Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.

I really can’t quite process the five days of film I just imbibed. I am still dizzy from all of the things I saw. 24 films. Eight of which I watched as part of being on the jury for the Fantastic Features competition. I saw not quite a quarter of the films programmed, which means it’s likely there are people who had a completely different experience at the festival than I did. There was no way to see it all, but that just means I get to enjoy the catching up on all the things people seemed to enjoy.

The awards ceremony was great fun, as was pretty much every event, and I think all of the judges were genuinely pleased to be giving awards to these films. I’m going to run the full press release here, and then I’ll be discussing more about many of these movies in the next few days.

There’s a lot to discuss, too. Trust me.

Bloodshots 48 Hour Filmmaking Contest:

Team: Scottish Rite Productions
Film: Meet the Maydays
Team Capt – Drew Thomas

Fantastic Fest Bumper Contest:

Team: Yer Dead
Film: Report Card
Team Capt – Jason Eisener

Animated Shorts:

First Place: Bernie's Doll
Second Place: Muto
Third Place: Violeta
Special Jury Award for Technical Merit: Facts In The Case Of Mr. Hollow

Fantastic Shorts:

First Place: The Object
Second Place: Spandex Man
Third Place: Stagman
Special Jury Award for Visual Invention: Rojo Red

Horror Shorts:

First Place:. Electric Fence
Second Place:. I Love Sarah Jane
Third Place: El Senor Puppe
Special Jury Award for sheer enjoyability: The Horribly Slow Murderer With The Extremely Inefficient Weapon

Fantastic Features:

First Place: HOW TO GET RID OF THE OTHERS
Second Place: CARGO 200
Third Place: EX DRUMMER
Special Jury Award for originality and vision: SANTOS

Horror Features:

First Place: LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (surprise!)
Second Place: ACOLYTES
Third Place: DONKEY PUNCH
Special Jury Award for most politically incorrect gore: FEAST 2
Special Jury Award for best use of latex: JACK BROOKS MONSTER SLAYER

Audience Award:

First Place: The Good, The Bad and the Weird
Second Place: Chocolate
Third Place: JCVD

AMD Fantastic Fest Online:

Best Feature Film: South of Heaven
Best Short Film: Treevenge

AMD Next Wave:

First Place: TOKYO GORE POLICE
Second Place: DEADGIRL
Third Place: LE CRÈME

For more information about Fantastic Fest, please visit our official website.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL:

Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the United States featuring over 100 films from over 30 countries. The event highlights the best new sci-fi, horror, fantasy and genre films, as well as choice classic and obscure cult titles from all over the world. The festival director and head programmer is Tim League (Alamo Drafthouse Cinema), with additional programming by Harry Knowles (Ain't It Cool News), Todd Brown (Twitchfilm.net), Blake Ethridge (Cinema is Dope), Karrie League (Alamo Drafthouse Cinema), Zack Carlson (Alamo Drafthouse Cinema) and Lars Nilsen (Alamo Drafthouse Cinema). Fantastic Fest is a supporting member of the prestigious Melies European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation and a founding member of the North American Fantastic Festival Alliance. Fantastic Fest is sponsored in part by Gamecock Media, AMD, Fosters, Embassy Suites, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, CITY OF EMBER, DVD Empire, Best Buy, Dark Sky Films, Envy Magazine, Anchor Bay Entertainment, Texas Film Commission, Image Entertainment, Viz Pictures, HungrymanTV.com, Book People, Room Service Vintage, Media Blasters, Big Top Candy, Austin Chronicle, The Onion, Fangoria Magazine, Rue Morgue Magazine, Twitchfilm.com, Ain't It Cool News, Smitty's Market and Louie Mueller Barbecue.