This year’s Bilbao Fantasy Film Festival, #FANT22 is creeping up on us with less than a month to go and today the organisers have announced the fest’s first ever midnight movie marathon which will take place on May 6th, straight after the opening ceremony.
Each year the festival raises the curtain in style at the spectacular Campos Eliseos theatre in the heart of Bilbao with a headliner feature film and selection of Basque short films. This year the proceedings won’t end there as four of last year’s hardest hitters on the international festival circuit will be screened back-to-back: the Blaine Brothers’ Nina Forever (UK), Paul Hyett’s Howl (UK), Jason Lei Howden’s Deathgasm (New Zealand), and Julien Seri’s Night Fare (FR).
FANT has also joined forces with the distribution company La Aventura Audiovisual this year. Responsible for unleashing terrifying treasures such as Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods, Ti West’s The Innkeepers and, most recently, Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation, next on their roster is Baskin, from Turkish director Can Evrenol who will be attending this year’s festival to receive the coveted Fantrobia promising new talent award. Baskin will also be screened as part of the festival’s closing gala.
This new La Aventura Audiovisual section will be offering festivalgoers the chance to attend free screenings of Jon Watts’ Copcar, Ted Geoghegan’s We are Still Here, S. Craig Zahler’s Bone Tomahawk, Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Eli Roth’s The Green Inferno and Renny Harlin’s The Dyatlov Pass Incident.
BRAND NEW AWARDS FOR 2016
Two new awards will be presented at FANT 22 for the best feature film and best short in the “Panorama” strand of the festival. This section will consist of various submissions that didn’t make the soon-to-be-announced official selection for one reason or another, but that the organisers believe are worthy of attention. Attendees can enjoy all these films for free with the line-up including Norberto Ramos’ Amor Tóxico (Toxic Love), Antonio Trashorras’ Anabel, and Yolanda Torres’ The Forsaken.
In its first year, the Panorama Jury will consist of cinematographer Norma Vila (Bilbao, 1983), founding partner of the production company Demeter Films; film critic and screenwriter, Miguel A. Refoyo (Salamanca, 1975); and film journalist and translator, Howard Gorman (Huddersfield, 1975), Associate Editor for a magazine I imagine you are somewhat familiar with, Scream: The Horror Magazine, collaborating writer for a number of other popular genre-centric outlets and also Spanish Representative for Eli Roth’s Crypt TV.
The Panorama Jury will also select the winning cell phone short films, all of which have been submitted for a competition sponsored by Movistar+.
For further festival details head on over to the official website, follow FANT on Twitter or give them a like over on Facebook.
In the meanwhile, we’ll leave you with a promotional video of the PRE-FANT line-up of films which will be screened ahead of the festival to ensure #FANT22 hits the ground running this May 6th.
Words Howard Gorman (@HowardGorman)
