Karim Ouelhaj’s Belgian genre title Megalomaniac has been named best feature at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival, while July Jung has been declared best director for Next Sohee and Alexandre Desplat claimed the best score prize for Final Cut.
Megalomaniac earned the top prize at the festival’s 26th edition and return to an in-person event. Ouelhaj’s fourth film is inspired by the unsolved case of the Butcher of Mons serial killer who murdered five women from 1996-97.
Eline Schumacher won an outstanding performance award for her role in the film. Media Move has licenced Megalomaniac to Indeed Film for German-speaking territories, Encripta for Latin America, Youngjin Creative for South Korea, and STS Ent for Japan. XYZ Films represents North American rights.
In other top awards, Kosuke Mukai and Yuki Tanada shared best screenwriting honours for Japan’s My Broken Mariko directed by Tanada; Daniel Katz was named best cinematographer for Neil LaBute’s US entry House Of Darkness; and Zorion Eguileor won an outstanding performance prize for Spain’s The Elderly. South Korea’s Special Delivery earned a special mention from the jury.
Takashi Hirano’s Kappei from Japan won the best first feature in the New Flesh competition. Special mentions went to Syeyoung Park’s The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra from South Korea and Alex Phillips’s All Jacked Up And Full Of Worms from the US.
International Short Film Competition winners were: Fredrik S. Hana’s From.Beyond (Norway) for best short; best director Arati Kadav for The Astronaut And His Parrot (India); screenwriter Marc Philip Ginolas (Till, Germany); Erin Carroll (Mara, USA-Ger) and Marie-France Marcotte (La Guêpe, Queb) for outstanding performances. Special mentions went to Blackbear (Can) and Darker (Bel-Neth).
The Axis: Satoshi Kon Award For Excellence In Animation went to Masaaki Yuasa’s Inu-Oh (Jap-Chin) and there was a special mention for Loundraw’s Summer Ghost from Japan. The gold prize for animated short went to Amen A Man from South Korea’s Kim Kyeongbae, while silver went to Things That Disappear from South Korea’s Kim Changsoo. Aurora from Brazil’s Radhi Meron collected bronze.
The AQCC-Camera Lucida Jury award went to Daigo Matsui for Japan’s Just Remembering.
Jury awards were announced on July 24. Fantasia runs through August 3 when the festival will announce audience award winners.
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