Melies d’argent winners at Amsterdam 2018
The 34th Imagine Film Festival in Amsterdam has awarded the Méliès d’argent for best
fantastic European feature film and short film. The winning films are also nominated for
the Méliès d’or, which is awarded at the Sitges festival in October 2018.
The jury of the Méliès d’argent for best European fantastic feature film consisted of Olivia Lonsdale,Ype Driessen and Dandyano Zentveld.
The winner is The Place by Paolo Genovese (Italy 2017)
The jury report said:
The Place looks into human desires, in which needs on the surface offer only a glimpse of the desires deep below. Besides fantastic acting and brilliant dialogues, it’s the way the lives of the people are inseparable that endures. Daring and grand in scale, but intimate and personal in execution, this filmshows that in this world no act is left without consequences and that there’s always someone else paying the price for our desires.
In The Place, the absurd becomes normal and the impossible plausible. The credit for that fully goes to director Paolo Genovese.
The jury of the Méliès d’argent for best European fantastic short film consisted of Jedidjah Noomen and Barend de Voogd.
The winner is Downside Up by Peter Ghesquière (Belgium 2017)
The jury report said:
The winning short is a well-told fairytale that puts a smile on your face, with a screenplay that’s clear and logical but still manages to surprise you. Visually, the film also stands out; the production design is amazing and the imagery will stay in your mind for a long time. Plus the cast of the film is simply irresistible and enjoyable. At first, this film might make you a bit uneasy. It’s a comedy, but are we really allowed to laugh? Thankfully that’s exactly the point of this short film. This fairytale about being different shows you a possibly heavy subject without melodrama and is able to reel you in with honest emotions that we can all relate to.
The Méliès d’argent and the Méliès d’or are the awards of the European Fantastic Film Festivals
Federation (EFFFF), which is affiliated with 22 festivals throughout the world.
About Imagine Film Festival
For over thirty years Imagine Film Festival has been the number one festival homaging fantastic film in The Netherlands. Imagination is the key objective of the festival: it broadens the mind, explores the unknown and makes you look differently at your own world. Fantastic film is the ultimate platform for thought experiments and futurist prospects. Imagine Film Festival celebrates fantastic film in an eleven-day tribute by curating a variable and broad program related to fantastic film. Imagine stimulates and excites the imagination and explores different and future worldviews in order to think the unthinkable and put our own world into a new perspective. The festival uses the power of fantastic film to achieve the above. This year’s edition took place from the 11 th of April until the 21 st of April in EYE Film Museum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.