Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...

It’s always something with me. Something sidelines me or slows me down or gets in my way when I’m doing extended series of articles... coughthe90slistscough... and this year’s FanTasia coverage is no exception to my rule. I’ve pretty much spent as much time in a chair as I can for the day, but before I hobble off to bed, I at least wanted to run this press release from the festival, a summation of the awards they gave and their own take on how the festival went this year.

FanTasia 2003 - An Amazing Success

The challenge was big. After a one year hiatus and a change of venues, the organizers of the FanTasia International Genre Film Festival had some reservations going into the 2003 edition. However, FanTasia fans demonstrated once again their enthusiasm, love of cinema, and their loyalty and support for the event. More than 73000 tickets were sold (16000 of which were pre-sold during the first 48 hours, a record). In 2001, close to 70 000 tickets were sold.

Like every year, a special jury and the public were called on to vote for the best films of FanTasia 2003. Here are the results :

Jury Prize

Best Asian Film: Drive by (SABU) Hiroyuki Tanaka (Japan 2002)

Best International Feature Film: Dead End by Jean-Baptiste Andrea & Fabrice Canepa (France 2003)

Best Animated Feature Film: Tamala 2010 by (TOL) Trees of Life (Japan 2002)

Best Short Film: Forklift Driver Klaus – The First Day On The Job by Joerg Wagner & Stefan Prehn (Germany 2001)

Most Groundbreaking Film: Suicide Club by Shion Sono (Japan 2002)

Peoples’ Choice

Best Asian Film

Gold: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance by Park Chan-wook (Korea 2002)

Silver: Bang Rajan : Legend of the Village Warriors by Tanit Jitnukul (Thailand 2000)

Bronze: Musa the Warrior de Kim Sung-su (Korea 2001)

Best International Film

Gold: In My Skin / Dans ma peau by Marina De Van (France 2002)

Silver: Bubba Ho-Tep by Don Coscarelli (United States 2002)

Bronze: Maléfique by Éric Valette (France 2003)/Cabin Fever by Eli Roth (United States 2002)

Best Animated Feature Film

Gold: Tamala 2010 by (TOL) Trees of Life (Japan 2002)

Silver: Kaena the Prophecy by Chris Delaporte & Pascal Pinon (France / Canada 2003)

Bronze: FLCL / Fooly Cooly de Kazuya Tsurumaki (Japan 2000-2003)

Best Short Film:

Gold: Ward 13 by Peter Cornwell (Australia 2003)

Silver: Amor so de mage / Love from Mother Only by Dennison Ramalho (Brazil 2002)

Bronze: Forklift Driver Klaus – The First Day On the Job by Joerg Wagner & Stefan Prehn (Germany 2001) /A Ninja Pays Half my Rent by Steven Tsuchida (United States 2002)

Most Groundbreaking Film

Gold: Reflections of Evil by Damon Packard (United States 2002)

Silver: Suicide Club by Shion Sono (Japan 2002)

Bronze: Ichi the Killer by Takashi Mike (Japan 2001)

Best québécois DIY Short Film

Gold: En Vérité, je vous mens de Ludovic Penard (2003)

Silver: Le Diagnostique de Philippe Lord (2003)

Bronze: Little Love Tragedy de Pierre Chaves (2003)

Global Vision continues to support emerging Québec filmmakers by joining with Kodak to offer four awards for production, photography, film editing and sound editing of Québec short films.

The selection of the 19 short films have been submitted to the jury, comprised of Danny Lennon, Geneviève Poulette, Andrew Golitzinsky and Denis Papillon.

GLOBAL VISION PRIZE – KODAK 2003

Best Director: Déformation Personnelle, directed by Jean-Francois Asselin and produced by Stephane Raymond (2002)

Best Director of Photography: Fata Morgana directed by Alexandre Franchi, director of photography Claudine Sauve (2001)

Best Editing: Song directed by Karl Raudsepp-Hearne, editors Bill Stone and Karl Raudsepp-Hearne

Best Sound Editing: Les Ramoneurs Cérébraux directed by Patrick Bouchard, sound editor Olivier Calvert (2002)

FanTasia will be back in 2004, from July 8 to July 31 inclusive. We look forward to seeing you all again next year!

I’m going to wrap up my own coverage, which includes reviews of many of the films listed above, later this weekend, and there’s still a lot I can’t wait to discuss with you.

For now, though, I’ll just say once again... no one throws a party like these guys. If you have any doubts, then meet me in Montreal next July, and I’ll show you the way a film festival is supposed to be.

"Moriarty" out.