The winners of MOTELX Lisbon 2022
In September, horror invaded the city of Lisbon, as usual since 2007!
MOTELX has hosted the best international films and world premiered emerging Portuguese genre cinema since 2007. Guests of honour such as George A. Rome!ro, Dario Argento, Hideo Nakata, Coffin Joe, Eli Roth, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Roger Corman, and Ari Aster have already joined the nearly 20,000 people who annually pass by the iconic Cinema São Jorge.
But now, here you have the Méliès d’argent 2022 awards!
Méliès d’argent Award – Feature Films @ MOTELX 2022 Lisbon
The competition is organized in collaboration with the Méliès International Festivals Federation (MIFF).
The award goes to the best European feature film:
Speak No Evil
by Christian Tafdrup
Denmark, The Netherlands, 2022, 97’
A Danish family visits a Dutch family they met on a holiday. What was supposed to be an idyllic weekend slowly starts unraveling as the Danes try to stay polite in the face of unpleasantness.
Jury: Ana Markl (Journalist, author and broadcaster), Sélina Boye (Sphere Films), Tó Trips (Music artist)
Statement:
The other day someone told me that they didn’t like horror movies. And I thought: that’s a very unfair statement. In fact, genres are made to limit the spectator’s perspective, but not to restrain creativity. And MOTELX has proven that there are several kinds of horror cinema, as many as the fears and discomforts that are inherent to the human condition. And I think we can all agree that there are a lot of them. By tradition, a lot of horror cinema uses these fears to create parables about really important issues and the Méliès d’Argent candidates are very representative of that: the role of women, the pains of growing up, the complexity of motherhood, prejudice, the dichotomy between folklore and technology. It was a wonderful selection. The choice of the Méliès d’Argent jury lands on a work that focuses on one of our greatest fears: the fear of others in a world as full of information as it is of mistrust. Think twice before making new friends. For the magnificent way it manages tension and touches the wounds of hypocrisy in social relationships, the winner is: Speak No Evil, by Christian Trafdup.
MOTELX Méliès d’argent feature films competition:
A Banquet, UK 2021, by Ruth Paxton
Criança Lobo, Portugal 2022, by Frederico Serra
My Grandfather’s Demons/Os Demónios do Meu Avô, Portugal 2022, by Nuno Beato
Nightsiren/Svetlonoc, Slovakia, Czech Republic 2022, by Tereza Nvotová
The Open Body/O Corpo Aberto, Spain, Portugal 2022, by Angeles Huerta
Speak No Evil/GÆSTERNE, Denmark, Netherlands 2022, by Christian Tafdrup
Wolfkin/Kommunion 89 Luxembourg 2022, by Jacques Molitor
Méliès d’argent Award – Short Films @ MOTELX 2022 Lisbon
The competition is organized in collaboration with the Méliès International Festivals Federation (MIFF). The winner of the competition also wins the nomination to the Méliès d’or annual competition. The award goes to the best European short film.
Censor of Dreams
by Leo Berne & Raphaël Rodriguez
France, 2021, 18’
Night after night The Censor and his team mould Yoko’s memories into fantastical dreams. Tonight nothing happens as planned.
Jury: Maria João Rosa, Surma (Music artist), Tiago Bartolomeu Costa (Programmer, commissioner and editor)
Statement:
We are what we live, what we do and what we design. We are what cinema says about us and the fears, tensions and nightmares that settle in it. We are represented by images and with that, there is no other than horror cinema that can tell us who we are. The film we chose as the winner of the Mélies Award for best short film, summarizes the essential ideas of this genre: intuitive, questioning, overwhelmingly challenging, about us and everyday life. It’s about what we do to avoid it. CENSOR OF DREAMS, by Léo Berne and Raphael Rodriguez, operates on what is individual and immaterial, on what we fear and controls us, on the perception we have of what can harm us, but we insist on having it, without imagining its consequences. We celebrate a complete and complex film, defending an idea of cinema that in everything feeds the genre: evil only happens because we want it to.
Méliès d’argent Award – Short Films @ MOTELX
Censor of Dreams, France 2021, by Léo Berne, Raphaël Rodriguez
Contretemps, France 2021, by Laurine Baille, Gabriel Gérard, Lise Légier, Chloé Maingé, Claire Sun
O Caso Coutinho, 13, Portugal 2022 by Luís Alves
Cronos, 15, Portugal 2022, by João Pico
Fishwife, 17, UK 2022, by Beth ParkIgor,
Igor, 9, Portugal 2021, by Rafael Almeida
Matrioska, 7, Portugal 2021, by Joana Correia Pinto
Misericórdia, 11, Portugal 2021, by Gonçalo Loureiro
The Muppet-Face, 11, Portugal 2022, by Ricardo Machado
Night Breakers, 18, Spain 2021, by Guillem Lafoz, Gabriel Campoy
Uma Piscina, 9, Portugal 2021, by Carolina Aguiar
Phlegm, 6, Switzerland 2021, by Jan-David Bolt
Reverso, 5, Portugal 2022, by André Szankowski
Vara, 6, Portugal 2022, by Inês Albuquerque
The Red Note, 3, UK 2021, by Theo Watkins
Cemitério Vermelho, 9, Portugal 2022, by Francisco Lacerda
Vórtice, 15, Portugal 2022, by Guilherme Branquinho
Wall #4, 8, Netherlands 2021, by Lucas Camps
Quando a Terra Sangra, 15, Portugal 2021, by João Vicente Morgado
You’re Not Home, 11, Ireland 2022, by Derek Ugochukwu
Don’t forget to watch the MOTELX Special on our Méliès Fantastic Hub!