Issa Lopez

Screenplay by Issa Lopez

Casting : Paola Lara, Hanssel Casillas, Rodrigo Cortes, …


You’d rather not be a street child in Mexico City. You can’t count on your parents

anymore because they’ve been kidnapped/killed/disappeared (delete where not

applicable). You also need to put some considerable distance between yourself and

the drug cartels that kill orphans for fun. Ten-year-old Estrella seeks shelter with

tough-looking Shine and his gang of street urchins, who are on the run just like her.

Luckily she can always rely on her fantastic friends. Because those tigers that

follow her around, they’re real, no? And the three wishes she was granted by her teacher, they do come

true, right? With the help (or not) of supernatural beings, Estrella and her friends try to elude the fangs

of El Chino and his band of sinister sicarios.

Tigers Are Not Afraid is like a remake of Luis Buñuel’s Mexican masterpiece Los olvidados by

Guillermo del Toro. These days the street children carry smartphones, but as for the rest precious little

has changed. Writer-director Issa López takes you on a fantastic thrill ride through Mexico’s urban

jungle, with impressive child actors, terrific digital effects, and a fair share of horror

7.9 Out of competition

The 1000 Faces of Dunjia (2017-China / Hong Kong)

Directed by Woo-Ping Huen

Screenplay by Tsui Hark

Casting : Chengpeng Dong, Ni Ni, Arif Rahman, …


Dao, the new sheriff of the peaceful city of Kaifeng, thinks he has found the perfect hideout.

Besides a few illegally parked carriages and some bulls exceeding the speed limit, he’s not

expecting a lot of work. Alas, he couldn’t be more wrong, a titanic battle is brewing. The

innocent looking peasants that Dao sees every day are actually hidden members of the Wuyin

clan. They’re alien hunters who have been discreetly saving the Earth for centuries. And the recent

meteor strike is especially worrying, since this intergalactic Kinder Surprise hides the worst kind of

threat for mankind. The discovery of a red fish that is the size of a white shark in Kaifeng will erase all

doubts for Dao. No more afternoons siesta’s in the sun. Let’s save the planet!

Some combinations are just irresistible. Here we have the joining of forces of the mythical Tsui Hark (A

Chinese Ghost Story, Detective Dee) and the no less legendary Yuen Woo-Ping, the choreographer of

Kill Bill, The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The 1000 Faces of Dunjia, the first part of

a trilogy, cleverly mixes traditional wuxia with the big scale extravaganza that you usually find in the

blockbusters of Steven Spielberg or Michael Bay. To say that the result is

satisfactory would be a gross understatement.

Baahubali : the conclusion (2017-India)

Directed by SS Rajamouli

Screenplay by Vijayendra Prasad, S.S. Rajamouli, C.H. Vijay Kumar,

Ajay Kumar and Madhan Karky

Casting : Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty, …


Before you start looking for the Mahishmati kingdom on the map: it’s unclear

whether it has ever existed. But don’t let that spoil the fun because when it comes

to mythology, few can rival with the Indians. Take for instance Baahubali: The Conclusion, the

continuation of Baahubali: The Beginning (logical, ain’t it?). When the royal prince Mahendra discovers

the truth about his murdered father, he vows revenge against the tyrannical ruler of the kingdom, his

own uncle. In between all this, we learn how things got that far. It’s a tale full of family feuds, pitched

battles, and romance told with the world-renowned Indian sense of quiet minimalism…

Got you there! The gods will be whizzing past your ears in this spectacular mythological epic from

Tollywood, the Indian film industry in Telugu (75 million speakers!) that can compete with Bollywood.

Beautiful photography, eye-watering effects, impressive locations, dazzling martial arts, overwhelming

mass scenes, lovely choreographies, flawless camera work, sentimental romance…. You could use an

extra pair of eyes and ears to take it all in. S.S. Rajamouli, known for Baahubali: The Beginning (BIFFF

2016) and Eega (BIFFF 2014), is the man behind this extravaganza, already the biggest box office hit

in Indian film history.

Before we vanish (2017-Japan)

Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Screenplay by Tomohiro Maekawa, Sachiko Tanaka and Kiyoshi

Kurosawa

Casting : Masami Nagasawa , Ryuhei Matsuda, Hiroki Hasegawa,


There’s something rotten in the state of Japan. A mild-mannered man has a close

encounter with an alien, who thanks him kindly by taking possession of his body.

His wife is not amused and she can’t fathom why he quits his job and bumbles

about with a hollow stare and a stupid grin. Something is profoundly wrong, that

much is clear. Meanwhile, we meet a freelance journalist investigating a murder case. He makes the

acquaintance of a bizarre young man and a teenage girl, but soon realizes they’re extraterrestrials. It

turns out they’re the advance guard of a large-scale invasion which will see Planet Earth completely

colonized. The journalist now has the biggest scoop of the millennium, but what to do with it? Should

he inform the authorities or rather seek his own glory by taking sides with the aliens?

Introducing Kiyoshi Kurosawa is like throwing water into the sea. With films like Cure, Charisma, and

Pulse, the Japanese filmmaker helped make J-Horror a worldwide phenomenon. In Before We Vanish,

which is hilarious and tragic in equal measure, he leaves his comfort zone and ventures into science

fiction for the first time. But not without infusing the genre with his trademark eerie look and feel!

Belzebuth (2017-Mexico)

Directed by Emilio Portes

Screenplay by Luis Carlos Fuentes and Emilio Portes

Casting : Tobin Bell, Tate Ellington, Joaquín Cosio,…


While he was dying on the cross, Jesus promised to return to Earth. A thousand years later,

he gives it a first try. But Evil succeeds in blackening the Pope’s soul, who decides to

launch the first crusade, killing the risen Messiah in the process. JC decides to wait another

millennium before making a new appearance. No one knows about it, but some warning signs can not

be ignored. In Mexico a possessed nurse slaughters an entire maternity ward. Five years later, a kid

wipes out his classmates with a gun. A few days later, an employee of the municipal pool jumps with

electric wires into a pool full of innocent kids. No doubt about it, Jesus is back! And, given the corpses

that are piling up, it’s his eternal enemy, Beelzebub, who takes care of the welcoming committee.

In 2013, we presented Pastorela, a wonderfully weird picture where Good and Evil clashed with each

other during a Christmas nativity play. The eternal opposites are back again in Emilio Portes’ newest

film, but humor has taken a backseat to pure horror. Joaquin Cosio (Pastorela, Quantum of Solace) plays

the lead, alongside Tobin Bell, for ever associated with the Saw franchise, in this blasphemous shocker

from Mexico.

Beyond Skyline (2017-U K/China/Canada/Indonesia/Singapore/USA)

Directed by Liam O’Donnell

Screenplay by Liam O’Donnell

Casting : Frank Grillo, Bojana Novakovic, Iko Uwais, …


Following up the alien invasion that occurred in Skyline (2010), this spin-off/sequel tells

the story of Mark, a grizzled LAPD cop (played by Frank Grillo) who is taking his son

home after a night in jail. Little do they know that while sitting in the subway an alien attack will take

place… Long story short: the son gets sucked up by the aliens’ ship in an old-school kind of way and in

order to get his son back dad is willing to kill every little c*cks*cking alien. What follows is a feast for

the action-loving filmgoer, with guest appearances by two actors from The Raid (Iko Uwais and Yayan

Ruhain).

Let’s be honest about it, you don’t watch this kind of movie for the plot, but for the spectacle. And boy

does this one deliver! Beyond Skyline wasn’t filmed with a big Hollywood budget but it still looks

stunning, thanks to lots of classic effects in the slimy interiors of the cavernous spaceship and the H.R.

Giger-inspired, skeletal-looking alien monsters, all of this mixed up with crafty CGI. Director Liam

O’Donnell, who wrote and produced the first Skyline, put all his skills on the table. Having worked on

the visual effects of movies like Iron Man 2 and Alien vs Predator, this guy sets the bar pretty high when

it comes to mixing CGI with classic effects.

Cop Baby (2017-Russia)

Directed by Alexander Andrushenko

Screenplay by Andrey Zolotarev

Casting : Elizaveta Arzamasova, Sergey Garmash, Yang Ge,…


Igor Khromov has just spent a year undercover in the prison cells of Vladivostok.

Obviously, to make friends with the local triads you can’t really chose the setting and

it’s not by picking up the soap from the shower floor that you’re gonna earn their

respect. Supposedly on parole, Khromov continues his mission in the outside world.

But just as he is close to his goal a godforsaken fortune teller throws him a curse. A few gun wounds

later he falls asleep in the hospital only to wake up… in the body of a new born! Cursing his bodily

limitations and his mushy parents he has to wait a year before he is ready to reopen the case. And now

that he can finally speak and doesn’t shit his pants anymore, he is unstoppable! It’s with the voice of an

old Clint Eastwood that he reveals himself to his adoptive father Oleg, a policeman also. Although he

seems impressive, compared to his son snuggled into a maxy cosy, he’s the Punisher of petty crimes.

But he’s our ex-special forces agent only hope. Igor has no choice but to guide Oleg into the world of

treacherous whores, hard drugs and daily executions.

Since Freaky Friday, body swapping has almost become a genre of its own. But this time our Russian

friends have spiced it up a little with a pinch of Baby Boss and Lethal Weapon. The result is a feel good-

fantasy movie with a Vladivostok twist.

Double Date (2017-UK)

Directed by Benjamin Barfoot

Screenplay by Danny Morgan

Casting : Danny Morgan, Georgia Groome,

Michael Socha, …


Alex might be unbearably self-assured and irritatingly

cocksure, his loyalty to his dearest friend Jim is

beyond question. With the latter’s 30th birthday on the

horizon, Alex promises to help his best friend to get laid so he won’t reach this unwelcome milestone as

a virgin. They muster up the courage to organize a double date with sisters Kitty and Lulu, but little do

the boys know that their company for the evening are twisted serial killers and that they have other plans

for their night ahead. When Jim and Lulu strike up a genuine bond, their future rests entirely on her

conscience and whether or not she'll betray her sister and warn Jim and Alex of their nefarious intentions.

For his first feature, filmmaker Benjamin Barfoot has to perform a difficult balancing act between horror

and comedy, familiar terrain from Shaun of the Dead and other Sightseers. He tries it with an inventive

visual style and he can also count on the clever, playful screenplay by male lead Danny Morgan (On the

Road). The film made it to various top 10 lists and was even nominated for a British Independent Film

Award. Mission accomplished!

The End? (2017-Italia)

Directed by Daniele Misischia

Screenplay by Cristina Ciccotti and Daniele Misischia

Casting : Alessandro Roja, Carolina Crescentini, Claudio Camili, …


Businessman Claudio is the living embodiment of the wily capitalist who lets nothing

stand in his way. On a routine working day, he first behaves like a douchebag towards

his driver and then starts hitting on a naive trainee. When he takes the elevator with the

female colleague he previously seduced, the lady shows him what she thinks of a

renewed acquaintance by coldly crushing his crown jewels and leaving him literally

hanging on... because the elevator is stuck between floors and won’t budge. At the same

time, Rome succumbs to acute zombie fever and before long Claudio has to witness

how his colleagues perish by the dozen at the hands of bloodthirsty monsters. Soon they set their sights

on him too and he has to fend off the hellish horde of half-dead monsters in the metal cage that could

well turn into his grave. It’s enough to send a guy up the wall…

The End? was produced by the Manetti Bros. Antonio and Marco are no strangers to the BIFFF crowd

because previously we showed Paura 3D (2013), The Arrival of Wang (2012), and Zora the Vampire

(2002). As the foul-mouthed protagonist, we recognize Alessandro Roja, known from television series

like Romanzo criminale and 1992. Director Daniele Misischia gets the most out of his claustrophobic

location in this infectious contemporary zombie tale, told with the raw energy of a B movie

The envelope (2017-Russia)

Directed by Vladimir Markov

Screenplay by Ilya Kulikov

Casting : Yuliya Peresild, Igor Lizengevich, Olga Medynich, …


A strange envelope is delivered to an architectural film by mistake. Igor, a driver,

is charged with bringing it back to the right address. From that fateful moment on,

his life becomes a string of paranormal events. The cursed letter invades Igor’s life

and leads him to a mysterious addressee.

Russian horror cinema is not new and at the BIFFF we’re aware that it’s up and coming. But The

Envelope creates a unique setting through strong cinematographic images. Svyatoslav Podgaevskiy’s

The Bride, shown at the festival last year, was bought by the Americans for a remake. We hope The

Envelope will have the same fate. This might be Vladimir Markov’s first movie, but he certainly has a

nose for acting talent. Standing out in this bewitching horror thriller are Yuliya Peresild and Olga

Medynich, two actresses who are well-known in their country, but still have to be discovered over here.

Will Mother Russia share some of her talent with the international scene.

Five Fingers For Marseilles (2017-South Africa)

Directed by Michael Matthews

Screenplay by Sean Drummond

Casting : Zetho Dlomo, Garth Breythenbach, Kenneth Fok, …


They were five innocent kids, living in a township stuck to the city of Marseilles (South Africa). Fed up

with police oppression in the middle of Apartheid, they had daily a hard time and defended themselves

with harmless slingshots. Until the fatal day when one of them took a weapon and sent two white cops

six feet underground. His name was Tau and nobody has ever seen him since... Twenty years later, Tau

is back in town. Incognito. Keeping a very low profile. His friends are still there, they became mayor,

cop and priest. The fifth one is at the cemetery. Nobody forgot what Tau did and nobody forgave him

either. The city has changed, however: Even after the dreadful white colonialists have left the place,

corruption is still well established and Ghost, the new self-proclaimed sheriff, has put everyone on a

regime of terror... Tau only seeks the calm and redemption of his friends. Over the last twenty years, he

has piled up enough bullshit, not only to fill an entire prison but also to receive a nickname that shudders

the entire country: the "Lion of Marseilles". And nobody wants to wake the beast...

A clearly tribute to classical westerns, Five Fingers for Marseilles transposes Sergio Leone's mythical

universe in post-colonial South Africa with its majestic landscapes. Cheeky for a first film, Michael

Matthews can be proud of his work: complete immersion in the field, archetypes very present, polished

plans that are waiting to hear a fragment of a harmonica to enter the legend; this modern version of the

lonely cowboy is made in the image of The A-Team with Stetsons, where everyone would like that the

plan unfolds without a hitch!

Flashburn (2017- USA)

Directed by Giorgio Serafini

Screenplay by Gary Charles and Giorgio Serafini

Casting : Sean Patrick Flanery, Cameron Richardson, Romen L McPherson, …


A man wakes up behind the wheel of an SUV. He has a hell of a hangover and there’s a

trickle of blood running down his forehead. He can’t recall anything. Did he hit the bottle

a bit too hard? And how did he end up in an empty warehouse, with an electronic ankle

bracelet and a face he doesn’t recognize? Turns out he’s a microbiologist who has to find

an antidote against the Ebola virus that’s threatening to wipe out mankind. Every so often he blacks out

and has to relaunch his investigations from scratch. Luckily there’s Lazarus, the mysterious female voice

that guides him through the process but never materializes. Is she really who she pretends to be?

Flashburn deals with the implications of deadly viruses that spread globally like wildfires. But don’t

expect a dry doom and gloom scenario, rather a taut existential thriller about a man racing against time.

A few years ago, the Belgian-American filmmaker Giorgio Serafini surprised the BIFFF audience with

The Between (2013) and he’s also collaborated with stars like Wesley Snipes (Game of Death), William

Shatner and Christopher Lloyd (Senior Moment). This time around he can count on Sean Patrick

Flannery (Dexter, Saw 3D: The Final Chapter) as the mad scientist who gradually comes to his senses.

Gintama (2017-Japan)

Directed by Yuichi Fukuda

Screenplay by Yuichi Fukuda

Casting : Shun Oguri ,Masami Nagasawa, Takayuji Yamada, …


And now for a piece of alternative history. In the nineteenth century, Tokyo has been

invaded by the amanto (sky people). All of a sudden, samurai (you know: those valiant

warriors we like to see on the silver screen) have become second-class citizens. The

white-haired Gintoki has traded his steel sword for a wooden one and now runs a

detective agency. His assistants are a bespectacled nerd and a hot-tempered red-haired beauty with a soft

spot for rhinoceros beetles. One day they get a strange new assignment: go and look for the super-sword

Benizakura, which has fallen into the wrong hands. They pick up the trail of the rebel group Kiheitai.

Out of the blue, one of them, a blind man with Bono-style sunglasses, attacks Gintoki… Still following?

The immensely popular manga Gintama has already been turned into animation twice, but this is the

first live-action adaptation. The whacky plot, a postmodern mix of period swashbuckler and science

fiction, was entrusted to director Yuichi Fukuda (Hentai Kamen 2). He keeps up a punishing pace and

also plays off the absurdist humor and psychedelic atmosphere. The protagonist is none other than Shun

Oguri, known for his work with Takashi Miike (Sukiyaki Western Django, Crows Zero 1 & 2).

El Habitante (2017-Mexico/Chile)

Directed by Guillermo Amoedo

Screenplay by Guillermo Amoedo

Casting : Maria Evoli, Vanesa Restrepo, Carla Adell, …


When three sisters decide to go out for the evening, it’s not because they want to party. They've

decided to break into a corrupt senator’s house to stuff their pockets. Getting in was so easy

that they joked about it on the way to the safe. But prying it open isn’t as simple as they thought

it would be. They have to drag the senator and his wife out of their bed and scare them into spilling the

beans. But there are these strange noises coming from the cellar. When the girls go down to investigate,

they discover not a squeaking boiler, but their victims' paraplegic daughter. She's tied up and looks to

have been tortured. Their parents express no sign of guilt or remorse but only pure fear. They cry:

“Whatever you do, don’t untie her!”.

Is exorcism your thing? Then “El Habitante” is the perfect horror movie for you. Guillermo Amoedo, a

close collaborator of Eli Roth, has written scripts such as “The Green Inferno” and “Knock Knock”. You

might also remember “The Stranger”, screened at the BIFFF 2015. El Habitante proves again that he

masters the horror genre with ease.

Human, space, time and human (2017-South Korea)

Directed by Ki-duk Kim

Screenplay by Ki-duk Kim

Casting : Keun-suk Jang, Sung-ki Anh, Seung-bum Ryoo,…


A hundred people embark on an old warship converted into a huge summer liner.

It was supposed to be a relaxed cruise with happy tourists. However, if you put a

microcosm of human society into confined spaces with tons of drug and alcohol, you get a Sodom and

Gomorrah at sea. After an eventful night of orgies, murders and extreme violence, the passengers finally

fall asleep, exhausted by all this atrocious debauchery. Upon awakening, the surviving passengers will

not only have to deal with their pounding hangovers but also with a mind boggling new situation. Their

cruise liner is now floating in the air, among the clouds. And food stocks are shrinking by the hour.

For his 23rd film, Ki-duk Kim had a clear message: "I made this film to stop hating humans". Having

said that, the most audacious Korean filmmaker completely threw all politically correct caution in the

wind. It didn’t take long for reactions to flood in. The world premiere of Human Space, Time and Human

at the Berlin Film Festival caused an uproar, polarizing the audience both shocked by the lack of filters

and blown away by this allegory of human fascism. Are you ready to give your opinion?

I kill giants (2017- UK/USA/Belgium)

Directed by Anders Walter

Screenplay by Joe Kelly

Casting : Zoe Saldana, Imogen Poots and Jennifer Ehle


Barbara Thorson is a clever teenager who doesn’t behave like her peers. On her

head, she wears rabbit’s ears, she doesn’t watch television, and she couldn’t care

less which boy band is this week’s number one. Actually, she’s at loggerheads with just about everyone.

Her schooldays are mostly spent going back and forth between the principal’s office and the in-house

psychologist. The latter truly wants to help her but time and again she’s met by a wall of utter hostility.

Why do all the grown-ups in her life worry so much then? It’s because of Barbara’s obsession with the

Giants, a race of fantastical creatures who sow death and destruction. Armed with her war hammer

Coveleski, after baseball player Harry Coveleski, she sets out on an epic crusade against the monsters

who want to destroy her world.

In his first feature, Danish director Anders Walter, who won an Oscar for his short Helium in 2014,

adapts the widely praised graphic novel I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly and J. M. Ken Niimura. In this Belgian

co-production, partly shot in Flanders, he strikes a delicate balance between psychological drama and a

fantastical dream world. Among the choice cast, we recognize Zoe Saldana (Guardians of the Galaxy,

Avatar, Star Trek), Imogen Poots (Green Room, V for Vendetta), and Jennifer Ehle (Contagion).

Jungle (2017- Australia/Colombia)

Directed by Greg McLean

Screenplay by Justin Monjo

Casting : Daniel Radcliffe, Thomas Kretschmann, Alex Russell, …


You’re young and dynamic. You’ve just finished your military service. You’ve

decided you want an adventurous life because you don’t want to get bogged

down in the quagmire of daily routines. You’re travelling through South

America for a year and now you’re in Bolivia. You bump into a guy who tells you about an Indian tribe

that’s still living like at the dawn of history. Do you feel like a trip through the unspoiled jungle, away

from corrupt civilization? Yes, of course, answers young Israeli Yossi. With two travel buddies and their

mysterious guide, he sets forth on a quest for true adventure. But that turns out to be a nightmare when

he gets separated from his companions. All alone in a hostile environment, surrounded by wild animals,

without any equipment to speak of, Yossi has to find a way to survive. And the rainy season is only just

beginning…

Seeing is believing! After Swiss Army Man, Daniel Radcliffe (do we even have to mention Harry Potter),

goes one step further in reinventing himself. In this ordeal based on a true story, he’s literally all skin

and bones. The jungle is the scene for a life-and-death struggle in this hellish survival thriller by

Australian filmmaker Greg McLean (Wolf Creek 1 & 2)

The Lodgers (2017-Ireland)

Directed by Brian O’Malley

Screenplay by David Turpin

Casting : Charlotte Vega, Eugene Simon, Bill Milner, …


Having a curfew set by your parents is a burden, but having one set by haunted ghosts is

just plain evil! Set in Ireland in the early 1920s, The Lodgers tells the story of twins living

in a house controlled by “lodgers”, evil spirits that give them three rules: be in bed before

midnight, never bring strangers home, and don’t try to escape because you’ll put your

sibling’s life in danger. And you thought your parents where too strict when you were a

kid? Of course one of the twins gets a crush on a brave soldier returning from combat and things start

getting out of hand. The rules aren’t being observed and her brother’s lifespan is getting shorter… This

is a Cinderella story, but told with the right purpose: to scare children!

The Lodgers is the newest feature by acclaimed director Brian O’Malley, who with Let Us Prey won the

Silver Méliès at the BIFFF 2014. Once more he proves that the haunting meadows of Scotland and

Ireland provide an ideal location for frightening horror

Luciferina (Christened by the devil) (2018-Argentina)

Directed by Gonzalo Calzada

Screenplay by Gonzalo Calzada

Casting : Sofía Del Tuffo, Pedro Merlo, Martas Lubos,…


At 19, Natalia can see a powerful aura surrounding her friends and

family. This so-called gift frightens her above anything else, for she

knows that it is part of a curse which befell her family some time ago. Trying by all

means to stay as far away from the curse as possible, she takes refuge in a convent where she is ready

to renounce the pleasures of the flesh. But that all falls apart when she learns that her mother has

committed suicide. Back home she must face her unbalanced sister, who has decided that they must

embark on a journey together. But this isn’t a bonding trip for siblings. It’s much more peculiar than

that. They must enter the heart of the jungle and ingest an ancestral hallucinogen to purge their souls.

The drug has drastic side effects when it unleashes the demons within the sisters.

Gonzalo Calzada, one of Argentina's most prominent genre directors, has proven himself once again.

Only two years after “Resurrection” (2016), the most watched horror movie in his home country, he

delights us with his most recent feature. “Luciferina” is the first entry of what is to become “the virgin

trilogy”, a treat for horror fans all around the world. The film provides ancestral drugs, pagan rites and

a perverted version of the eternal battle between Good and Evil.

Mercy Christmas (2017-USA)

Directed by Ryan Nelson

Screenplay by Beth Levy Nelson and Ryan Nelson

Casting : David Rupprecht, Mackenzie Coffman, Gwen Van Dam, …


Michael Briskett’s has many gifts, but social savvy isn’t one of them. While his co-

workers enjoy the Christmas party, this nerd is crunching numbers in his tiny office.

When his boss asks his help with an urgent year-end report, Michael is flattered. Just

one catch – it needs to be done by Christmas. The stack of research arrives with his

boss’ beautiful assistant Cindy. Michael is smitten and when she invites him to join her

family for a traditional Christmas celebration, he is simply over the moon. While there,

a spiked glass of eggnog lands Michael in the family’s basement with his hands and feet bound. He is

presented with an ultimatum: deliver the year-end report or suffer the way those before him have

suffered. If he doesn’t escape, Cindy’s family will be having him for Christmas dinner!

It took screenwriter-producer-director Ryan Nelson seven years to turn his short Mercy Christmas into

a full-length feature, but it was worth the wait. This unusual addition to the all-American Christmas

movie genre (think How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Polar Express or A Christmas Carol) charms

the viewer with its unique mix of spine-tingling scares and hilarious humor.

Monster Hunt 2 (2018-Hong Kong /China)

Directed by Raman Hui

Screenplay by Peter Cilella

Casting : Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Baihe Bai,Boran Jing, …


Wuba, a little monster in human lands, decides to leave the warm family nest

to live on his own. Tian and Lan, his adoptive parents, will surely miss their

tentacled radish, but they are far from suspecting the new perils awaiting their

offspring. Because Wuba is the one who’ll restore peace to the Monster Kingdom and such destiny

coming with a whole lot of danger. Pursued by both the Monster Bureau and unscrupulous bounty

hunters, Wuba will not be able to face all his enemies. Fortunately for him, Wuba meets BenBen, an

adult version of his own species, who’ll protect him and will do everything to get him back to his parents.

After taking over the Chinese box office with the first episode, Raman Hui, who earned his stripes at

Dreamworks, does it again. But rather than copy-pasting the first part, Hui introduces new and exciting

characters to the mix, helped by a legion of 33 special effects wizards, who’ve proved their worth in

interplanetary hits such as Star Wars and Pacific Rim. He shows incredible skill in mixing cgi characters

and live action, creating a fantastic adventure for the entire family.

Montreal Dead End (2018-Canada)

Directed by Hugo Belhassen, Audric Cussigh, Julie De Lafrenière, Tiphaine

DeReyer, Eve Dufaud, Rémi Fréchette, Mara Joly, Quentin Lecoc, Charles

Massicotte, Mickael N'Dour, Jimmy G. Pettigrew, Priscillia Piccoli, Gaëlle

Quemener, Loïc Surprenant, Frederick Neegan Trudel, Catherine Villeminot and

David Émond-Ferrat

Screenplay by Yohann Thiou

Casting : Guy Jodoin, Marco Collin, Mirianne Brûlé, …


Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Green smoke starts emanating from the sewers. At first, people

don’t really mind. It is probably someone else’s undigested poutine. Unfortunately, the smoke

begins to spread to all areas of the city, at a speed that would make the fastest Deliveroo courier cry.

The jaded inhabitants, sick of the clogged sewers, are slowly getting caught by the evil-smelling

scent. Some are transforming into cannibal zombies. Others are subject to terrifying hallucinations,

or are getting violently attacked by baskets of organic vegetables! From the gay village to Mont

Royal, the Quebec metropolis is going to live through 24 terrifying hours. There’s no way out.

Welcome to Montreal!

He came to the BIFFF in 2015, to present Les Jaunes. Rémi Fréchette got hooked on our hospitality,

the atmosphere and the free spirit of our beloved festival. So he decided to do everything he could

to come back. And this time, he’s not alone. Montreal Dead End is an anthology feature composed

of fifteen shorts. One short film per district. One district per filmmaker. Eighteen directors, who

grew up on a diet of George Romero and John Carpenter, contributed to this horror fresco. Montreal

Dead End gleefully distorts the concept of promotional movies such as Paris je t’aime or New

York, I love you. In world premiere at the BIFFF!

Muse (2017-Spain/Ireland/Belgium/UK)

Directed by Jaume Balagueró

Screenplay by Jaume Balagueró, Fernando Navarro and José Carlos Somoza

Casting : Elliot Cowan, Christopher Lloyd, Joanne Whalley, …


How’s your knowledge of Greek mythology? The Muses are those goddesses that all

creative minds worship because an artist without inspiration is like a headless chicken.

But what if these divine creatures were maleficent? Writer and literature professor Samuel Salomon has

barely come to terms with the suicide of his sexy young girlfriend, when he is plagued by a series of

nightmares, in which a woman is ritually sacrificed. Upon learning that his dreams have become reality,

he visits the scene of the crime, where he meets another woman who’s had the very same nightmares.

Together they find evidence of a secret society investigating divine inspiration. Their members are few,

because most of them died under suspicious circumstances. Verses by famous poets were found on their

bodies, burned into their flesh by a tattoo artist who didn’t particularly care for fine craftsmanship!

The literary horror thriller Muse is signed by Jaume Balagueró, Catalan genre maestro and a regular

visitor to the BIFFF. Just think of the [REC]-tetralogy, Sleep Tight, and Darkness. For this Belgian co-

production, he relies on a sublime cast, with among others Franka Potente (Anatomy 1 & 2, Jason

Bourne 1 & 2), Leonor Watling (The Oxford Murders, Hable con ella), and the indestructible Christopher

Lloyd (The Addams Family, Back to the Future-trilogy)

Rendel (2017-Finland)

Directed by Jesse Haaja

Screenplay by Pekka Lehtosaari, Miika J. Norvanto and Timo Pusstinen

Casting : Bianca Bradey, Alina Tomnikov, Sheila Shah, …


In Mikkeli, a small town in southern Finland, there are plenty of mosquitoes in the summer

and plenty of snow in the winter. Mikkeli is also home to Eero Lehtonen, a leading Finnish

pentathlon athlete. Last but not least, Mikkeli is the headquarters of Vala, a big

pharmaceutical company that praises the life-saving virtues of its vaccines. The problem is

that the company is run like a crime syndicate. And they are about to flood the African

continent with some very harmful vaccines. Anyone who dares to lift a finger, ends up with said finger

and the rest of his body in an acid bath. So, in Mikkeli, people only talk about mosquitoes and snow.

Then, one day, a certain Rendel decides to clean things up. He’s vicious, brutal, ruthless and incredibly

violent. The masked avenger causes so much damage to Vala’s more muscled employees, that they hire

an elite squad of international killers to finish off Rendel. After all, the company has to make sure people

keep talking about mosquitoes and snow.

It has been a rumor for years, but now it’s finally happening: the very first Finnish superhero! Written,

produced and directed by Jesse Haaja, Rendel is obviously influenced by The Punisher, Darkman and

Christopher Nolan’s Batman. This first Scandinavian excursion into masked avengers territory is bloody

and disturbing but full of dark humor. Please allows us, because we feel you'll be very vocal during the

screening, to give you a quick language course. “Shut up" means "Turpa kiinni" in Finnish!

Return to Return to Nuke’em High vol 2 (2017- USA)

Directed by Lloyd Kaufman

Screenplay by Travis Campbell, Derek Dressler, Lloyd Kaufman and

Gabriel Friedman

Casting : Asta Paredes, Catherine Corcoran,Zac Amico, …


Welcome back to Tromaville High School where, unfortunately, the glee club

has mutated into a vicious gang of Cretins. Chrissy and Lauren, two innocent lesbian lovers, must not

only fight the Cretins, mutants and monsters but also the evil Tromorganic Foodstuffs Conglomerate.

Can they and Kevin the Wonder Duck save Tromaville High School and the world?

Uncle Lloyd is back at the BIFFF, four years after treating us to to the insane, provocative and

outrageous, boobs, pus and blood fest that was Return to Nuke ‘Em High: volume 1. This time he returns

with a thoughtful, politically correct intimate drama about a man, a harmonica and an inflatable cat

trapped in a public toilet during the holidays. No, just kidding. As Toxie shouted when he kicked the

Donald down the well: “This is Troma!”. Return to Return to Nuke ‘Em High aka Vol 2 is a movie with

a message about the contamination and degradation of the world’s food supply, rampant bullying and

LGBTQ love triumphing over prejudice and violence, but that will not stop you from screaming,

hollering and howling. And did we already mention that Lloyd Kaufman’s back at the BIFFF!

RV: Ressurected Victims (2017- South Korea)

Directed by Kyung-taek Kwak

Screenplay by Kyung-taek Kwak

Casting : Rae-won Kim, Hae-suk Kim, Dong-il Sung, …


There was a time when RV stood for “recreational vehicle” (remember the

eponymous little flick with Robin Williams a while back?). Forget about that,

now it means “resurrected victim”: a murder victim who returns among the

living because he or she isn’t satisfied with the punishment that was meted out to their assassin. What

you call an undead, right? It seems that in South Korea they can’t get rid of them… Seo is an ambitious

young prosecutor who’s got it all worked out, until his mother, killed in a robbery some years ago, turns

up again and attacks him with a knife. Because he rather cherishes his life, he sets out to find out what

really happened. Gradually he discovers unpleasant things about his own past, obscured by the alcohol

fumes of his graduation party years ago.

Nothing is quite what it seems in the nail-biting horror thriller RV: Resurrected Victims, which plays an

intricate game with different time layers. Director Kyung-taek Kwak (Friend, Doctor K) is an old hand

of the Korean film industry. For his latest film, he has assembled a dream cast. We recognize Rae-won

Kim from The Prison (BIFFF 2017) and Hye-jin Jeon from The Terror Live (BIFFF 2015). The part of

the avenging mother is being played by none other than Korea’s leading lady Hae-suk Kim (see also

New Trial), who featured in Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden and a host of other movies

Survival family (2017-Japan)

Directed by Shinobu Yaguchi

Screenplay by Shinobu Yaguchi

Casting :Fumiyo Kohinata, Eri Fukatsu ,Yuki Izumisawa, …


It’s hard to imagine a more run-of-the-mill Japanese family. Daddy is a grey

salaryman, self-effacing mom takes care of the household, junior only takes off

his headphones when he goes to sleep, and his sister is completely engrossed in the virtual world of

Facebook likes and WhatsApp messages. But then something strange happens: all electrical and

mechanical appliances stop functioning. Tokyo comes to a stand-still and the first few days everyone

tries to adapt as much as possible. But when the food runs out, a huge exodus sets in motion and our

little family also leaves for the countryside. The city slickers are completely at a loss and in order to

survive, they have to make contact with their inner primordial man. It will turn out to be a very

instructive trip, including lots of interesting encounters with bipeds and quadrupeds. Because a friend

in need is a friend indeed!

In 2013, we already had Shinobu Yaguchi’s clever-cute Robo-G and now he brings his take on the end

of the world (as we know it). But instead of a doom and gloom scenario like I Am Legend or The Road,

he turns his tale into a good-natured and funny tragicomedy for the entire family. Fumiyo Kohinata as

the paterfamilias (with a hairpiece) is a well-known face from Takeshi Kitano’s Outrage and a bunch of

other nifty Nippon movies (Dark Water, Casshern, Ring 2, Audition …).

Tokyo Ghoul (2017-Japan)

Directed by Kentaro Hagiwara

Screenplay by Ichiro Kusuno

Casting :Masataka Kubota, Fumika Shimizu, Nobuyuki Suzuki, …


Bookish Ken Kaneki can’t believe his luck when he succeeds in getting a date with a

deliciously shy female fellow-student. But during their first encounter, she shows her true

self, because out of her back pop giant tentacles with which she attacks the stunned Ken.

He survives the ordeal, but from now on he’ll have to lead the life of a half-caste: half man, half ghoul

(or flesh-eating monster). Speaking of a split personality! As he tests out his new look (including an eye-

patch and a kinky leather mask) he must appease his old friends and provide for his daily portion of

meat. All the time while being chased by the silver-haired government-appointed ghoul hunter who has

to eliminate these lovely little creatures…

In Japan, Tokyo Ghoul is a true phenomenon. The manga first appeared in a magazine and when it was

published as a book it sold twenty (20!) million copies. A film adaptation was inevitable and no expense

was spared for the dazzling special effects. Director Kentaro Hagiwara succeeded in getting some fine

actors. Masataka Kubota was in Takashi Miike’s Thirteen Assassins and Yu Aoi in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s

Penance and Journey to the Shore. Don Davis (The Matrix-trilogy) provides the thrilling soundtrack.

Trench 11 (2017-Canada)

Directed by Leo Scherman

Screenplay by Matt Booi and Leo Scherman

Casting : Karine Vanasse, Rossif Sutherland, Rob Archer, …


After four years of war and 18 million corpses, the First World War is about to end. The German

troops are retreating like frightened rabbits, making their campsites look like the aftermath of a

particularly bloody party. This is a unique opportunity for the Allies to go rummaging through

the mythical trench 11, which is the subject of horrifying rumors that make all the hairs on your

body stand up. Berton, a Canadian sapper, is in charge of guiding a squad of soldiers through this

underground labyrinth that the Germans didn’t manage to destroy before leaving. They expect

something bad lurking here, but nothing could have prepared them for the horde of mutant soldiers

created by a twisted visionary of the future 3rd Reich.

You smell it, that sweet smell of Dead Snow: Red VS Dead and Frankenstein's Army, don’t you? Well,

Leo Scherman has created a similar atmosphere in his latest film. This former trainee of David

Cronenberg treats us to a claustrophobic experience stuffed with hungry mutants. Welcome to Trench

11, where The Great Escape meets The Descent! You’d better play some Wolfenstein first to prepare

you for what’s ahead.

Tragedy Girls (2017-USA)

Directed by Tyler MacIntyre

Screenplay by Tyler MacIntyre, Chris Lee Hill and Justin Olson

Casting : Brianna Hildebrand, Alexandra Shipp, Jack Quaid ,…

Speelduur : 98 minuten

Sadie and McKayla may be the most popular girls in school, but they are missing one thing

to become the next Kim Kardashian. They need thousands, even millions of followers on

their social networks. In order to achieve that goal, they need a trending topic, something

more exciting than make-up or dating tips. When they discover that a serial killer has made

his nest in the neighborhood, they decide to kidnap him. With this free tutorial on how to be a murderer,

they’ve got their trending topic. As a bonus, Sadie and McKayla will not only be able to feed their blogs

with breaking news on the criminal, but they’ll also be able to slaughter as many innocent people as

possible. They just need to incriminate the killer, so they can remain the new social media darlings.

Tragedy Girls, a bloody satire on contemporary youth with a bite, is the perfect mix between Heathers

and Scream. Tyler MacIntyre’s newest (Patchwork, BIFFF 2016) made many a viewer holler in

American theaters. It’s also a treat to genre fans, with its many winks to the work of John Carpenter,

Brian De Palma or Ruggero Deodato. This lovely dose of sarcastic gore is driven by the energetic

performances of its two leads Brianna Hildebrand (Deadpool) and Alexandra Shipp (X-Men:

Apocalypse).

Veronica (2017-Spain)

Directed by Paco Plaza

Screenplay by Paco Plaza and Fernando Navarro

Casting : Sandra Escacena, Bruna González, Claudia Pacer, …


Nothing like a board game to make things nice and cozy. But damn you if you dare

play it during a solar eclipse! Verónica (Vero for her friends) is having a rough

time. Her father is long gone and since her mother works impossible shifts in a bar

she has to play mommy to her sisters and bed-wetting little brother. At her strict nun school (it’s the

1980s in a still very religious Spain) she sneaks off with two friends while everybody else is on the roof

staring at the sun. Via a Ouija board the girls try and make contact with the deceased and lo and behold,

they have a supernatural visitor. But the guest outstays his welcome and during the next few days, he

plays a destructive game with his new-found friend Vero…

Paco Plaza needs no introduction because ever since his first effort Second Name (2002) he’s been a

BIFFF regular. Verónica, based on a true story, is his follow-up to the legendary REC movies, shot in

collaboration with his Catalan blood brother Jaime Balagueró. Once more he serves a masterful cocktail

of demonic possession and nail-biting suspense, seasoned with just the right amount of religious

hysteria. The impressive young actors are joined by Anna Torrent (Thesis, The Beckoning).

What The Waters Left Behind (2017-Argentina)

Directed by Luciano and Nicolás Onetti

Screenplay by Luciano and Nicolás Onetti and Carlos Goitia

Casting : German Baudino, Paula Brasca, Mirta Busnelli, …


It was a bright idea at the time: a bunch of twentysomethings heads to an abandoned

village in the vicinity of the Buenos Aires. It used to be a cozy vacation resort until it got

submerged by flood waters and was completely abandoned. The youngsters want to shoot

a documentary in the eerie ghost town, where one of them used to live as a young girl. But

things quickly get out of hand when their van breaks down and they discover that they’re not exactly

alone. A family of primitive sadists (the living embodiment of centuries of incest and inbreeding) have

decided they want to have a bit of fun at their expense. Stashed away in their headquarters El Matadero

(Spanish for “slaughterhouse”) sit all kinds of torture devices, which they can finally test on these first-

rate laboratory rabbits. Before long the hip city-dwellers wonder why for fuck’s sake they didn’t stay at

home.

The Onetti Brothers are the new wonder boys of the Argentinian horror scene. And they keep everything

in the family: screenwriting, directing, producing, editing, and composing. In Sonno profondo and

Francesca they explored the giallo genre (honoring their Italian roots) and now they sink their teeth in

slasher fare like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. Among the actors, we

recognize Argentinian scream queen Victoria Maurette and horror fave “El Chucho” Fernández. The

saturated colors in delicious scope make the psycho killers’ debauchery even more succulent!

White chamber (2017-UK)

Directed by Paul Raschid

Screenplay by Paul Raschid

Casting : Shauna Macdonald, Oded Fehr, Amrita Acharia, …


The United Kingdom. Soon. Britain is in a civil war as the State battles rebel

militia for power. A woman wakes up in a blindingly white cuboid room: the

White Chamber. A voice from the outside demands information, but she claims

to have none. To gain the answers he seeks, her captor utilises the gruesome functionality of the White

Chamber as an instrument of torture. The temperature within the space shifts between the extremes;

water, acid and even electricity fire out of the floor and ceiling. The woman's mind, body and soul are

pushed to their limit. The woman begins to talk to her captor… but is she just surviving or does she

know more?

The dystopian White Chamber is an elevated genre hybrid combining sci-fi, thriller, horror and drama

elements, while taking Milgram’s controversial social psychology experiments to a new level. White

Chamber is 25-year-old Paul Rashid’s second movie after Servants’ Quarters from 2016. As your damsel

in distress, we give you no one other than Shauna Macdonald (The Descent, Howl, Nails) trapped in one

of the most stressful contraptions ever.

The year of the plague (2018-Spain / Belgium)

Directed by C. Martín Ferrera

Screenplay by Ángeles Hernández, Miguel Ibáñez Monroy, David Matamoros and

Marc Pastor

Casting : Miriam Giovanelli, Ana Seradilla, Brays Efe, …


Víctor is what they call a “friki,” in Spain, that is a nerd who compares everything in his

uneventful life with the movies he’s seen. Since his girlfriend left him for a more “mature”

man he’s just going through the motions. His colleagues try to set him up with a new significant other,

but to no avail, because he turns everyone down. That is, until the charming Lola seems to be able to

lure him into a new relationship. But then he gets a phone call from his panicky ex: the people in her

surroundings are suddenly behaving like emotionless robots. Might all this have something to do with

the latest craze for ginseng plants that everyone is dying to have in their homes? Víctor doesn’t know

what’s what anymore, but counting on his ample film memory, he sets out to save his old flame, firmly

set on becoming a superhero.

The Spanish-Mexican-Belgian coproduction The Year of the Plague doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Despite the countless references to famous horror movies, this adaptation of a bestseller by Catalan

author Marc Pastor is first and foremost a funny remake of the cult classic Invasion of the Body

Snatchers. Among the actors, we recognize Ivan Massagué (Pan’s Labyrinth), Miriam Giovanelli

(Dracula 3D), and Sílvia Abril (Ghost Graduation).

7.10 Schedule of BIFFF 2018

8. KNIGHTS OF THE ORDER OF THE RAVEN

Barbara Steele Lloyd Kaufman Caroline Munro

Joe Dante Lance Henriksen Neil Jordan

John Landis Dario Argento Luc Besson

Larry Cohen Christopher Lloyd Jurgen Prochnow

Terry Gilliam Jean-Pierre Jeunet Stuart Gordon

Alexandre Aja Harry Kümel John Hough

Jaume Balaguero Alejandro Amenabar Park Chan-wook

9. KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF THE RAVEN 2018

Guillermo del Toro

He's the man of the moment. The Shape of Water won 4 of those mythical statues, including

Best Movie and Best Director. That makes The Shape of Water the first “monster movie” that

gets bestowed with this honor and that also makes Guillermo del Toro a member of the club of

Mexican Oscar winners that includes Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro G. Iñarritu. And that's

about time. Since Cronos (Silver Raven at the BIFFF 1994) del Toro makes one unique genre

feature after another. He made an excursion to the Marvel universe with Blade 2, he shot two

adaptations of the legendary Dark Horse comic Hellboy and dissected the Franco Regime in

The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth. Guillermo del Toro is not only a true visionary, but

also the living proof that a Mexican immigrant can enter the pantheon of cinema greats, as he

said so himself in his acceptance speech.

FILMO : Cronos (1993) – Mimic (1997) – The Devil's Backbone (2001) – Blade 2 (2002) –

Hellboy (2004) – Pan's Labyrinth (2006) – Hellboy 2 (2008) – Pacific Rim (2013) – Crimson

Peak (2015) – The Shape of Water (2017)

10. PRACTICAL INFORMATION

PRESS CONTACT

Public information: 02/204.00.00.13 or www.bifff.net

Press Information: Jonathan Lenaerts

8 Rue de la Comtesse de Flandre, 1020 Brussels

Tel: 02.204.00.14; Fax: 020.201.14.69

Email: [email protected]

The photos in the press kit are subject to copyright!

The accreditation forms are already available on our website. Please complete it online by

March 31,2018.

After this date, you will be asked for an administrative fee of 25€ to obtain accreditation.

We will keep you informed by e-mail of the acceptance of your accreditation request and the

type of accreditation you will be offered. Please note that accreditation does not give automatic

access to the festival sessions. It is imperative that you book the sessions you want to attend at

least one day in advance. As the number of places available for accredited participants is

limited, we cannot guarantee the availability of places for all sessions.

Press and professional space

A space is at your disposal throughout the festival. The press desk is located on the ground

floor of the PBA, in the COUNCIL HALL, next to Ravenstein Street (see map). An Internet

access will be available for badge holders, but it is advisable to bring your own laptop. All the

BIFFF space is covered by a Wifi provided by BeCyber.

Press visions

A list of press visions will be available later on our website or upon request to the above

contacts. Please note that this list may still be subject to change.

Video space (for the press and professionals)

Video screens will be available for press and professional accreditation holders. Most of the

films in the program can be viewed on a secure server. However, as the number of screens is

limited, a reservation is required and the press service retains the right to determine who has

priority access to them.

We would like to make it clear that the list of guests as well as the list of the different juries is

provisional and can be modified at any time.

Palais des Beaux-Arts

Ravenstein street 23

1000 Brussels

Public transportation

Train: Brussels-Central train station

Subway: Line 1 & 5: Gare Centrale/Central Station & Parc - Line 1,2,5 & 6: Arts-Loi

Tram: 92 - 94, Palais stop

Bus: 27 - 29 - 34 - 34 - 38 - 63 - 65 - 66 - 71 - 71N - 95, Bozar stop

Carpooling: www.djengo.be

Car sharing: www.cambio.be

By bike: www.villo.be

http://www.djengo.be/

http://www.cambio.be/

http://www.villo.be/

Car parks

Albertine car park

Entrances: 16 Place de la justice and Rue des Sols 3

Preferential rate in the evening

Every day from 7 AM to 1 AM

2-5 minutes walk

Grand Place Parking

Entrances: Rue du marché aux Herbes 104 and Boulevard de l' impératrice 104

Open 24 hours a day

5-10 minutes on foot

Sablon-Poelaert car park

Poelaert Square

Preferential rate in the evening

Monday to Saturday: 7 AM to midnight

Sunday: 10 AM to midnight

15 to 20 minutes on foot

11. THE PARTNERS

With the support of

Our Top, Majors and Institutional Sponsors

La Région BruxellesCapitale / Het Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest

La RTBF, Classic 21 & La Trois (along with La Première, Vivacité, Pure FM, La Une and La Deux)

La Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles

Het Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds

De Stad Brussel / La Ville de Bruxelles

La COCOF

De Vlaamse Overheid : Coördinatie Brussel

Visit Brussels / Brussels Film Office / Screen.brussels

Wallonie - Bruxelles International

Wallimage

Our main sponsors

Euromillions

Le Palais des Beaux Arts de Bruxelles

The Best Western Hotel Royal Centre

Our sponsors

La Cuvée des Trolls (Brasserie Dubuisson)

Be TV

Metro time

BeCyber

Koko

Syfy

Bx1

Air Europa

Our executives sponsors

Mikim FX

Fedex

BrightFish

Clip Display

Rent A Car / Enterprise

Ricoh

SNCB Europe / NMBS Europe

KU Leuven

Sabam for Culture

Redsports.be

Belgians producers

Frakas Productions

Fontana Productions

Title Films

De Hofleveranciers bvba

Le Projet Crytopsie

Gypsy Productions

Stempel

Topcare Production

Our partners

Boulevard du Polar

Le Géant des Beaux Arts

La Galerie Pieter Pauwel

Brussels Games Festival

S.A.E. Institute

Arte Pub / Igoto

Courant 3D

Pixelixir

Bruzz

Clari-Screen

Séma Editions

Sharing Box

Skull

Auvicom

And also,

LE MINISTERE DE L’EMPLOI DE LA REGION BRUXELLES CAPITALE,

LE FOND MARIBEL SOCIAL DES SECTEURS SOCIOCULTURELS ET SPORTIFS DES COMMUNAUTES

FRANCAISE ET GERMANOPHONE,

LE SERVICE GENERAL DE L’AUDIOVISUEL ET DES MULTIMEDIAS DE LA COMMUNAUTE

FRANCAISE

DE BELGIQUE,

SERVICE OUTDOOR & INDOOR – OPERATION TRANSPORT DE LA VILLE DE BRUXELLES,

LE CENTRE DE PRÊT DE MATERIEL DE LA COMMUNAUTE FRANCAISE DE BELGIQUE,

LE CENTRE DE PRÊT DE LA COMMISSION COMMUNAUTAIRE FRANCAISE DE LA REGION

BRUXELLES CAPITALE,

LE SERVICE GENERAL DE LA CULTURE DE LA COMMUNAUTE FRANCAISE DE BELGIQUE.

Thanks to

FIRMS OF DISTRIBUTION AND PRODUCTION OF FILMS OF BELGIUM

BE FOR FILMS, THE SEARCHERS, IMAGINE FILM DISTRIBUTION, SEPTEMBER FILM, PARADISO

FILMED ENTERTAINMENT, BELGA FILMS, UMEDIA

HELP OF EMBASSIES

KOREAN CULTURAL CENTER TO THE EUROPEAN UNION

EMBASSY OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC KINGDOM OF BELGIUM

INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE CINE Y ARTES AUDIOVISUALES ARGENTINA

BLOOD WINDOW / LATIN AMERICA FANTASTIC FILM MARKET

JAPAN FOUNDATION

TAIPEI REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE IN THE EU AND BELGIUM

EMBAJADA DE ESPANA EN EL REINO DE BELGICA

HONG KONG ECONOMIC AND TRADE OFFICE / BELGIUM HONG KONG SOCIETY

EMBAJADA DE MEXICO ANTE EL REINO DE BELGICA Y EL GRAND DUCADO DE LUXEMBURGO, Y

MISSION DE MEXICO ANTE LA UNION EUROPEA

ALL COMPAGNIES, INTITUTIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS WHO HELPED US FOR THIS 36TH

EDITION

La confederation parascolaire, Point Culture (ulb), La Ligue des Droits de l’Homme, Arkel, Optique Viqueray,

Hair Club, L’ecole de maquillage Jean Pierre Finotto, Georges stevens cie., Ucm cafes conseils, Avi Belgium,

Cityclash, Propa, IPM printing, Twin Pics, Zeno Pictures, UCM, 501st Fanwars Garrison, Blood Window, La Cerm

faculté de traduction et d’interpretation de l’universite de Mons, Dreamscreen, Talencentrum & Ondertiteling KU

Leuven Campus Brussel, ULB Bruxelles, departement de traduction et interpretation, Dragon, Dcinex, Blending

a game jam, Brotaru,Ludus Academy, Panoptic, Black land studio, Futurist, Belgium Beer Race, Virtual Words,

ASA, Squidlab, Jean-Luc Maitrank, l'Institut Jeanne Toussaint, La Puck Company, Le Géant des Beaux-Arts.

AND FOR THE BIF MARKET

Wallimage, Creative Media Desk Belgium, taxshelter.be, Umedia, SPF - Fiscal Department for Foreign

Investments, Jérôme Di Egidio, Les sociétés de post-productions belges

Summary - Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival

Documents