Méliès d’argent winners at MOTEL X 2020
The winners of Lisbon’s International Horror Film Festival 2020
September 14, 2020 – Last night, the 14th MOTELX awards were presented in Lisbon.
Here is the Méliès Federation report.
The winners of MOTELX Lisbon’s International Horror Film Festival have been announced. In an atypical and challenging year, the public returned in force to MOTELX, which took place with enhanced health and safety measures.
The Méliès d’argent for the best European feature film @ MOTELX
In the international competition, Pelican Blood by Katrin Gebbe was awarded the MOTELX Award for Best European Horror Feature / Méliès d’argent 2020.
This recognition comes in a year that featured a record number of films directed by women. The second film by the German director (a co-production of Germany and Bulgaria) explores the agony of a mother who adopts a child with disturbing behavior. “A unanimous choice” by a jury comprised of writers Pedro Mexia and Filipe Homem Fonseca and actor Carla Galvão, who applaud “a film of permanent tension about maternal instincts and mental health, about loss and sacrifice, about evil as a protection – a film that makes an appeal to courage and perseverance against all logic and all hope”.
The Méliès d'argent for the best European short film @ MOTELX
The Méliès d’argent for the best European short film went to the Portuguese Mata by Fábio Rebelo.
Mata by Fábio Rebelo was named as the big winner of the MOTELX
Award for Best Portuguese Horror Short / Méliès d’argent 2020 at the Festival’s closing ceremony.
The story of a couple lost in a forest who reunite with horrific consequences, Mata is, in the words of a jury comprised of producer Pandora da Cunha Telles, director João Pedro Rodrigues and actor Margarida Vila-Nova, “a solid film that plays with the imaginary of fantasy literature, plunging us into a space where we have to face our fears”. “Brief and unassuming”, they add, “Mata reveals a promising young director”.