Before I continue, let me apologize for my blog coverage of the 2013 Fantastic Fest. In years past, the Festival has dominated this blog, but not so much this year. Sure, I delivered a massive eight day preview, but I’ve only made one day report since and that was only day one.
Several factors have played into the scant coverage. I’ve had transportation issues. Unlike in past years when FF happened at the South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse, this year the happenings occurred at the Lake Creek location. Since this Geek Curmudgeon doesn’t drive, it takes roughly 1.5 hours to get there (as opposed to the 35 minutes previously).
Then there were the technical difficulties. The recent Android update (4.3) rendered several keyboards unusable including my Rocksoul. And of course, I didn’t learn of this until my first day at FF when between movies, I tried to get some writing done. While I had a notebook with me for notes, my chicken scratchings are nearly illegible.
One of the niceties of being press at these things is the ability to stream many of the movies at home. I tend to not enjoy watching longer things in front of a desktop computer. No problem since I have an older laptop running Puppy Linux that works just fine. Or so I thought. My wireless modem picked this week to die.
Ok, I still have a netbook, which is kinda wimpy but should manage just fine. Wrong there. While the netbook still works, it runs so slow that the voice sync is off and the images are cloudy. Additionally, the video stopped frequently to buffer.
I still had my workhorse of a deskstop machine which I dragged out into the living room and plugged into the TV. It worked except everything had a greenish hue. I fooled around for over an hour playing with the settings, restart the computer, turning the TV on and off. I then decided to play with the seating of the plug when I discovered one of the pins was bent. Thankfully a friend was over and after a quick dash to Discount Electronics, everything was finally in working order.
My last excuse is actually a good thing. As many of you know I started writing for The Horn this summer and they asked me to supply Fantastic Fest coverage. So far I’ve managed a movie preview and three reviews (The Greatful Dead, The Dirties, and The Fake) with more to come.
Rather than attempt to continue with daily blog coverage, I’m planning a series of posts with short reviews of movies I saw at FF 2013, regardless of the day in which I saw them.
And now without ado, here’s the 2013 Fantastic Fest Awards.
AUDIENCE AWARD (Presented by Maxwell Locke & Ritter)
Jodorowsky’s Dune (director Frank Pavich)
“NEXT WAVE” SPOTLIGHT COMPETITION PRESENTED BY DELL PRECISION
- Best Picture: The Dirties (director Matt Johnson)
- Best Director: Oren Carmi (Goldberg and Eisenberg)
- Best Screenplay: James Byrkit (Coherence)
- Best Actor: Yorick van Wageningen (The Resurrection Of A Bastard)
- Best Actress: Swantje Kohlhof (Nothing Bad Can Happen)
FANTASTIC FEATURES
- Best Picture: The Congress (director Ari Folman)
- Best Director: David Perrault (Our Heroes Died Tonight)
- Best Screenplay: Ari Folman (The Congress)
- Best Actor: Svein André Hofsø Myhre (Detective Downs)
- Best Actress: Robin Wright (The Congress)
HORROR FEATURES
- Best Picture: Afflicted (directors Derek Lee and Clif Prowse)
- Best Screenplay: Derek Lee and Clif Prowse (Afflicted)
- Best Director: Derek Lee and Clif Prowse (Afflicted)
- Best Actor: Jason David Brown (Septic Man)
- Best Actress: Julia Garner (We Are What We Are)
GUTBUSTER COMEDY FEATURES
- Best Picture: Why Don’t You Play In Hell (director Sion Sono)
- Best Director: Sion Sono