Nocturna sharpens its horns for its third edition
- More ferocious than ever, the Madrid International Fantastic Film Festival is about to pounce, boasting a programme brimming with creatures ready to possess viewers’ “cinemaniac” souls
From 25-31 May, the most fiercely fantastic cinema will take over Palafox theatres in Madrid with the third edition of Nocturna, a festival that continues to grow year after year. While one year ago it paid tribute to such figures as Jaume Balagueró (read the interview), this time it is French filmmaker Alexandre Aja who will not only open this cinephagous feast with his supernatural thriller Horns, but will also receive the new Visionary Award, which recognises the careers of young filmmakers who make a mark on the fantastic genre and help it to progress.
From the mists of the past, Nocturna 2015 will summon Josep Antón Pérez Giner, the creator (together with Ricardo Muñoz Suay) of the production outfit Profilmes, which, in the 1970s, was a standard-bearer of the Spanish “fantaterror” (“fantastic horror”) sub-genre: the Valencian producer will be given the Scifiworld Hall of Fame Award, and there will be a screening of the classic movie The Werewolf's Shadow in his honour, a film that he produced in 1971, directed by León Klimovsky and starring renowned actor Paul Naschy.
Another legend for genre buffs is Roman director Lamberto Bava, who will come to Madrid to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of his cult movie Demons and will collect the well-deserved Maestro del Fantástico Award. The same trophy will be bestowed upon Álex de la Iglesia, whose The Day of the Beast was released 20 years ago.
The guest country will be México, and some of the European titles that will be competing at Nocturna 2015 are Liza, the Fox Fairy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Karoly Ujj Mészáros
film profile] (Hungary) by Károly Ujj Mészáros, which has recently been triumphant at a number of other festivals; We Are Monsters (Sweden) by Sonny Laguna and Tommy Wiklund, last year’s winners at this gathering (with Wither); the British film Afterdeath by Gez Medinger and Robin Schmidt; the German-Russian co-production III by Pavel Khvaleev; the wickedly funny Bunny, The Killer Thing by Joonas Makkonen (Finland); and the Spanish movies Don’t Speak, directed by Amadeu Artasona, and Vampyres by Víctor Matellano, which marks the return of bombshell Caroline Munro.
(Translated from Spanish)
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