THE WOMAN GETS THE NIGHT VISIONS AUDIENCE AWARD 2011 IN HELSINKI
THE WOMAN, director Lucky McKee’s merciless evisceration of the traditional American family values has won the Night Visions Audience Award 2011 at the Night Visions Film Festival in Helsinki, Finland. This marks the second time in a row – and the second time ever – that the award goes to a North American feature with a distribution deal already in place in the territory. The first one to break the barrier was MACHETE, directed by Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis, that went on to win the award in October 2010.
Night Visions Film Festival, the biggest and the oldest film festival in Finland focusing on horror, fantasy and cult cinema, was now celebrating its 15th consequtive year. The Night Visions Audience Award was established in 2008 to increase the recognition of new horror and fantasy cinema in Finland and to improve the availability and distribution of contemporary genre films in the territory. The Night Visions Audience Award is voted on site at the screenings by the audience and it is given out every year at the end of the Fall edition of the Night Visions Film Festival.
A total of 20 feature films and documentaries released in years 2010 and 2011 – and all having their Finnish premiere at the festival – were eligible for the Night Visions Audience Award 2011. North America was dominating the top three of the vote. The first runner-up for the award was the Rutger Hauer starring vigilante sensation HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN (Canada 2011) by Jason Eisener. The second runner-up was RED STATE (USA 2011), Kevin Smith’s no-holds-barred take on religious extremists of small town America. Other major contestants included the controversial Asian schlockfest 3-D SEX AND ZEN: EXTREME ECSTASY (Hong Kong 2011), Matthijs van Heiningen Jr.’s anticipated crowd pleaser THE THING (USA/Canada 2011) and RABIES, the first ever horror movie to come out of Israel, directed by Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado.
Arranged from October 26th to October 30th, 2011, the Night Visions Film Festival also reached an amazing all-time high in its admission figures. The total of over 8 000 admissions showed an increase of over 50 per cent from the October 2010 edition of the event. The most popular feature of the festival was the stunningly authentic H.P. Lovecraft adaptation THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS (USA 2011), directed by Sean Branney. Branney was also one of the guests of honor of the festival, along with the Italian grandmaster of exploitation cinema Mr. Enzo G. Castellari and a number of other international and local filmmaker guests.
Festival website: www.nightvisions.info
