Spoor takes top prize at Fantasia

Festival wraps are welcoming almost 100,000 visitors

by Jennie Kermode

Spoor
Spoor

The Fantasia film festival saw its 21st edition come to a close last night after nearly 100,000 visitors had attended its screenings and events. In its closing awards ceremony, Agnieszka Holland's subversive drama Spoor took the Cheval Noir for Best Film. Thailand's Nattawut Poonpiriya was named Best Director for Bad Genius and Marianna Palka took Best Screenplay for Bitch.

The Best Actor award went to Song Kang-ho as a down on his luck man who rises to the occasion in A Taxi Driver, while Violetta Schurwlow won Best Actress for Cold Hell. There was a special mention for Ryan Prows' film Lowlife, which was praised for its energy and anarchic spirit.

Bad Genius
Bad Genius

"Veteran writer and director Agnieszka Holland's late season masterwork is not only a sumptuously photographed and compellingly crafted forensic thriller but a genuinely radical work of cinema, interrogating timely themes of gender, animal rights and humanity's precarious relationship with nature, issues that are dear to our hearts here at Fantasia. We are proud to honor a film maker working at the very height of her provocative talents," said jurists Richard Stanley, Chris Bumbray, Paul Kazee and Shelagh Rowan-Legg.

A series of other winners were announced at the ceremony, with Kim Sung-hoon's Confidential Assignment claiming the Action! award, A Ghost Story taking the AQCC-Camera Lucida Award, and Choi Kook-hee's Split receiving the New Flesh Award for the best new feature. The Séquences Award went to Bad Genius, Poor Agnes won the Barry Convex Award for Best Canadian Film, and Have A Nice Day took the Satoshi Kon Award for Excellence in Animation.

The Audience Awards were as follows:-

Best Asian Feature Film

  • Bad Genius (gold award)
  • Blade Of The Immortal (silver award)
  • A Day (bronze award)

Best North American, South American, or European Feature Film

  • Better Watch Out (gold award)
  • Lowlife (silver award)
  • Mayhem (bronze award)

Best Canadian / Quebec Feature Film

  • Another Wolfcop (gold award)
  • Dead Shack (silver award)
  • Game Of Death (bronze award)

The GURU Prize for Best Action Feature Film

  • Jailbreak (gold award)
  • The Villainess (silver award)
  • Atomic Blonde (bronze award)

Most Innovative Feature Film

Best Animated Feature Film

  • Napping Princess (gold award)
  • Lu Over The Wall (silver award)
  • Life Is Short, Walk On Girl (bronze award)

Best Documentary Feature Film

  • King Cohen (gold award)
  • 78/52 (silver award)
  • Geek Girls (bronze award)

Best International Short Film

  • Rue (gold award)
  • It Began Without Warning (silver award)
  • Nocturnally Yours/Flow (bronze award)

Best Canadian or Quebec Short Film

  • Past And Future Kings (gold award)
  • No Wave (silver award)
  • Apocalypse Babies/Babysitter (bronze award)

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