21/06/2024 - Unspooling 5 – 13 July, the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival will present a sharp and highly tantalising selection consisting of 124 films from 46 countries

For its 23rd edition - the third directed by Pierre-Yves Walder - the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) will offer up a plural and engaged programme, providing a first-class showcase for fantastic film shown off in all its splendour. The line-up for this festival - unspooling between 5 and 13 July and paying tribute to 124 works hailing from 5 different continents, representing a total of 46 countries - looks to be diverse and contrasting, delivering a fascinating and well-honed overview of the different cinematographic visions inhabiting this multi-faceted and continually evolving genre.

As stressed in the press release, "the line-up boasts geographical and genre-based diversity, with almost half of the films in the International Competition coming courtesy of women or non-binary people (including Veronika Franz, Camila Beltrán, Shalini Ushadevi and Jane Schoenbrun)". These stories range from the personal to the spectacular, and underline the close ties between feminism and ecology, with a fantastic twist which is bound to win over a fair few viewers. The festival will see fantastic film directing its full critical force towards a society marked by upheavals, both social and political. The press release further insists that, "the festival is continuing its role as head-hunter in this respect, since most of the films presented are first or second works", programmed alongside big names such as Bruno Dumont (with The Empire [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bruno Dumont
film profile], the recent winner of the Berlinale’s Jury Prize) and Ti West (with Maxxxine, rounding off his gory X trilogy in 1980s Los Angeles), to name but two.

A considerable number of European productions and co-productions will be battling it out for the prestigious Narcisse H.R. Giger Prize within the International Competition (composed of 14 films). These include French movie Animale [+see also:
film review
interview: Emma Benestan
film profile], an initiatory tale by director Emma Benestan (and also the festival’s opening film), alongside Meanwhile on Earth [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Jérémy Clapin, Oddity [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Ireland’s Damian Mc Carthy, the feminist story The Devil’s Bath [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala
film profile] by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, the romantic science-fiction saga Eternal [+see also:
film review
interview: Ulaa Salim
film profile] by Danish director Ulaa Salim, Handling the Undead [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Norwegian director and screenwriter Thea Hvistendahl, Mi bestia [+see also:
film review
film profile], which is a fascinating and troubling coming-of-age movie by the Colombian filmmaker trained in France Camila Beltrán, Cuckoo [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by German director Tilman Singer (starring Hunter Schafer in the lead role), and She Loved Blossoms More [+see also:
film review
film profile], a surrealist and poetic work by Yannis Veslemes.

Outside of the festival’s competitive sections, Third Kind will also be presenting plenty of European productions and co-productions, including French work Misericordia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Guiraudie
film profile] by Alain Guiraudie, Eat the Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Caroline Poggi and Jonathan…
film profile] by Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel, The Soul Eater by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, and Plastic Guns [+see also:
film review
interview: Jean-Christophe Meurisse
film profile] by Jean-Christophe Meurisse, not to mention The Last Ashes [+see also:
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film profile] by Luxembourg’s Loïc Tanson (who represented his country at the Oscars), Swedish title Hunters on a White Field [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by Sarah Gyllenstierna, Greece’s Arcadia [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Yorgos Zois
film profile] by Yorgos Zois, The Major Tones [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Ingrid Pokropek, Isla Alien by Cristóbal Valenzuela Berríos, and Love Lies Bleeding [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by British director Rose Glass (starring Kristen Stewart).

Last but not least, European films are also set to feature in the Ultra Movies thrill-seekers section, in the form of Dutch work Krazy House by Steffen Haars and Flip Van der Kuil, and the co-productions Kryptic by Kourtney Roy and Blood Star by British filmmaker Lawrence Jacomelli.

(Translated from French)