GENRE FILM FESTIVALS
Canada, South Korea and, soon, Aus- tralia,” Sitges’ Hostench adds. Fantasia’s Davis takes a different standpoint, stating that while there might be some within the industry who say there are too many festivals, from his perspective as a programmer, every city with a genre fanbase should have one. “I think I can speak for just about
every programmer in any part of the world when I say the reason we all got into this was because, as film lovers, we lamented the fact many of the most interesting productions of any given year never got a chance to come to life as big-screen communal experiences in our cities.” League does believe though that even
ing audiences for genre film and genre film festivals, I think these odd films we love are garnering much more respect from critics and the media,” League adds. “The subject has been discussed in the media over the past few years as venerable festivals like Cannes and Sundance have programmed their red carpets to be a good bit more blood- soaked.” But are there now too many genre
film festivals as a result of the growing popularity? “If we are talking fantastic [films], probably yes. But the most important ones are co-ordinated in a very professional way. Most are mem- bers or adherent members of the Euro- pean Fantastic Film Festivals Federation [see sidebar, p51], that also has strong relationships with festivals in the US,
Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival attracts close to 50,000 attendees each year
with the growing popularity of genre film festivals and their films, there will still be an extent of snobbery towards them as “cinema as an art form breeds it”, citing the 2009 Cannes premiere of Lars von Trier’s controversial Antichrist. “When the film takes its now
famously vicious turn to become a genre film, the snobs in the audience began to scream and shout, demanding the head of von Trier for sullying their beloved Lumiere with his filth,” League recalls. “The opposing faction of genre-friendly fans got agitated and began to shout down the shouters. At the end of the film, half the audience that still remained were on their feet with a standing ova- tion, the other half were booing and cat- calling. It was wonderful.” Potential snobbery is not something
PiFan’s Park thinks should affect genre film festivals. “Though there must be some snob-
bery toward genre film festivals based on prejudice over genre films, I don’t think snobbery can bother much if you don’t want to make your festival another Cannes or Toronto. “If anyone looks down at a genre film
festival only because it does not show a Dardenne brothers’ film, it’s not snob- bery — just stupidity.” n
s
Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival Brussels, Belgium April 2013
www.festivalfantastique.org/festival
BIFFF welcomes more than 60,000 spectators each year and has been running for 30 years. Also holds events such as an international body-painting contest, a vampire ball and a zombie parade through Brussels.
Film-maker John Landis, honoured at Fantasia in 2011
Ambasada USA
www.screendaily.com
June-July 2012 Screen International 53 n
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