Fantastic Fest Awards Announced

The world premiere of FilmDistrict's Red Dawn reboot will close The Austin-based genre fest today. Well, if you didn't already hear, Lithuanian sci-fi romantic thriller Vanishing Waves was the big winner by picking up four awards including Best Feature, Best Director (Kristina Buozyte), Best Screenplay (Bruno Samper, Buozyte), and Best Actress (Jurga Jutaite).

Have you ever dreamed of being inside the head of another person – a beloved one or your rival ? Have you ever wished to experience the ideal relationship, where two minds come into total fusion? “Vanishing waves” – a sci-fi melodrama. Following solid scientific experiment, based on the neural transfer, a young inhibited man will live an astonishing journey in the comatose woman anonymous mind. This contemporary tale is exploring the nature of desire by exposing links and contradictions between the human body and the mind.

Here Comes the Devil, Adrian Garcia Bogliano‘s homage to 70s horror films, swept the Horror Features at the Fantastic Fest 2012 by winning Best Picture, Best Director (Bogliano), Best Screenplay (Bogliano), Best Actor (Francisco Barreiro), and Best Actress (Laura Caro).

A married couple loses their children while on a family trip near some caves in Tijuana. The kids eventually reappear without explanation, but it becomes clear that they are not who they used to be, that something terrifying has changed them.

Robert Wilson and Jason Lapeyre‘s I Declare War, virtually uncategorizable action film about the war games children play, won the Audience Award at the Fest.

Two groups of thirteen-year old friends play ‘war' in a local forest each day. They make their own guns from anything they can lay their hands on. One day, the game gets out of hand as leaderships, loyalties, tactics and friendships are tested to the ultimate degree and like their adult counterparts in the ‘real' world, victory and defeat are celebrated and suffered in equal proportion… With overtones of “Lord of the Flies”, I Declare War is a chilling depiction of humanity and innocence lost that mirrors events seen daily throughout the world. It's the law of the jungle.

Here's a complete list of winners:

AUDIENCE AWARD (Presented by Maxwell Locke & Ritter) I Declare War (dir. Robert Wilson & Jason Lapeyre) AMD ‘NEXT WAVE' SPOTLIGHT COMPETITION Best Picture: Flicker (dir. Patrik Eklund) Best Director: Charles de Lauzirika (Crave) Best Screenplay: Max Porcelijn (Plan C) Best Actor: Michael Eklund (Errors of the Human Body) Best Actress: Alina Levshin (Combat Girls) FANTASTIC FEATURES Best Picture: Vanishing Waves (dir. Kristina Buozyte) Best Director: Kristina Buozyte (Vanishing Waves) Best Screenplay: Bruno Samper, Kristina Buozyte (Vanishing Waves) Best Actor: Rene Bitorajac (Vegetarian Cannibal) Best Actress: Jurga Jutaite (Vanishing Waves) HORROR FEATURES Best Picture: Here Comes the Devil (dir. Adrián García Bogliano) Best Screenplay: Adrián García Bogliano (Here Comes the Devil) Best Director: Adrián García Bogliano (Here Comes the Devil) Special mention: Hajime Ohata (Henge) Best Actor: Francisco Barreiro (Here Comes the Devil) Best Actress: Laura Caro (Here Comes the Devil) Special Mention: Katherine Isabel (American Mary) GUTBUSTER COMEDY FEATURES Best Picture: New Kids Nitro (dir. Steffen Haars & Flip Van der Kuil) Best Director: Dario Russo (Danger 5) Best Screenplay: John Mitchell (The History of Future Folk) Best Actor: Chapman To (Vulgaria) Best Actress: Rina Takeda (Dead Sushi) DOCUMENTARY FEATURES Best Picture: The American Scream (dir. Michael Stephenson) Best Director: Rodney Ascher (Room 237) SHORT FUSE: HORROR SHORTS Winner: At The Formal (Andrew Kavanagh, Australia) Runner-up: The Sleepover (Chris Cullari, USA) FANTASTIC SHORTS Winner: Record/Play (Jesse Atlas, USA) Runner-up: Love (Kaveh Nabatian, Canada) DRAWN AND QUARTERED: ANIMATED SHORTS Winner: Bendito Machine IV – (Jossie Malis, Spain) Runner-up: Tram – (Michaela Pavlátová, Czech Republic)