Doomsday Book, Toad Road among winners at Fantasia

Kim Jee-woon and Yim Pil-sung’s sci-fi anthology Doomsday Book [pictured] has won the Cheval Noir Award for best film at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival.

The film was awarded the prize for its intelligence and the “originality it displayed in its efforts to imagine the near future and its impending doom through a collection of short films, all the while displaying mastery in every artistic aspects of the production.”

Gabriel Pelletier headed the jury, along with Jay Baruchel, Sylvain Krief and Maggie Lee.

Jason Banker’s horror Toad Road scooped two awards with best director going to Banker and best actor for James Davidson. Majiana Jankovic won best actress for her role in Beast, while Alberto Marini took home best screenplay for Sleep Tight.

Special mention went to AnnaLynne McCord for her role as disturbed teenager Pauline in Richard Bates Jr.’s directorial debut Excision. The jury praised McCord for her “fearless performance”, adding that she “created something beautiful, horrifying and altogether truthful”.

Charles de Lauzirika’s thriller Crave scooped the New Flesh Award for best first feature, with the jury - headed by Jorge Michel Grau, along with Michael Biehn, Travis Crawford, Anne Delseth, Jeff Deutchman and Sonya Kim - noting it for its “efficient storytelling and intelligent internal dialogue”.

The King Of Pigs received a special mention, as well as winning the Satoshi Kon Award for Achievement in Animation. Yeon Sang-ho’s intense animation was described by the jury - headed by Robert Morgan, along with Patrick Doyon and Érik Goulet - as a “distinctive and powerful vision of school-as-hell, and its devastating effects on later life”.

For the full list of winners, visit Fantasia’s website.