Covering the Leeds International Film Festival for Pints of Cake as press from 5th to the 19th November. Top 5 films/short collections i'm looking forward to...
5/ Silver Melies Fantastic Short Film Competition
The European Fantastic Film Festivals’ Federation exists to raise the profile of European fantastic films through its Méliès competition, which is hosted by numerous film festivals across Europe. The winning film from Leeds, chosen by the audience, goes forward to compete for the coveted Méliès d’Or at Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival next year. The programme contains the best new horror, sci-fi, fantasy and downright weird short films made in Europe in the last year, including Breathe from Toby Meakins and Ghost Train from Lee Cronin, both previous entrants from UK and Ireland.
The following films are selected. More information about each film will appear here and in the LIFF28 Catalogue from early November.
Breathe (Toby Meakins, UK)
Do (Mark Lahore, France)
Done In (Adam Kelly, UK)
Ghost Train (Lee Cronin, Ireland)
He Took His Skin off For Me (Ben Aston, UK)
Metanoia (Moritz Flachsmann, Etienne Mory & Remo Scherrer, Switzerland)
Mr. Dentonn (Ivan Villamel Sanchez, Spain)
The Nihilists (Calle Gisselsson, Sweden)
Sinnside (Miguel Ángel Font, Spain)
Wind (Robert Löbel, Germany)
4/ Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Receiving its UK Premiere as the closing film of LIFF28, the highly-acclaimed black comedy Birdman is one of the most anticipated films of the year. Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams), Birdman is the story of an actor – famous for portraying an iconic superhero – as he struggles to mount a Broadway play in a bid to reclaim his past glory. In the days leading up to opening night, he battles his ego and attempts to recover his family, his career, and himself. Michael Keaton is brilliant in the leading role, hilariously parodying his Batman persona.
3/ The Samurai
Nothing much happens in the small German town where Jakob is the young naive police officer until the day he receives a mysterious package. Following a phone call requesting that he deliver the parcel he discovers a strange man dressed in a wedding dress who informs Jakob that it is his job to stop him. Opening the package to reveal a Samurai sword, the stranger jumps from the window and heads into town on a killing spree. Jakob follows, not realising that by the end of the night he will have experienced too much and be a far different man from whom he once was. A skilfully directed arthouse horror film.
2/ Tusk
When a young writer calls on an elderly man in the hope of hearing some interesting stories for his podcast, he has no idea that the old man has plans to turn him into a walrus. When he doesn’t return home his girlfriend and best friend set out in search of him, determined to find him before the terrible transformation begins.
Never one to follow the conventional way of doing things, Tusk was conceived during the recording of a podcast when Kevin Smith saw an advert on Gumtree about a landlord who was offering free lodgings as long as the tenant was prepared to wear a walrus costume. Smith spent the podcast developing the idea for a screenplay and asked his listeners to tweet #WalrusYes if they wanted to see the idea turned into a film or #WalrusNo if they didn’t. The majority did and so Tusk was born.
1/ What we do in the Shadows
Viago, Deacon, Vladislav and Peter are four vampires sharing a house in Wellington, trying to balance being undead with everyday problems like whose turn it is to wash up, where to find virgin blood and how to dress for a night out when you don’t have a reflection. As a documentary film crew follows them round we learn about each of their histories and what it means to be hundreds of years old in the 21st century. Co-written and starring Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords, What We Do in the Shadows balances comedy, horror and social commentary perfectly in this hilarious film.
