2006 Méliès d’Or at Espoo Cine

This year, Espoo Ciné International Film Festival (August 22-28) will have the honour of hosting the tenth Méliès d’Or finale for fantastic films. Taking part in the competition will be 10 European fantastic feature films and 15 fantastic short films, each of which has won an Méliès d’Argent in the first stage of the competition. The Méliès d’Or is the largest competition for fantastic films ever held in Finland.

This year’s feature film competition includes, among other films, the Méliès d’Argent winner of Espoo Ciné 2005, STRINGS, directed by Anders Rønnow-Klarlund. Fittingly for the northern location of the competition there are also four other nordic competitors: Pål Sletaune’s NABOER, Jens Lien’s DEN BRYSOMME MANNEN and Anders Thomas Jensen’s ADAMS ÆBLER, as well as STORM, directed by Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein. Other competitors include the psychological horror film THE DESCENT, the science fiction thriller ANIMAL and the mockdocumentary IL MISTERO DI LOVECRAFT. The competition line-up also features TROUBLE (dir. Harry Cleven) and HOTEL (dir. Jessica Hausner), which were already screened in Espoo in 2005.

In connection with the Méliès d’Or, Espoo Ciné will host a total of nearly 50 international guests; representatives of each feature film participating in the competition as well as a representative of the pre-selected winner of the short film series will be welcomed to the festival. These include Anders Rønnow-Klarlund, Harry Cleven and Jessica Hausner as well as the producer of ADAMS ÆBLER Mie Andreasen, the director of IL MISTERO DI LOVECRAFT Federico Greco and the director of ANIMAL Roselyne Bosch.

The Méliès d’Or jury has already been appointed and is currently starting its work by selecting the fantastic short film winner. The jury made up of European film industry professionals will be chaired by the Finnish director Petri Kotwica. The other jury members are the Belgian director Fabrice Du Welz, the Swiss director/producer Xavier Ruiz, the Swedish writer/director Michael Hjorth, the Luxembourgish producer Christian Kmiotek and the British filmmaker Matt Palmer as well as the Spanish director/producer Christian Molina, the Portuguese writer/producer/jazz pianist Filipe Melo, the Italian film professional Maria Luisa Celani and the Dutch film critic/editor-in-chief Tonio van Vugt.

The winners of the Méliès d’Or 2006 will be announced on Friday the 25th August at the grand Méliès d’Or Ceremony. The Ceremony takes place in the Espoo Ciné festival centre at the Espoo Cultural Centre in Tapiola where most of the screenings also take place.

All of the competing feature and short films will be screened at the festival.

STORM - Méliès d'Argent at Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival
ADAMS ÆBLER - Méliès d'Argent at Brussels Intl. Festival of Fantastic Film
NABOER - Méliès d'Argent at Cinénygma, Luxembourg Intl. Film Festival
STRINGS - Méliès d'Argent at Espoo Ciné Intl. Film Festival
HOTEL - Méliès d'Argent at Fanomenon, Leeds Intl. Film Festival
ANIMAL - Méliès d'Argent at FantasPorto, Oporto Intl. Film Festival
THE DESCENT - Méliès d'Argent at Lund Intl. Fantastic Film Festival
DEN BRYSOMME MANNEN - Méliès d'Argent at Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival
IL MISTERO DI LOVECRAFT - Méliès d'Argent at Rome, Fantafestival
TROUBLE - Méliès d'Argent at Sitges Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya