8th edition of the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) – July 1-6

Varied program, notorious guests and digital creation: the lineup of the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival has revealed its outline to the public.

Along with Gremlins director Joe Dante, president of the International Jury, the NIFFF will welcome Japanese director Hideo Nakata, who will present his latest movie, L Change the World. Designer Syd Mead (TRON, Aliens) will participate in the Imaging the future Symposium as well as introduce the Final Cut version of Blade Runner at the Open Air. Also present at Neuchâtel, George A. Romero (Diary of the Dead) and cult Spanish director Jess Franco for a special screening of 3 of his movies produced by Edwin C. Dietrich.

The International competition brings together established values (George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead) and discoveries (Isidro Ortiz with Eskalofrio). British director, Paul Andrew Williams will also be in Neuchâtel with his new movie The Cottage. Among the events of the 2008 selection, will be presented: Takashi Miike’s last movie, Sukiaki Western Django, and the sketches movie Tokyo! by Bong Joon-ho, Leo Carax and Michel Gondry. The other main competition, entitled New Cinema From Asia will offer 9 movies coming from 6 countries and exploring the diversity of Asian film production.

Besides the Open Air organised for the second time and exclusively screening unreleased films the NIFFF offers several special screenings sessions. Among them, Spain: Land of fright, which notably presents [REC] as a preview screening and in the exclusive presence of his director Jaume Balagueró. The film will compete for the Méliès d'argent (Silver Méliès) for best European feature film, alongside with Astropia (Gunnar B. Gudmundsson, Iceland/Finland/UK), Eskalofrío (Isidro Ortiz, Spain), Let the Right one in, (Tomas Alfredson, Sweden) The Cottage, (Paul Andrew Williams, UK,) Shadows (Milcho Manchevski, Macedonia/Germany/Italy/Bulgaria/Spain), Manhunt (Patrick Syversen, Norway) and Los Cronocrímenes (Nacho Vigalondo, Spain).

For the third consecutive year, the NIFFF organises the Imaging the Future Symposium (www.imagingthefuture.ch), featuring group of meetings devoted to the development of digital images, with guest of honour Syd Mead. The animago prize will be presented on the 2nd of July as an extension of the symposium. Created in Germany in 1999, animago represents without any doubts the most important award dedicated to digital creation in Europe. The evening will be the opportunity to present the Swiss version of the prize, which will be given at the NIFFF from 2009 onwards, and to discover the winners of the last European edition.


Méliès d'Argent Line Up

Astropia (Gunnar B Gudmundsson, IC/FIN, 2007, 92’)
Eskalofrio (Isidro Ortiz, ES, 2007, 97’)
Let the right one in (Tomas Alfredson, SE, 2008, 114’)
Los Cronocrimenes (Nacho Vigalondo, 2007, 88’)
The Cottage (Paul Andrew Williams, UK, 2008, 92’)
[REC] (Jaume Balaguero, Paco Plaza, Spain, 2007, 85’)
Shadows (Milcho Manchevski, Macedonia, 120’)
Manhunt (Patrik Syversen, NR, 78’)

Short Film Nominations

Missing (Matthieu Donck, BE, 2007, 15')
Auga (Xoseantón Perozo, ES, 2007, 10')
Carcasse (Ismaël El Mouala El Iraki, FR, 2007, 14')
L'accouchement de Wendy (Lewis Eizykman, FR, 2008, 3')
Liebeskrank (Spela Cadez, DE, 2007, 9')
Road (Daniel Bruce, NL, 2007, 9')
The Girls (Sebastian Godwin, UK, 2007, 10')
Scary (Martijn Hullegie, NL, 2007, 10')
Spandex Man (Bobbie Peers, NO, 2007, 14')
Occupations (Lars von Trier, DK, 2007, 3')