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A Word from the Board

Edito

Bifff Online

Opening

Closing

The Infected Section

Critic’s Award

7th Orbit Competition / White Raven

European Competition (Méliès)

International Competition

Out of Competition

Retro South Korea

Short Films

Bifff Zone

Bifff Packs

Bif Market

Practical Information

Contact & Social Media

5353606067677676

Belgian Competition

European Competion

International Selection /Eat my shorts

Courts mais trash

3

a word from the board

An online version of the festival fundamentally goes against its DNA. The BIFFF wants to be a warm and generous meeting place for all lovers of genre cinema and is allergic to the “everybody on their island” mentality. This is what makes an online edition an emergency solution.

What makes the BIFFF so unique, what distinguishes it nationally and internationally from other events, besides the quality of the program, is its audience and the unique atmosphere that reigns supreme during thirteen festival days.

A boisterous, talkative and warm audience like no other.

An audience that brings the spectacle on screen to the theatre and often becomes THE spectacle.

No red carpet or smoking, no formal screenings or polite applause, but a celebration of exube-rance and conviviality and a refreshing lack of discipline, which is only possible by the presence of this special audience and a relevant and contemporary program. And it can seem strange that the BIFFF contents itself with an online edition without any physical component.

But that would be ignoring the countless hours that the team put in preparing a physical edition (which finally had to be cast aside with a heavy heart) and a virtual version of the festival at the same time.

A team that only lives and breathes for the festival, a team that gives everything for the enjoyment of its audience, but also composes a remarkable program. It would be a shame to cast that aside out of principle.

And finally, without a virtual event, filmmakers would be denied the only possibility to present their work to the audience.

So, let’s go full steam ahead for the BIFFF online... before we put all our strength and energy in our already legendary 40th edition!!!

The PeyMey Diffusion ASBL board of directors

4

edito

Let’s talk right away about the elephant in the room. Yes, a physical edition would have been so much better. Just like a world without a pandemic, a salmon without bones or a bar without (er… with) beer. But, being the eternal optimists that we are, we used the opportunity to try out a lot of alternative ideas and, above all, provide a fantastic goodbye to the tail end of this pandemic, so that our beloved audience can enjoy the BIFFF without a face hugger, er… mask!

The BIFFF will therefore take place completely online, but before we bother you with all the technical details, we present our 2021 menu. On the program, 48 features, including 3 world premieres, 9 international premieres and 4 European premieres. We also have 63 short films on offer, of which 9 world premieres, 5 international premieres and 8 European premieres with the usual Belgian and European competitions, as well as 4 screenings of international shorts and the carte blanche given to Courts mais trash.

This year we’ve also created a unique section, an anthology of cursed movies from 2020, which we’ve aptly coined “The Infected Section”. Eleven movies from our COVID-canceled edition that we reanimated this year. They are our favorites, our recommendations, our cream of the crop and maybe - or above all - the chance to offer you two editions in one!

For the 2021 program, we will take you on what is currently not allowed: a journey! Not only all over the world, with films from Azerbaijan, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Japan, Brazil... But also a journey through genres: a Russian homage to John Carpenter’s THE THING with SUPERDEEP, an attack of a gigantic cyst with CYST, a hard-hitting gut punch called POSSESSOR, movies that keep you awake at night like VIOLATION or HONEYDEW (starring Spielberg Jr), chilling horror with THE CLOSET and SON, a crazy gore fest in the form of PSYCHO GOREMAN, exceptio-nal documentaries, feel-good movies, ghosts, monsters, knives, dogs, a mechanical rabbit, a séance through zoom, talking diesels and other strange birds. All that and much, much more just for your viewing pleasure! Oh, and we didn’t even tell you yet that we celebrate the return of Anders Thomas Jensen - winner of no less than 4 awards at the BIFFF - with RIDERS OF JUSTICE as our closing film!

Before we explore our virtual playground, let’s talk with great enthusiasm about the 5th edition of our BIF Market, our genre film market that will take place from 7 till 10 April. 100% online, of course, with an increase in participants of 180%. This year we welcome no less than 230 parti-cipants from 38 countries and we present 25 Works in Progress from 18 countries. This interna-tional window is obviously the perfect opportunity to promote the Belgian film industry - above all to show the world what we Belgians are capable of - and to highlight our 2nd Pitchbox session, with the presentation of 10 Belgian projects.

We couldn’t talk about an online festival without talking about the incredible atmosphere that is so essential to the BIFFF. Our biggest challenge this year is to bring some of that glorious atmos-phere into your home. And that’s what we’re going to do with the BIFFF Zone.

You will find all our classics in a new guise, our animations, our Q&A’s with the guests, and a host of breathtaking competitions and challenges, among many other - but as yet secret - surprises.

5

And to top it all off... This year you’ll be able to enjoy our BIFFF Packs to survive the festival at home: posters and silk screen prints, survival rations, anti-BIFFF blues remedies, something to keep the kids busy or our duo pack to keep your loved one happy!

How much does it cost? All our films are 3€ apiece, no matter with how many people you watch. That’s about the same price as a bag of Easter eggs for couples, three cans of spaghetti for stu-dents and if you get together with your entire social bubble, it’s practically for free.

The gateway to this fantastic universe? Simply www.bifff.net

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Découvrez, regardez et appréciez la sélection du BIFFF 2021 confortablement

installés dans votre canapé !

48 longs-métrages et 63 courts-métrages sont prêts à être dévorés du 6 au 18 avril.

Invitez l'esprit BIFFF chez vous et appuyez sur Play!

Toutes les infos pratiques à la page suivante.

Ontdek, kijk en geniet van de BIFFF 2021 selectie

vanop je knusse sofa!

Kies uit een buffet van 48 langspeelfilms en 63 korte films van 6 tot 18 april.

Breng het BIFFF in huis en druk op Play!

Alle praktische info op de volgende pagina.

Discover, watch & enjoy the BIFFF 2021 selection

from the comfort of your home!

48 movies and 63 shorts are ready to be devoured from the 6th till the 18th of April.

Put some BIFFF spirit on your couch and press Play!

All practical info on the next page.

BIFFF ONLINE

WWW.BIFFF.NET

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3. rent your films

RENT

Vous pouvez regarder et apprécier nos films dans toute la Belgique !Mode de paiement : Visa/MastercardBancontact ? Retournez sur www.BIFFF.netU kan in heel België naar onze films kijken en ervan genieten!Betalingsmogelijkheden: Visa/MastercardBancontact? Ga terug naar www.BIFFF.netYou can watch and enjoy our films from anywhere in Belgium!Platform payment options: Visa/MastercardBancontact? Go back to www.BIFFF.net

Une fois que vous avez appuyé sur Play,vous pouvez regarder le film

pendant 48 heures, du 6 au 18 avril !Eens u op Play drukt,

kan u de film gedurende 48 uur bekijkenvan 6 tot 18 april!

Once you press Play,you can watch the film during 48 hours

from the 6th till the 18th of April!

4. watch the films

2. Register

Créez votre compte en moins d’1 minute !Maak uw account aan in minder dan 1 minuut!

Create your account in less than 1 minute!

1. Discover and access

Découvrez notre sélection de films 2021 sur www.BIFFF.net et accédez à la plateforme BIFFF OnlineOntdek onze 2021 filmselectie op www.BIFFF.net en krijg toegang tot het BIFFF Online platformDiscover our 2021 film selection on www.BIFFF.net and access the BIFFF Online platform

.net

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opening

Online ANIMATION by Twice Agency

Freely inspired by Tim Burton and Jean-Pierre Finotto, a fas-cinating happening in tune with the times, mixing fantastic film music and contemporary music!The atmosphere is strange, a voice cries out. Is it the Mad Hatter who welcomes us and draws us into his universe or is it Beetlejuice’s sister who calls out to us? Who is this Alice-like creature coming out of her bubble and coming our way? She fascinates with elegance, grace, charm and power.Between dance and new body language, nothing is left to chance. The gesture is taken to the extreme. The atmosphere is electric, enigmatic, mysterious... The interactions between these characters and their world create a universe where cohesion and unity seem to be the predominant values.

NOT FROM HERE, NOT LIKE USConcept and choreography: Pierre Drye

OPENING FILM: THE SHIFT

Just an average day in the European capital. Teenagers are entering the grounds of their high school, chatting and joking with each other until the bell rings, calling them to their classes. At the same moment, gun shots ring out in the buil-ding. Bleeding bodies are falling to the floor, while two young men transform themselves into suicide terrorists. And then there is an explosion. The emergency services soon arrive on the scene. Isabelle and Adamo, two paramedics at the end of their shift, make their way through the chaos of smoke, blood and maimed bodies. They put an unconscious victim into their ambulance and speed to the hospital to save his life. But in their haste, they overlook what hides under his T-shirt…a primed bomb belt. After working as a director’s assistant on movies and series such as SUBURRA and ROMANZO CRI-MINALE, Alessandro Tonda’s feature debut tackles a highly topical subject. He does not focus on terrorism as an ideologi-cal phenomenon, but concentrates on the three people in the ambulance who are cruising through the Brussels’ street in a bomb on wheels. This terrific feature is dedicated “to all those who fight at the front lines without weapons”. There’s no better tribute to our health care heroes in these pandemic times than THE SHIFT.

Director: Alessandro TondaCast: Clotilde Hesme, Adamo Dionisi, Adam Amara, Jan Ham-menecker,...Runtime: 95 min

international premiere

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closing

Online ANIMATION by Magic Land

Since its creation, The Magic Land Theatre has been an in-separable partner of the BIFFF. There hasn’t been an edition without them invading the festival with monsters, mutants or with the now famous rafting race. Even in pandemic times, they’re ready to give their all, but as the health crisis will not allow them to perform «live» , they will show up in a video clip during the closing night!

«January 2080, Berlin. After one climate disaster after ano-ther, the air has almost become unbreathable. A large part of humanity is gone. Only those who have found refuge in the underground have somehow managed to survive. For the others, shelter and food are scarce. The survivors who disco-ver Professor Kurt’s bunker could never have imagined that the facade of a Bavarian guest house hides a dangerous mo-lecular genetics laboratory.»

When the actors of the Magic Land get their hands on this fantasy classic, the story takes on a most peculiar form.

Written and directed by Patrick ChaboudDirected by Pierre Vandamme

CLOSING FILM: RIDERS OF JUSTICE

Markus, a career military man with an ice-cold disposition, must leave his combat zone to take care of his teenage daughter Mathilde, after his wife’s sudden death in a train ac-cident. But the awkward attempt of Markus to connect with his mourning daughter, is interrupted by Otto, a scrawny and eccentric mathematician. He also survived the accident, but he hasn’t come to offer his condolences. It’s because Otto is convinced that it was an attack linked to a gang of bad guys and an ongoing trial. It doesn’t take much more for Markus to activate his vengeance mode and to pull out all the stops in a ride for justice. We shouldn’t even have to introduce the man anymore, because everyone knows his legend at the BIFFF: 2 Silver Méliès Awards, 1 Audience Award and 1 Golden Raven with just two films (THE GREEN BUTCHERS and ADAM’S APPLES). Anders Thomas Jensen is back with his faithful sidekick Mads Mikkelsen to delight us with an absolute gem of absurd black humor!

Director: Anders Thomas JensenCast: Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Andrea Heick GadebergRuntime: 116 min

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the infected section

selection

Even though we cherish every movie in our selection, we hope we don’t have to do this again in 2022. At least, if we don’t start to care a bit more about our planet and let sleeping pandemics lie in untouched pieces of nature. The Infected is a selection of cursed films from our 2020 CO-VID-aborted edition, with the best and boldest of the crop in our ever so humble opinion. These movies were the first to take the cultural blow of the pandemic and, honestly, one year later our stomachs are still upset. That’s why we decided to reanimate the “cream of the crop 2020” in the form of this infected section: two editions rolled up into one!

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Director: Alister GriersonWriter: Robert BenjaminCast: Ben O’Toole, MegFraser, Caroline Craig,...Runtime: 95 min

We’ve woken up in a lot of different places after a night at the BIFFF, but never chained up in a Finnish basement with a sawed off leg… but that’s exactly what happens to Rex Coen. Needless to say it’s not how he’d ima-gined his trip would go. He just wanted a break. You may not have heard of him, but in his home state of Idaho he gets as much buzz as Brat Pitt in underpants or Kim and Kanye in a fast-food restaurant. After a stint in jail for going all yippee-ki-yay motherfucker on a couple of robbers in a local bank office, he’s as much adored as he is despised, with his face on the front page of every newspaper. Frankly, that’s not what he had in mind for his quiet welcome back party with friends and family, so he decides to get away from it all… by playing darts. And the arrow of Fate lands on… Finland! We know since 2008’s SAUNA and soon Rex too will know that the Finnish are not only violently deadpan, they’re simply violent. SAW with a sense of humor, John Wick stuck in a horror film from the same producer of SAFE NEIGHBORHOOD (Golden Raven BIFFF 2017). Oh bloody hell!

Director: Seung-woo KimWriter: Seung-woo KimCast: Yeong-ae Lee, Cheamyung You, Hae-jun Park, Won-keun Lee,...Runtime: 108 min

Six years of looking for your missing son Yoon-soo and on top of that your husband suddenly dies in a horrible car crash… Nope, mom-in-distress Jung-yeon is not in a happy place. But her luck seems to take a turn for the better when she gets word of a boy living at a fishing spot on a remote island, a boy who’s apparently the spitting image of her long lost son. She decides to go check for herself in the hope of bringing her child back to Seoul but the crude local fishermen are not too pleased with a nosy city-dweller mingling in their affaires… and evidently, all hell breaks loose! If you’d ask BRING ME HOME the question ‘how is Korean society doing?’ the answer would probably be: not too well! Corrupt cops, violent kooks and remorseless child smugglers are all part of first-time director Seung-woo Kim’s pitch-black thriller in which the only thing that might stand a chance against the all-consuming darkness is a mother’s love for her child. But not just any mother! Yeong-ae Lee takes on her first film role since SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE in 2005. Or how after many years of searching we finally re-unite with an actress we considered long lost…

BLOODY HELL 2020

BRING ME HOME 2019

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Director: John HsuWriters: John Hsu, Fu Kai-Ling, Chien Shih-kengCast: Gingle Wang, FuMeng-Po, Tseng Ching-hua,...Runtime: 103 min

Taiwan, 1962. The people suffer under the White Terror led by the Kuomin-tang, who want to wipe out all communists. But a comrade is hard to get rid of, so the torturous terror has been going on for over a decade with no end in sight. In the midst of all that a couple of students decide to set up a book club. Sounds nerdy? Well, it ain’t, back then reading a Chilean poet was like telling your mom you’re signing up for ISIS nowadays. When they are found out and tortured, only a few are able to get away and hide in a gloomy uni-verse, somewhat akin to SILENT HILL (for the atmosphere) and PAN’S LA-BYRINTH (for the less than utopic political context). Even though the odds were against him, director John Hsu was unafraid to adapt the videogame Detention, and miraculously ends up with the exact opposite of MORTAL KOMBAT: no kitsch but a hyper realistic fever dream with a high voltage of adrenaline and a painter’s eye for color. Crimson red, yellow, white, blue… A nightmare in Technicolor! China has already let us know that it doesn’t dig the film and has therefore censured it. With no effect in Taiwan, where the movie broke all records at the box-office and scooped up 12 nominations for the Golden Horse Awards. Pick your side!

Director: Vicente AmorimWriters: Vicente Amorim, Aurélio Aragão, Gustavo Bra-gança, ...Cast: Oscar Calixto, Erom Cordeiro, ...Runtime: 133 min

Rio de Janeiro, 1997. “Love me, love me, say that you love me” the Cardi-gans croon on the radio, but that’s of little comfort to the girl who’s listening. She’s being held hostage in a sleazy room and her captors demand ransom from her rich senator of a dad. She’s one of the 11 kidnappings that take place in the city every month. The anti-kidnapping division of the Brazilian police decides they’ve had it. It’s time for some serious action! Mendonça, an incorruptible but trigger-happy cop, takes charge of the notorious Division together with… the ever-corrupt Santiago ‘All Stars’, who’d rather extort cri-minals than arrest them. Their task is clear. Stop the kidnapping epidemic. THE DIVISION, the big screen off-shoot of the eponymous Brazilian televi-sion series, shows - according to director Vincente Amorim - “the genesis of what we are living through in Brazil today, with a president who defined his election campaign around violence”. Violence, that’s the only language both cop and criminal seem to speak in this tough-as-nail action-thriller that fits right in with CITY OF GOD and ELITE SQUAD, but just as well brings to mind THE WIRE and Sidney Lumet’s PRINCE OF THE CITY.

DETENTION 2019

THE DIVISION2020

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Director: Naoki MurahashiCast: Kozo Haginoya, Yuki Saito, Yasufumi Terawaki,...Runtime: 88 min

It’s usually only the main actors and actresses that captivate us while we ra-rely pay much attention to the subtle art of extras, who put their all into what might end up being 3 seconds of screen time. An injustice Naoki Murahashi and his crew want to fix by letting one such extra, Kozo Haginoya, take cen-ter stage. They follow the 63-year-old man around, from sizzling breakfast bacon at 7 a.m. to sunset. His dream is to one day play a fireman like his idol Steve McQueen, in THE TOWERING INFERNO. That’s the first 15 mi-nutes… Then the filmmakers hop onto the next best thing that catches their eye: a mythical bird called Ogamo, a prehistoric monster from outer space, a drug dealer posing as an extra, two undercover police officers that discover a passion while on the job… No wonder cult director Nobuhiko Obayashi accepted to be part of this mockumentary: the absurd digressions and free associations at work here bring to mind his own HOUSE. Let’s not shy away from Big Statements: we think EXTRO is the most wonderful ode to the art and industry of cinema since WHY DON’T YOU PLAY IN HELL? In short, a loving and hilarious view behind the scenes of movie magic creation.

Director: Penny LaneRuntime: 94 min

Yup, a documentary on Satanism. Immediately images flash before our eyes of a metalhead who opens beers with his teeth and sacrifices black goats with The Grateful Dead playing in reverse in the background. We condes-cendingly expected a sort of exotic, somewhat amusing curiosity, something provocative, gratuitous and a bit silly. And you know what? To the devil with our prejudices! Give in to Penny Lane’s mindboggling documentary: founded in 2013, the Satanic Temple is not out to turn your children’s innocent little souls to Evil or to storm the US Capitol, but wants to ideologically counter-balance Christian hegemony. As a symbol of freedom of speech and as a libertarian alternative to the limits of a unique and (sometimes) backward God. Satanism is for a harsh separation of Church and State and is openly blasphemous in order to deconstruct, without losing their sense of humor, the lies and contradictions of a ‘totalitarian’ Christianity that a certain former pre-sident embodied. And that’s how, in a way, Satanism is the only truly humane belief. Does that statement hurt your God-fearing souls? That’s fine. Know that since we watched this documentary we’ve become zealous Satanists. That’s no provocation, simply common sense: hail Satan!

EXTRO 2019

HAIL SATAN ?2019

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Director: Won-sub ChoiWriters: Won-sub Choi, Joong-ryul ShinCast: Kwon Sang-woo, Joon-ho Jeong, Hwang Woo seul hye,...Runtime: 109 min

At a young age Jun gets recruited in a top secret training program and grows out to be the ultimate lethal weapon of the Korean government. Capable to solve two Sudoku’s - you know, expert level - and neutralize a dozen terro-rists at the same time, this alpha male is the incarnation of quick and efficient justice. If it wouldn’t have been for Jun’ lifelong dream of becoming a comic book writer… His bosses aren’t exactly thrilled imagining their local Rambo drawing cartoons, so Jun fakes his own death. Fifteen years later and with a new identity, Jun is now a failed comic writer incapable of supporting his family, who don’t have a clue about his past. One night after one too many glasses of soju, Jun draws from his secret agent experience to write a new comic on the web. The good news: it’s an instant massive hit, finally! The bad news: with all these classified secrets out in the open, his old bosses can’t wait to pay him a little visit. Same goes for his arch enemy, whose face Jun back in the day unfortunately scorched while poking out one of his eyes… In the mood for a feel-good movie without any nasty viruses? Here’s what you need: a hilarious version of TRUE LIES charged with manga inter-mezzo’s à la KILL BILL and combats worthy of THE RAID! The quintessence of quality entertainment!

Director: Xavier BurginRuntime: 83 min

“We’ve always loved horror, it’s just that horror hasn’t always loved us”. Yes, we all know the worn out horror trope of the token black guy who dies first. But do you know where it comes from? HORROR NOIRE takes you on an in-credible journey through film history that’ll make you see your favorite horror films in a whole new light. A journey that takes off with D.W. Griffith’s BIRTH OF A NATION – aka the Origin of Evil aka the Rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan – and runs all the way to GET OUT. Xavier Burgin’s documentary traces the characterization of African Americans through the history of genre cinema: not, under or badly represented. Until 1968, when George Romero has the balls to cast a black man as the principal character in THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Yeah, a lot of Political Correctness knights would have you believe that’s all behind us, but the past year has made crystal clear that this isn’t the case. The murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have become grim symbols of a still raging battle. This is an infuriatingly relevant and necessary documentary for these dark times in which LL Cool J’s lyrics are, sadly, applicable to racism: “Don’t call it a comeback, I’ve been here for years”.

HITMAN: AGENT JUN 2020

HORROR NOIRE:A HISTORY OF BLACK HORROR

2019

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Director: José L. MontesinosWriters: Yako Blesa, José L. MontesinosCast: Paula del Río, Miguel Á. Jenner, Jordi Aguilar,...Runtime: 87 min

Eight-year-old Macaulay Culkin is left home alone by his neglectful parents and will have to confront two no-good burglars… Replace the boy wonder Culkin with a wheelchair user, the parents with a daddy having a stroke on the drive-in and the two thieves with one badass rabid dog and you’ve got ROPES, the first feature film of Jose Luis Montesinos, who won a Goya for his short EL CORREDOR. A car crash paralyzed Elena and confined to a wheelchair. Her dad tries to make her life easier by getting her a state-of-the-art house and Athos, a trained Belgian shepherd, to cater to her every need. But no time to unpack: dad suffers a heart attack and is writhing in agony on the pebbles outside while Elena is doomed to look on in horror, unable to lift a sole finger to call 911. And Athos, you say? Well, he’s no help either: ever since he bit off the head of an infected bat, he went – well – batshit insane! Werewolves, White Fang, even Cujo would leave with his tail between his legs in the presence of this demonic beast deliriously foaming from the mouth, with an insatiable hunger for human flesh! A cat-and-mouse game ensues, nerve-wrecking and nail-biting… we’re of course talking about Athos, muha!

Director: Lisa TakebaWriter: Watanabe YusukeCast: Kanna Hashimoto,Yuta Koseki, Toshiki Seto,Shido Nakamura,...Runtime: 88 min

Are you a teacher? Are you fed up with all those pupils seemingly raised by a pack of wolves? In that case, kick back, relax and enjoy this hardcore adaptation of the eponymous manga by Arata Miyatsuki and Shigure Kondo. Imagine 36 pupils, smartphone in hand, eternal gum stuck in between jaws, hanky panky in the back of the classroom and their teacher driven to the brink of insanity. Well, he’s had it! He decides to hypnotize the boisterous bunch. From now on, a specific set of signals triggers pupils to commit ins-tant suicide. Using your phone? Suicide. Sobbing? Kaputt. Drinking from the bottle? Bye-bye. Smooching? Wither in hell! This is all pedagogically sound, of course. To break the spell, one simply has to be the last survivor... Careful though, because hurting others is one of the fatal signals. For once they will have to put their gray matter to good use in the midst of all the jumping out of windows, throat slitting, improvised seppuku and skulls splattering all over the blackboard at a frenzied pace… Director Lisa Takeba sure knows how to have a good time in this 100% Montessori-certified BATTLE ROYALE for the iPhone generation.

ROPES2020

SIGNAL 1002019

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Director: Juan J. Campanel-laWriters: Juan J. Campanel-la, Augusto GiustozziCast: Graciela Borges, Oscar Martínez, Luis Brando-ni,...Runtime: 129 min

Four old friends share a humongous mansion in the outskirts of Buenos Aires: a faded starlet of a bygone era in Argentinean cinema - think Nor-ma Desmond of SUNSET BOULEVARD, Latino-style -, her director, her screenwriter and her husband. In between expensive paintings, memorabi-lia and an Oscars’ statuette they go about their daily routine, which mostly consists of yelling cruel, mean things at each other. Aging rich dinosaurs never fail to attract vultures, in this case a young couple that tries to cheat them out of their house in order to develop their own real estate project. Little do the youngsters know that apart from being old, rich and famous they’re also notorious manipulators… Expect sizzling dialogues and a juicy lump of cynical humor that no doubt cracks up, oh say KNIVES OUT’s director Rian Johnson. Juan José Campanella’s first feature films since THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES, that won the Oscar for best foreign film in 2010 (oooh that’s the statuette we see in the film!), pays homage to fellow countryman José A. Martínez Suárez’s black comedy YESTERDAY’S GUYS USED NO ARSENIC, but is just as well related to the Capra classic ARSENIC AND OLD LACE. You got it, it’s a poisonous affair with a first-class cast: there’s grande dame of Argentinean cinema Garciela Borges, Oscar Martinez (WILD TALES), Luis Brandoni and BIFFF regular Clara Lago (THE END, ORBITER 9), who takes on the role of sneaky real estate agent.

THE WEASELS’ TALE 2019

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critic’s award

selection

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Director: Junta YamaguchiCast: Kazunari Tosa, Riko Fujitani, Gota Ishida,...Runtime: 70 min

Does two minutes count as time travel? According to this film, it sure does! Kato lives above the café he own and plays in a local band. One day, his computer screen starts to speak to him. No, it’s not an I, ROBOT-compu-ters-gone-rogue kinda way. It’s Kato himself, who says that he’s him, but two minutes into the future. And if he goes downstairs to the TV screen in his café, he will see the Kato from two minutes in the past doing the exact same thing as present Kato was doing. Anyway, he’s a bit overwhelmed - like, who wouldn’t be - but he soon realizes that he has discovered a wormhole in time! His nosey friends soon get wind of this too and want to capitalize on it (always a great idea) in their own clumsy way. BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES is a delightfully light hearted flick shot in one take about five innocent heartwarming friends who discover the art of time traveling!

Director: Damian McCarthyCast: Ben Caplan, Conor Dwane, Jonathan French,...Runtime: 88 min

Isaac suffers from temporary memory loss and an empty bank account. When his friend Barrett offers him to babysit someone for 200 quid a day, it’s impossible for him to say no. Barrett doesn’t reveal many details of the job until they arrive at the location, and we soon understand why. Isaac needs to look after a psychologically unstable young woman, Olga, who lives in a dila-pidated house on a remote island. However, this isn’t all. She has a peculiar and unsettling condition. Isaac has to wear a harness with chains that allow him to get into the basement, but not into Olga’s room. CAVEAT, the demonic puzzle by Damian McCarthy, might become the next definition of fear. And we are not kidding. We’re mortified every time we catch a glimpse of CAVEAT’s stuffed rabbit.

BEYOND THE INFINITETWO MINUTES

CAVEAT2020

2020

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19

Director: Kwang-bin KimCast: Jung-woo Ha, Yool Heo, Nam-gil Kim,... Runtime: 97 min

After his wife died in a car-crash, architect Sang-won decides to move to the countryside with his 11-year daughter Yi-na for some peace and quiet. But his workaholic ethic stands firmly in the way of a fresh start with his trauma-tized offspring. Things go from bad to worse between father and daughter and one day Sang-won comes home to an empty house. Despite numerous appeals in the media and intensive search actions by the police, not a trace is found of Yi-na. Some journalists even seem to think he’s behind the disap-pearance of his own child. And then a man shows up at his door, suggesting that Sang-won takes a look inside his daughter’s closet... What we revealed here is only the start of a terrific nightmare that contains all the necessary ingredients to make horror-fans drool: exorcisms, demons, monsters, Asian legends, jump scares by the dozen and a story that doesn’t waste time to come to the point and unleash the goodies. THE CLOSET might be the start of a new franchise in the vein of POLTERGEIST or INSIDIOUS. And that with a myth that is as timeless as it is frightening: the monster in the closet.

Director: Devereux MilburnCast: Sawyer Spielberg, Malin Barr,... Runtime: 106 min

Camping trips ain’t what they used to be in times of COVID. First, people stare at you – look, that one wears his mask on his chin! –, then, when you’ve finally found an ideal spot to plant your tent, the owner, fearing contagion, chases you off his property. But it’s midnight and you have nowhere to go. Desperately you knock at the first house you encounter in the dark. An old little lady opens the door. She obviously hasn’t had any visitors since the first lockdown, but she bids you to enter and stay for the night. Her son lives with her, isn’t very talkative. He’s so bored out of his mind that he watches “Po-peye” on the TV in a continuous loop. That’s exactly what happens to Rylie (Malin Barr) and Sam (Sawyer Spielberg, very far from home). But soon they notice the odd, suffocating atmosphere in the house is not only due to pan-demic social awkwardness. What follows is a slow, hallucinating descent into insanity, in which the country folk show some similarities with another one of our favorite families: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE folks! Lena Durn-ham also turns out to stay in the house. And for those who were wondering how she’s been doing since “Girls”… well, not too swell.

THE CLOSET2020

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Director: Anders Thomas JensenCast: Mads Mikkelsen, Ni-kolaj Lie Kaas, Andrea Heick Gadeberg,...Runtime: 116 min

Markus, a career military man with an ice-cold disposition, must leave his combat zone to take care of his teenage daughter Mathilde, after his wife’s sudden death in a train accident. But the awkward attempt of Markus to connect with his mourning daughter, is interrupted by Otto, a scrawny and eccentric mathematician. He also survived the accident, but he hasn’t come to offer his condolences. It’s because Otto is convinced that it was an attack linked to a gang of bad guys and an ongoing trial. It doesn’t take much more for Markus to activate his vengeance mode and to pull out all the stops in a ride for justice. We shouldn’t even have to introduce the man anymore, because everyone knows his legend at the BIFFF: 2 Silver Méliès Awards, 1 Audience Award and 1 Golden Raven with just two films (THE GREEN BUTCHERS and ADAM’S APPLES). Anders Thomas Jensen is back with his faithful sidekick Mads Mikkelsen to delight us with an absolute gem of absurd black humor!

Director: Ivan KavanaghCast: Emile Hirsh, Andi Mati-chak,... Runtime: 98 min

Laura escapes from a cult at a young age. Years later, she leads a cozy life with her eight-year-old son, David. Unfortunately, subscription to the cult is for life – that’s what Tom Cruise told us anyway – and they seem to have taken up a particular interest in her offspring, whom they try to kidnap after breaking into her house. Yet, when the police shows up, the cult is gone without any trace of someone breaking in. To make things even worse, lil’ Dave succumbs to a mysterious illness that has medical personnel scratching their heads. Every morning he’s fine, but at night the illness reappears, along with a ter-rifying hunger for… for something his mother will provide for him whatever it takes, as long as he survives. But how far is she willing to go for her child? Does her love for him have any limits? Six years after his passage at the BIF-FF with THE CANAL, Ivan Kavanagh returns with a chilling horror flick that picks up the umbilical cord where ROSEMARY’S BABY left it dangling. The Irish director was able to wrap up shooting in Mississippi just in time before the first COVID lockdown came along. Starring Andi Matichak (from the 2018 HALLOWEEN sequel) as Laura and Emile Hirsch (FREAKS – Silver Raven BIFFF 2019) as Paul.

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François has a degree in public relations at the UCL and nowadays he’s both a teacher and a happy editor for the website Ecran-et-toile.com that primarily aims to highlight all those who are involved with the 7th Art.He’s been a member of the Belgian Union of Film Critics (UCC-UFK) since 2018. As a huge film aficionado he has covered multiple Belgian and French festivals, always with indestructible curiosity and a desire to dive into rich and di-verse cinematic universes.

FFrançois SABEAUrançois SABEAU

Inge studied history in Ghent, Fellini in Pisa and Italian neorealism in Antwerp. She’s a freelance film critic and translator, and has worked as a communications officer for the Royal Film Ar-chive of Belgium. She writes for several inter-national publications such as Point of View Ma-gazine, Photogenie, Talking Shorts, Kortfilm.be and Film Daze. She is a member of FIPRESCI and the Belgian Film Critics Association (UPCB – UBFB) and was part of Berlinale Talents 2021.Inge COOLSAET Inge COOLSAET

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Member of UPCB as well as cinema and fantasy worlds aficionado, Kamal is co-creator of a web series revolving around geek culture (www.Zo-neGeek.be). He contributed to creating and de-veloping audio-visual contents, digital and trans-media, at R/O Institute notably (www.ro.institute), spreading the good word of geek culture! Public and conference speaker, he enjoys sharing his passion with peers and students alike. Consul-tant and chronicler on various media (web, tv, radio), Kamal always has crazy anecdotes about Mario Bros, Marty Mcfly, Yoda or Dungeons and Dragons… Armed with interdisciplinary skills, he joined social media projects within compa-nies such as Facebook or Microsoft in Dublin: in short, a insanely passionate spokesperson for the culture of imagination in Belgium in the true spirit of 80s retro-geek!

Kamal MESSAOUDIKamal MESSAOUDI

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Director: Lluis DanésCast: Sergi Lopez, Nuria Prims, Alejandra Howard,...Runtime: 106 min

1920, Barcelona. Many children go missing, but the disappearance of litt-le Teresa from an affluent family sends a shock wave through the entire country. While the story’s dominating all the newspapers, top journalist Se-bastià Comas returns to his uncle’s newspaper after having spent some time in a psychiatric asylum. The police arrest Enriqueta Martí, the “Vampiress of Ravel”, as the culprit. But Sebastià uncovers a much more sinister affair... Lluís Danés serves up a period piece with a color scheme à la Schindler’s List. The blood red seeps through the dominating razor sharp black and white images. The setting isn’t filled with impressive computer-generated mansions and streets, but with sober theater set pieces. Transport yourself to a Victorian Barcelona, populated with prostitutes, decadent bourgeois, penniless parents and missing kids.

Director: Junta YamaguchiCast: Kazunari Tosa, Riko Fuji-tani, Gota Ishida,...Runtime: 70 min

Does two minutes count as time travel? According to this film, it sure does! Kato lives above the café he own and plays in a local band. One day, his computer screen starts to speak to him. No, it’s not an I, ROBOT-compu-ters-gone-rogue kinda way. It’s Kato himself, who says that he’s him, but two minutes into the future. And if he goes downstairs to the TV screen in his café, he will see the Kato from two minutes in the past doing the exact same thing as present Kato was doing. Anyway, he’s a bit overwhelmed - like, who wouldn’t be - but he soon realizes that he has discovered a wormhole in time! His nosey friends soon get wind of this too and want to capitalize on it (always a great idea) in their own clumsy way. BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MI-NUTES is a delightfully light hearted flick shot in one take about five innocent heartwarming friends who discover the art of time traveling!

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BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES

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Director: Devereux MilburnCast: Sawyer Spielberg, Malin Barr,... Runtime: 106 min

Camping trips ain’t what they used to be in times of COVID. First, people stare at you – look, that one wears his mask on his chin! –, then, when you’ve finally found an ideal spot to plant your tent, the owner, fearing conta-gion, chases you off his property. But it’s midnight and you have nowhere to go. Desperately you knock at the first house you encounter in the dark. An old little lady opens the door. She obviously hasn’t had any visitors since the first lockdown, but she bids you to enter and stay for the night. Her son lives with her, isn’t very talkative. He’s so bored out of his mind that he watches “Popeye” on the TV in a continuous loop. That’s exactly what happens to Rylie (Malin Barr) and Sam (Sawyer Spielberg, very far from home). But soon they notice the odd, suffocating atmosphere in the house is not only due to pandemic social awkwardness. What follows is a slow, hallucinating descent into insanity, in which the country folk show some similarities with another one of our favorite families: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE folks! Lena Durnham also turns out to stay in the house. And for those who were wondering how she’s been doing since “Girls”… well, not too swell.

Director: Stef LernousCast: Tom Vermeir, Anneke Sluiters, Tania Van der San-den,... Runtime: 90 min

David reluctantly pretends to be the manager of Hotel Poseidon, where fun-gus covers the walls and comments such as “faded glory” and “has seen better times” completely fall short to describe this establishment. He wanders the corridors of his personal Overlook Hotel like a zombie, being a passive spectator to what happens around him. Whether it’s clients without cash, his mother castrating him with her sharp tongue or the recently deceased aunt in the hallway whose pension kept the place going. David will gradually lose his balance and tumble into a waking nightmare, in which his hotel is trans-formed into an existential purgatory. With inner demons on the booze, lustful creatures tempting his lonely soul to sin and a big plunge into the prover-bial metaphysical shithole, David can expect some strong comments on Trip Advisor. The unique theatrical universe of Abattoir Fermé, Belgium’s most provocative and transgressive theatre company, is brought to the big screen by its director Stef Lernous. Expect a series of nightmarish tableaus worthy of Hieronymus Bosch, with a visually insane main course that will make this darkly comical Lynchian trip a feast for cult movie lovers.

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Director: Renata PinheiroCast: Jules Elting, Matheus Nachtergaele, Luciano Pedro Jr.,... Runtime: 99 min

When you’re born in a car, your dad runs a taxi company and you have a mechanical genius as an uncle, you’re destined for the car business. But Uno possesses more than a natural affinity for our holy cow on wheels. He can talk with them. As a kid, it’s great fun to have a best friend who smells like diesel, but when his mother gets killed in an accident with his talking cab, Uno loses his gift. Years later, the local authorities use ecologi-cal concerns as a thin money grabbing excuse to ban all vehicles older than 15 years from the streets. Poverty and unemployment rates skyrocket. All those abandoned cars by the side of the road are screaming in despair and Uno can hear them again. With the help of his uncle, he transforms the rust buckets into futuristic talking monsters to get back at the powers that be. Director Renata Pinheiro delights us with a completely unique features that criticizes the many shortcomings of our consumer society and visualizes the tension between ecology and industry in a surreal sexual way.

Directors: Dusty Mancinelli & Madeleine Sims-FewerCast: Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Anna Maguire, Jesse LaVer-combe Runtime: 107 min

Miriam and her husband are going through a severe crisis in their relationship. They decide to move to the family’s home in the country, where they’re war-mly welcomed by her sister Greta and her partner Dylan. It’s an idyllic setting, at the edge of a Canadian lake. The ideal place to blow off some steam and to have long talks by the campfire. That’s exactly what Miriam and Dylan do, until they fall asleep under the stars. But when dawn comes, Miriam is rudely awakened by Dylan, who has forced himself upon her. The reactions in the international press ranged from unanimous praise to shocked astonishment. VIOLATION is one of the hardest films in recent years and - trust us - we’re not exaggerating. And that’s because VIOLATION’s no mere movie, it’s an experience. In the age of #MeToo, if this was a classic tale of rape and re-venge, you’d immediately side with the victim. But VIOLATION forces you to go through a traumatic viewing experience that will not leave you unscathed.

KING CAR2021

VIOLATION2020

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Long-time cinema lover Laurent Pécha is one of the pioneers of online film critique. After obtaining a law degree, he contributes to the creation of the website DVDrama in 1999. He later cofounds Ecran Large in 2004 and runs the website for over a decade. Since then, he has branched out to film production where he collaborated with many industry peers, all the while continuing his duties as a publication contributor, in print and online, as well as being a screenwriter on more personal projects.

Laurent PECHALaurent PECHA

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Antwerp based Dutchman Lars Damoiseaux is screenwriter and director of films, music videos and commercials. Best known for his dry & edgy comedy and powerful, dark visual style, he has been a writer on TV series like ‘Undercover’ and ‘Grond’. His acclaimed feature film YUM-MY, a graphic zombie comedy starring Maaike Neuville, Bart Hollanders and Benjamin Ramon has done an amazing festival tour worldwide last year.

Lars DAMOISEAUXLars DAMOISEAUX

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Born in 1989, Marion Renard grows up sur-rounded by rock music, comics and midnight movies. In France and later in Belgium, she stu-dies Literature and Cinema and completes her education in Filmmaking at the INSAS in 2018; always defending her passion for genre cinema, trash and B-movies. Her projects merge colour and emotional saturation, pop culture and fan-tasy mythology with upfront and playful depic-tions of sexuality and are known for their strong female characterisation. Her short film SWITCH (2018), a fantastic-erotic and rock’n’roll coming-of-age story, receives numerous international awards. She’s currently working on her first feature-length film, a mix of the work of Gregg Araki, Julia Ducournau and Xavier Dolan.

Diddier Lefèvre was born on May 12th, as was a certain Jess Franco... Coincidence? We don’t think so! Growing up at the height of 1980s ex-ploitation cinema and videoclubs, Didier falls madly in love with B-movies. In 1989, he creates Médusa, a groundbreaking fanzine (28 numbers as we speak). That’s not enough to quench his thirst for cinema and writing, so he launches another fanzine in 1997, Hammer Forever, de-dicated to this cinematic landmark of English horror (40 publications to date). As head of the Médusa blog, avid fanzine collector and occa-sional radio host (“Radio Médusa” on Radio PFM), Didier somehow still manages to find time to help out his friends, contributing to a bunch of other fanzines : Vidéotopsie, Le Bissophile, Le Charognard, Darkness Fanzine, Fantastico-rama, Horror Pictures… In 2013, he even writes and publishes his first novel ‘Le Gros’, released by Euryale publishing and - judging by his vo-racious passion - certainly not his last! How on earth, do you ask, does he still find time to be the frontman of the punk’n’roll band, Dead Rats, writing most of the lyrics himself? We have no idea… One thing we do know though. He’s defi-nitely not from this planet!

Marion RENARDMarion RENARD

Didier LEFÈVREDidier LEFÈVRE

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Director: Damian McCarthyCast: Ben Caplan, Conor Dwane, Jonathan French,...Runtime: 88 min

Isaac suffers from temporary memory loss and an empty bank account. When his friend Barrett offers him to babysit someone for 200 quid a day, it’s impossible for him to say no. Barrett doesn’t reveal many details of the job until they arrive at the location, and we soon understand why. Isaac needs to look after a psychologically unstable young woman, Olga, who lives in a dilapidated house on a remote island. However, this isn’t all. She has a pe-culiar and unsettling condition. Isaac has to wear a harness with chains that allow him to get into the basement, but not into Olga’s room. CAVEAT, the demonic puzzle by Damian McCarthy, might become the next definition of fear. And we are not kidding. We’re mortified every time we catch a glimpse of CAVEAT’s stuffed rabbit.

Director: Stefano LodovichiCast: Guido Caprino, Camilla Filippi, Edoardo Pesce,...Runtime: 84 min

On a rainy autumn morning, Stella is on the verge of throwing herself out of the window in her wedding gown, when someone knocks at the door. It’s a soaked stranger claiming he reserved a room for the night. Impossible, Stella thinks. But outside, it’s raining like crazy. The stranger asks for a glass of water. He’s also charming. It almost makes her forget her desire to die so violently. She invites him in. The stranger quickly makes himself at home and starts talking to her as if he’s known her for ages. The return of Stella’s ex-husband, the man who broke her heart, transforms this strange, static at-mosphere into sudden and unexpected chaos… It is often said not to judge a book by its cover. And this is certainly the case for Stefano Lodovichi’s latest film. First of all, this description has all the makings of a vaudeville on a rainy day. Wrong. Is this about the phenomenon of hikkomori, those teenagers who lock themselves in their rooms, cut off from the world? That too. Is this a drama about dysfunctional families on the tunes of Umberto Tozzi? Are you intrigued? And then there are references to FUNNY GAMES and THE SHINING that thicken the plot of THE GUEST ROOM even more. By the way, did we tell you that there’s also some science fiction involved?

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Director: Rob SavageCast: Haley Bishop, Jem-ma Moore, Emma Louise Webb,...Runtime: 65 min

A Zoom movies that exploits the covid working-from-home wave? An oppor-tunistic marketing product? Well, for the sake of our craft, we took a look: six friends who, during last summer’s lockdown, decide to hold a séance via Zoom to kill time (among other things). And guess what? The flick blew our socks off! Director Rob Savage takes a hyper topical subject as his starting point, but carries it to unexpected realms of terror: a sudden sound, a flee-ting shadow, the familiar «something lurks there in the background» and a couple of «look out, behind you!”. HOST was shot in 12 weeks and - in the words of an English journalist – is the BLAIR WITCH of the Covid era. But more than a mere gimmick, it is proof once again that sincerity pays off. If you are a genre movie fan like Rob Savage, you want your audience to get their money’s worth. And you won’t be disappointed!

Director: Mathieu TuriCast: Gaia Weiss, Peter Fran-zén,... Runtime: 87 min

When it comes to bad luck, Lisa seems to have hit the jackpot. After getting a lift and a blow to the head from a killer on the run, she wakes up in a metal tube. She’s also wearing a strange outfit: a spandex jumpsuit and a wrist-band that lights up while counting down. Eight minutes, exactly. Suddenly, a latch opens and the games can begin. Lisa discovers a tunnel that would give even the most seasoned spelunker a panic attack, with at the end the charred remains of the previous contestant. The countdown continues, along with strange noises and smells. Lisa must continue. Crawl or die. MEANDER is the second film of talented young Frenchman Mathieu Turi. Imagine CUBE, but with a generous scoop of SAW. Like any good genre movie, there’s only one thing that counts: efficiency. It has to be scary. So scary that you have to look away, crush your partner’s arm and forget to breathe. These feelings are probably not unfamiliar to you, right? Well, MEANDER brings them all together.

HOST2020

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Director: Péter BergendyCast: Viktor Klem, Fruzsina Hais, Judit Schell,...Runtime: 115 min

1918, Hungary. The Great War and the Spanish Flu have ravaged the conti-nent. Soldier Tomàs (Viktor Klem) gets hit by an artillery bombardment. On his way to the hereafter, he experiences a strange vision of a girl calling his name and leading him back to life. Six months later, Tomàs travels from town to town as a postmortem photographer, offering mourning families a last photograph of their loved ones. Suddenly he stands face to face with the girl of his vision, Anna (Fruzsina Hais). He follows her to her very SLEEPY HOL-LOW-ish village, where the frozen ground makes it impossible to bury the countless flu victims. But there is more that roams these grounds than the freezing cold… Ghosts, the villagers whisper. Not easily swayed by supers-titious nonsense, Tomàs is going to use state-of-the-art photo and phono-graph technology to bust some ghosts! Director Péter Bergendy has a major in psychology and wrote his thesis on horror film psychology. Let that be a warning for you, because this good ol’ gothic horror story has enough folk-lore influences and tension to catapult you a hundred years back into time.

Director: Anders Thomas JensenCast: Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Andrea Heick Gade-berg,...Runtime: 116 min

Markus, a career military man with an ice-cold disposition, must leave his combat zone to take care of his teenage daughter Mathilde, after his wife’s sudden death in a train accident. But the awkward attempt of Markus to connect with his mourning daughter, is interrupted by Otto, a scrawny and eccentric mathematician. He also survived the accident, but he hasn’t come to offer his condolences. It’s because Otto is convinced that it was an attack linked to a gang of bad guys and an ongoing trial. It doesn’t take much more for Markus to activate his vengeance mode and to pull out all the stops in a ride for justice. We shouldn’t even have to introduce the man anymore, because everyone knows his legend at the BIFFF: 2 Silver Méliès Awards, 1 Audience Award and 1 Golden Raven with just two films (THE GREEN BUTCHERS and ADAM’S APPLES). Anders Thomas Jensen is back with his faithful sidekick Mads Mikkelsen to delight us with an absolute gem of absurd black humor!

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Erwan Simon is a cross-disciplinary sfx make-up artist and sculptor who has been active for over twenty years. Together with Daphnée Beaulieux, his partner, he started the special ef-fects studio Squid Lab in 2011 in Brussels. Sub-sequently the couple is active on a lot of movie sets and also very busy promoting ‘Exoskin’, a Belgian brand of silicon masks. In 2021 they won the Ensor for best make-up for the film “Yummy” by Lars Damoiseaux.

Zoé Wittock is an award-winning screenwriter and director. Originally from Belgium, she grew up all over the world and followed the presti-gious directing program of the American Film Institute (AFI), in Los Angeles, where she gra-duated as the youngest and first of her class and received the Hal and Robyn Berson Scho-larship for Excellence in Directing. At the same time, she was also selected in the Berlinale Talent Campus for her work as a director of photography. She directed a short in France, «A demi-mot», screened on OCS and Netflix, before making her feature film debut with «JU-MBO» which was the subject of numerous fes-tival selections throughout the world, notably at SUNDANCE and BERLINALE, where it was awarded in the Generation section. Zoé was also nominated for the Discovery Award at the European Film Awards and was named one of the 20 female directors to watch in 2020 by the Hollywood Reporter. As an active member of the SRF (Society of Film Directors), Zoé Wit-tock campaigns for greater equality in films, while defending copyright protection in an ever evolving industry.

Erwan SIMONErwan SIMON

Zoé WITTOCKZoé WITTOCK

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Daphnée Beaulieux is a costume designer and a sfx make up artist who has been active in the cinema and entertainment industry for more than twenty years. Together with Erwan Simon, her partner, she started the special effects stu-dio Squid Lab in 2011 in Brussels. Subsequent-ly the couple is active on a lot of movie sets and also very busy promoting’ Exoskin’, a Belgian brand of silicon masks. In 2021 they won the Ensor for ‘Best Make Up’ for the film Yummy by Lars Damoiseaux.

Born in Brussels, he started his artistic career in 1982 at the age of 20. In 1984 he co-created the Ligue d’Improvisation, where he stayed for 9 seasons. Olivier Bonjour was also part of the Magic Land Theatre for 5 years, which included the inevitable (and no less memorable) perfor-mances at the BIFFF! As a theater actor, he has performed in more than 1500 cultural and com-mercial events of all kinds. He has also been part of the duo Les Frères Taquins for 30 years, which represents more than 5,000 public shows in more than 40 countries to date. He also acts in movies, of course. His unique, cheeky humor has recently been seen in Terrible Jungle, Hut-sulka Ksénia, Le Calendrier, En passant Pécho, and in series such as Zone Blanche, Ennemi Pu-blic, Unité 42, and Baraki.

DDaphnéeaphnée BEAULIEUX BEAULIEUX

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She was a music journalist until she enrolled in the Classe Libre du Cours Florent in Paris, which made her abandon the domain of music to focus on her acting career. In Belgium she was chosen as the principal character of the series Unité 42 of Belgian television channel RTBF, broadcasted on Netflix and France 2. Ever since she’s been juggling between series and film sets, and theater performances. Next to actress she’s also a photographer and direc-tor of documentaries and music clips. ConstanceConstance GAY GAY

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Director: Kwang-bin KimCast: Jung-woo Ha, Yool Heo, Nam-gil Kim,... Runtime: 97 min

After his wife died in a car-crash, architect Sang-won decides to move to the countryside with his 11-year daughter Yi-na for some peace and quiet. But his workaholic ethic stands firmly in the way of a fresh start with his trauma-tized offspring. Things go from bad to worse between father and daughter and one day Sang-won comes home to an empty house. Despite numerous appeals in the media and intensive search actions by the police, not a trace is found of Yi-na. Some journalists even seem to think he’s behind the disap-pearance of his own child. And then a man shows up at his door, suggesting that Sang-won takes a look inside his daughter’s closet... What we revealed here is only the start of a terrific nightmare that contains all the necessary ingredients to make horror-fans drool: exorcisms, demons, monsters, Asian legends, jump scares by the dozen and a story that doesn’t waste time to come to the point and unleash the goodies. THE CLOSET might be the start of a new franchise in the vein of POLTERGEIST or INSIDIOUS. And that with a myth that is as timeless as it is frightening: the monster in the closet.

Director: Ivan KavanaghCast: Emile Hirsh, Andi Mati-chak,... Runtime: 98 min

Laura escapes from a cult at a young age. Years later, she leads a cozy life with her eight-year-old son, David. Unfortunately, subscription to the cult is for life – that’s what Tom Cruise told us anyway – and they seem to have taken up a particular interest in her offspring, whom they try to kidnap after breaking into her house. Yet, when the police shows up, the cult is gone without any trace of someone breaking in. To make things even worse, lil’ Dave succumbs to a mysterious illness that has medical personnel scratching their heads. Every morning he’s fine, but at night the illness reappears, along with a ter-rifying hunger for… for something his mother will provide for him whatever it takes, as long as he survives. But how far is she willing to go for her child? Does her love for him have any limits? Six years after his passage at the BIF-FF with THE CANAL, Ivan Kavanagh returns with a chilling horror flick that picks up the umbilical cord where ROSEMARY’S BABY left it dangling. The Irish director was able to wrap up shooting in Mississippi just in time before the first COVID lockdown came along. Starring Andi Matichak (from the 2018 HALLOWEEN sequel) as Laura and Emile Hirsch (FREAKS – Silver Raven BIFFF 2019) as Paul.

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Director: Alex NoyerCast: Lili Simmons, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Hana Mae Lee,... Runtime: 94 min

When Alexis witnesses the brutal murder on her parents when she’s ten years old, her hearing is miraculously restored. This visceral experience has awakened synthetic abilities and has brought her on a path of self-discove-ry through the healing tones of brutal violence. Years later, she pursues a career in teaching and experiments with discovering new sounds. Her room-mate Marie eagerly supports her, unaware of the dark secrets behind Alexis’ strange music and the role she plays in this. When her hearing sporadically disappears again, Alexis falls into a spiral of gruesome sound experiments and murderous compositions. She will do everything to create her ultimate master piece. SOUND OF VIOLENCE is the long version of Alex Noyer’s ultra-violent slasher short CONDUCTOR, centering around a murderous drum machine. Jasmin Savoy Brown (from the upcoming SCREAM 5) and Lili Simmons (GOTHAM) lead this sensory nightmare to an appalling end.

Director: Arseny SyuhinCast: Milena Radulovic, Ser-gey Ivanyuk, Nikolay Kovbas,... Runtime: 115 min

A Cold War urban legend turned into a Russian science fiction blockbuster? You betcha! After the famous space race between the Soviets and the West, their new challenge becomes the race to the deepest point on Earth (this time the Sovjets do win). In 1970, they start digging on the Kola Peninsula inside the Arctic Circle. In the ominous year 1984, they reach a depth of 12 kilome-ters. When they lower a microphone in the hole, they hear a strange noise. The Kola locals claim that it sounds like screams coming from the depths of hell... Terrified, they close it up as quickly as possible. But THE SUPERDEEP wouldn’t be selected to the BIFFF if there wasn’t a research team that des-cends into the unknown to uncover the secrets of the deepest borehole on earth. And what they encounter might just be the biggest threat ever. The future of humanity lies in their hands… Plunge into this THE THING-inspired claustrophobic and terrifying nightmare from director and writer Arseny Syu-hin. Oh, if you’re not yet sure what to visit first post corona: book a sightseeing tour to the Kola Superdeep Borehole!

SOUND OF VIOLENCE2021

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Director: Cody CalahanCast: Evan Marsh, Amber Goldfarb, Ari Millen,... Runtime: 102 min

Ever stumbled into a room filled with serial killers that, together, are res-ponsible for 12% of North America’s annual murder rate? Until tonight, Joel hadn’t either but y’know, life is like a box of chocolates. He’s just your ave-rage Joel, a slightly over-enthusiastic horror film buff – aren’t we all? – who, in the year of the Lord 1983, is quietly head over heels for his roommate Sarah. He decides to follow her flavor-of-the-week Bob to a hipster Asian bar in Minnesota. His mission: finding dirt on the guy. But all he ends up doing is getting hammered and puking all over the hallway halfway on his way out... Only to pass out and wake up in the middle of a self-help support group for serial killers. He tries to blend in using his extensive knowledge of the horror genre, but it doesn’t take long until the others are onto him. Vicious fun en-sues… True, Tarantino gets thrown around far too often, but here it actually makes sense. When Joel teams up with Carrie, a feminist avenger with a personal vendetta against all macho sadistic killers, we’re in for a KILL BILL set in a neon-drenched 80’s slasher! If that doesn’t do it for you, we don’t know what to say…

VICIOUS FUN2020

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At the age of 10, this L.A. native started des-troying his parents’ backyard to make Super 8 movies. In 1997, Killers, his first feature, was selected at Sundance. Three years later, he returned with The Convent, which he came to present at the BIFFF with his leading lady Adrienne Barbeau. Always up for cameos with friends, Mike popped up in Hatchet II, Terror Toons 3 and Chillerama, while applying his edi-ting talents for Beavis and Butthead. In 2013, he delivered the cult gem Big Ass Spider! and co-directed a segment of Tales of Halloween. Mike returns to the BIFFF in 2016 to open the Night with Don’t Kill it, in which Dolph Lundgren hunts a demon who jumps from one body to the next. Since then, he has been acting for his friend James Wan while preparing his new pro-ject in between lockdowns. To break his routine, we asked him to be part of our international jury. It was of course, an offer he couldn’t refuse!

MikeMike MENDEZ MENDEZ

Alexandre O. Philippe is a Swiss producer, wri-ter and director. The Hitchcock fan has been in the industry for more than 20 years. Writing and directing award-winning short films and docu-mentaries (The People vs. George Lucas, Me-mory : The Origins of Alien or Doc of the Dead), Philippe is also a creative director, co-foun-der of Fried Comics, and occasional Ted Talk contributor. He’s mostly interested in exploring cinema as popular culture and transformative medium. His documentary 78/52, which took an in-depth look at the shower scene from Psycho, received overwhelmingly positive reviews after it premiered at Sundance in 2017. With Leap of faith: William Friedkin on the Exorcist, he once again delves into the nuances of filmmaking, this time in the form of a cinematic essay on the 1973 horror classic and the creative mind behind it.

Alexandre O.Alexandre O.PHILIPPE PHILIPPE

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Nabwana Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey is a jack off all trades: film producer, director, scriptwriter, cameraman, editor, as well as the founder of Ra-mon Film Production. RFP is a renowned studio in the Wakaliwood film industry: the new Hol-lywood of Kampala in Uganda which received a great deal of attention internationally in the past few years. Since 2005, Nawana I.G.G. has made over 44 films, all produced in his home in the slums of Wakaliga in Uganda. These ul-tra-low-budget movies come to life with as little as a couple hundred bucks, inventive handheld filmmaking and amateur martial artists. With Who Killed Captain Alex (an action-packed flick made with a budget of 85 dollars) and his latest feature Crazy World, Nabwana is well on his way to becoming Uganda’s Tarantino.

Milan Todorovic made his entry on the internatio-nal film scene with ZONE OF THE DEAD (2009), a Serbian zombie movie that hit as hard as a sip of rakija. Five years later he came to Brussels with Franco Nero to present the world premiere of THE NYMPH at the BIFFF. And that was just the beginning for this talented filmmaker. Dean Devlin, producer of INDEPENDENCE DAY and GODZILLA, headhunted Milan to shoot ten epi-sodes of THE OUTPOST television sderies. In addition to collaborating with many other festival friends on the DEATHCEMBER horror antholo-gy, he also found the time to set up a production company (Talking Wolf Productions), to which we particularly owe THE RIFT with the legenda-ry Ken Foree!

NNabwanaabwana I. G. G I. G. G

Milan TODOROVICMilan TODOROVIC

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Directors: Lucy Harvey & Danielle Kummer Runtime: 86 min

Take your time reading the following sentence, you may have to re-read it again: Bus drivers from Dorset decide to put Alien on stage for charity. Can you imagine? A team of extremely sympathetic amateurs - however unable to remember their lines - will invest an entire year to create a papier-mâché version of the Nostromo, a silicone facehugger moved by fishing rods and astronaut suits with Salvation Army chutes. The local premiere is a real di-saster and should have made this a one-time-only event. But fate intervenes and gives them the opportunity to put their Alien on stage in the theater Walhalla of London’s Westend… This is a unique documentary, which pro-ves that «being in the right place at the right time» can have extraordinary consequences. ALIEN ON STAGE is a feel-good trip you should not miss. You’ll not only find the atmosphere of the BIFFF, you’ll get tears in your eyes, cramp in our cheeks and an intense feeling of contentment that won’t fade away any time soon!

Director: Justin G. Dyck Cast: Sheila McCarthy, Julian Richings, Konstantina Mante-los,...Runtime: 97 min

Do you remember those Facebook-parties that got out of hand when an open invitation resulted in thousands of partygoers in someone’s backyard? Well, in ANTHING FOR JACKSON we’re faced with a similar mess. But the fa-mous social network has been replaced by… the Necronomicon. Henry and Audrey are two adorable grandparents who never got over the accidental death of their beloved grandson Jackson. Instead of applying for grief coun-selling, they decide to join the local chapter of Satanists Anonymous. Be-cause grandpa and grandma are prepared to do anything for Jackson. And if that means kidnapping a pregnant woman and invoking the devil, so be it. But they should have consulted the cursed book for possible side effects. The devil rarely travels alone and his fellow travelers are a bit intrusive to say the least. Director Justin G. Dyck only needed a 5 minute pitch to convince his future producer. The next morning, ANYTHING FOR JACKSON already went in preproduction. We could sell the movie as a mix between SHAUN OF THE DEAD and HELLRAISER, but that wouldn’t do justice to its originality. Just you watch, but don’t forget to check under your couch before you press Play!

ALIEN ON STAGE2020

ANYTHING FOR JACKSON

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Director: Rec RevanCast: Taleh Memmedov, Mu-bariz Samadov, Aysel Yusu-bova,...Runtime: 85 min

After a couple of dubious medical experiments, a bunch of villagers are taken away in cattle cars by an armed militia. However, the poor buggers have nothing to loose and attempt an escape. As everyone is mowed down by the militia, Arvin and Elja tumble into a deep pit. Above them, men with guns and animals impatiently and hungrily hover above the edge. But they might be the least of their worries when the freshly dead bodies in the pit... are suddenly coming back to life! Fine, okay, it’s the first time we have a genre film from Azerbaijan. This doesn’t mean that it’s just an exotic curiosity that happened to land in our lap. Director Rec Revan could well become the Danny Boyle of the biggest country in the Caucasus. APORIA is a full bloo-ded genre celebration, mixing dystopia, claustrophobia, survival and zom-bies. It’s incredibly efficient and the start of a promising career.

Director: Tyler RussellCast: Greg Sestero, Eva Ha-bermann, Jason Douglas,... Runtime: 73 min

We’re certain we’re not the only ones who are a bit nostalgic for the sort of concise, thrilling B-movie schlock the 50’s had in seemingly endless supply: THE FLY, THE BLOB, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON… Like Da-vid Cronenberg for example, or John Carpenter! And director Tyler Russell too, judging by this gooey little bugger. His ode to pus-filled cysts perfectly captures the aesthetic of a bygone era (warm, bright colors, close-ups…) and clocks in at a swift, action-packed hour. The set-up is simple: Dr. Guy has made a bit of a name for himself in the cyst-removal business; not particu-larly glorious, but hey, someone’s got to do the dirty work. He’s not satisfied though. He’s been slaving for years on a machine that will revolutionize the cyst-busting field forever. But he never seems to get it right. Today it’s his last chance to impress the patent committee by demonstrating his machine on a particularly nasty abscess. If only he could have foreseen the even nastier side effects… Russell assembled a cast that reads as a who’s who in cult B-movie history: mad scientist Dr. Guy is portrayed by George Hardy, the dentist-turned-actor who quickly turned dentist again after TROLL 2, Eva Ha-bermann (TROLLS WORLD, the remake of TROLL 2), Greg “Oh hi Mark!” Sestero (THE ROOM)… The main draw though? The awesome, old school, CGI-less practical effects!

APORIA2019

CYST2020

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Director: Jeffrey De VoreRuntime: 97 min

Okay, Belgians rarely say anything good about the Dutch. In this case howe-ver, we can only applaud this fascinating documentary about our friend Dick Maas. Together with Paul Verhoeven, he is probably the best known Dutch film director. The cheekiest too. And the sharpest, when we talk about his ability to anticipate the audience’s expectations and to deliver 100% unasha-med entertainment. We know every one of his blockbusters (THE LIFT and AMSTERDAMNED to name just two) and FLODDER is engraved in our collective memory. We discover his creed through unique archive footage: «the sky is the limit». You have to block all the canals in Amsterdam to film the craziest and most dangerous chase scene ever? No problem. When he’s told that it’s impossible to release a lion in the middle of the city for PREY, his only response is: how come? Dick Maas is not only a visual genius. His audacity has paved the way for many other ambitious directors. This hour and a half fly on the wall look at a larger than life career is a real lesson in cinema. A unique method, the Dick Maas Method!

Director: Seul-yeah JOCast: Min-a SHIN, You-young LEE, ...Runtime: 84 min

Lee-young is Korea’s reigning diving diva. She does not give her rivals any chance and piles up one golden medal after another. Su-jin, her childhood friend and teammate for the synchronous dive, has remained in her shadow all this time without any complaints. But this beautiful relationship meets a brutal end with a dive of an entirely different nature. Their car tumbles off a steep cliff into the sea. When Lee-young regains consciousness in the hos-pital, she remembers nothing of the accident. And Su-jin is missing. There’s no body or trace to be found of her. After a while, the champion starts training again to forget what she cannot remember. But her subconscious begs to disagree. Her dazzling dives transform into nightmarish confrontations with her inner demons, who relish Faustian pacts in the search for perfection. The cutthroat competition, the countless sacrifices and the urge to go at any lengths to be the best are taking their toll. In this sense, you could consider DIVA to be the aquatic version of BLACK SWAN, in which the reflection of the water replaces the mirror.

DE DICK MAAS METHODE

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Director: BenDavid Gra-binskiCast: Joel McHale, Natalie Zea, Natalie MoralesRuntime: 96 min

Tom and Janet have been married for 14 years and are still as much in love with each other as from day one. Not a single argument, glitters in their eyes with every shared glance, daily sex sessions that would put the entire porn industry to shame and, most importantly, friends who can’t stand the unadul-terated happiness this couple throws at them. But, on the eve of a weekend with these «friends», Tom and Janet are visited by a stranger who wants to reset their happiness to a socially correct level. One murder later - because no one touches their sacred libido - Tom and Janet join the rest at their va-cation spot… or is it a nest of treacherous vipers? Tired of your home trainer sessions to get to your telework commute? Has it been an awful day? Then sit your ass on your couch with the BIFFF pack you’ve just ordered, pop open a bevvy and enjoy this ferocious satire produced by Jack Black. In the cast, only familiar faces after a year spent consuming big platform content: Joel McHale (COMMUNITY), Natalie Morales (PARKS AND RECREATION) and Natalie Zea (JUSTIFIED).

Director: Josh WallaceCast: Jacob Grodnik, Devin Das, Ahmed Bharoocha,...Runtime: 82 min

Being an insurance agent is a state of mind. With a tight-ass jacket, a smooth tongue and especially no conscience worth mentioning, one can really go places in this line of business. And Sonny (Devin Das) wants to go places. In no time he was able to work himself up as the company’s golden boy when it comes to selling insurance to suckers. And this in spite of, rather than thanks to his loyal partner-in-crime, Noah (Ahmed Bharoocha). Oh, he’s a nice kid alright, that’s exactly his problem! He’s too soft. Now, Sonny, he’s a winner, he’s a zinger and he’s dying to get a promotion. And maybe that’s precisely what he’s going to do when he bumps into Lucas, a socially awkward shmuck who doubles as a cold-blooded killer once you get down to his basement. Let’s just hope Sonny’s got a decent life insurance… Director Josh Wallace has a background in comedy (COMEDY CENTRAL, FUNNY OR DIE) and this project was initially heading for classic buddy film territory, but along the way it turned several satirical shades darker. Because the times are dark. When contemporary capitalism rears its ugly head, not even a serial killer with grandma issues can stand in its way…

HAPPILY2021

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Director: Natasha KermaniCast: Brea Grant, Hunter C. Smith, Kristina Klebe,...Runtime: 83 min

May, a top shelf self-help author, is going through a rough patch. Her latest book isn’t selling and her marriage with Ted is in the doldrums. Luckily a psy-chopathic killer shows up in her backyard one night to liven things up! She’s scared out of her wits and runs off to Ted for help, but he’s not responding as she had hoped. “Oh him? That’s the man who comes to our house every night and tries to kill us” is all he says, visibly a little bored. Together they ma-nage to ward off the stranger’s attack, but from then on May’s all on her own: Ted thinks she’s overreacting and leaves her alone, the police don’t believe her, her friends don’t support her… Night after night she has a GROUND-HOG DAY experience, except there’s no lovable Bill Murray showing up at her door night after night but a deranged Mike Myers fan! Director Natasha Kermani cleverly uses all the horror tropes in the book (the killer that just won’t die, the final girl…) to denounce a world that still doesn’t take violence against women serious. She depicts a phenomenon that women encounter on a daily basis: gaslighting. Because there’s a man that tries to kill her eve-ry night, just listen to the woman for god’s sake!

Director: Arno PluqetCast: Pierre Lekeux,... Runtime: 101 min

«Hell is other People.» At least, that’s what Sartre sent out into the world years ago. Now Arno Pluquet takes this theme to his heart in his latest film. Boris, tormented by the departure of his alcoholic father and depressed mo-ther, lives under the yoke of a bitter and harmful existence. Misunderstood and alone, he seeks refuge in madness to escape the violence of life. Boris has had it with discussions about stiletto heels, the difference between a bedbug and a sand flea, and popcorn eaters in the cinema. But what bothers him the most is people’s ability to have discussions without listening to each other... Feeling betrayed by the world, our Belgian Joker embarks on a ven-geful Odyssey, accompanied by his big eared pink demon. Arno Pluquet, a regular at the festival since 2016, takes on the brutality of an individualistic and aggressive society. Time and again, his unmistakable touch shows his unconditional love for cinema.

LUCKY2020

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THE OLD WAYS2020

Director: Christopher Alen-derCast: Brigitte Kali Canales, Andrea Cortés, Julia Vera,...Runtime: 89 min

Brujas, demonios and exorcisms. After twenty years, Cristina returns to her native village, deep into the woods of Veracruz. Not to visit her niece - her only remaining relative - but to investigate a story about sorcery and healing. Things don’t go as planned when she wakes up locked up in a shed. There are strange signs painted on the walls and ominous relics hanging from the ceiling. A local bruja and her son are convinced that she is possessed by a demon. However Cristina soon discovers she has some demons of her own that she must face. Right from the start Christopher Alender’s THE OLD WAYS dives into jump scares and ominous tension. Watch this film for its straightforward plot and powerful characters. Stay for its brooding cinema-tography and high quality special effects on the tunes of a warm blend of Mexican traditionals and the atmospheric original score by Ben Lovett.

Director: Brandon CronenbergCast: Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, Jennifer Jason Leigh,... Runtime: 104 min

Brandon Cronenberg’s second offering, after his relentlessly bleak debut fea-ture ANTIVIRAL (BIFFF 2013), gives us another glimpse of what growing up with a dad like David Cronenberg must’ve felt like; probably with a strict minimum of watching movies starring Robin Williams. It’s the near future. Tasya Vos is on the brink of a burnout, what with her demanding job taking its toll on her family life. What kind of job, you ask? Infiltrating in the mind and body of a target person to assassinate someone in his or her close cir-cle. As soon as the deed is done, she exits her host by committing suicide. This reset button leaves no trace to the shady organization that Tasya works for. Even though the horrible imagines of her last mission keep lingering in her mind, she accept a new job: possessing Colin to get to his billionaire scumbag father-in-law, John Parse (Sean Bean, preparing for yet another classic Sean Bean death scene). But Colin fights back against the intruder and Tasya is no longer fully in control… Cronenberg Jr. ups the ante with this high-concept sci-fi body horror in which it is no longer INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS-like aliens that threaten to take over our minds, but humankind that parasites itself with the help of technological follies. Starring a schizo performance by Andrea Riseborough (MANDY) as Tasya and with Chrisopher Abbott (IT COMES AT NIGHT) as Colin and Jennifer Jason Leigh (THE HATEFUL EIGHT) as Tasya’s sociopath superior Girder.

POSSESSOR2020

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Director: Steven KostanskiCast: Nita-Josee Hanna, Owen Myre, Matthew Nina-ber,... Runtime: 99 min

Earth, meet your doom! On his path of havoc and destruction of the en-tire universe, the Archduke of Nightmares, the Master of Unspeakable Evil, the Voldemort of Cosmic Proportions, has set his mind on our puny world. There’s just one thing standing in his way: a pre-teen girl, Mimi (an amazing Nita-Josee Hanna) and her little brother. A magical amulet she stumbled upon while digging in the garden makes him obey her every little whim: hop-ping on one leg, partaking in her silly games, turning her would-be boyfriend in a giant gooey brain… Meanwhile a horde of intergalactic creatures is also setting course to Earth to track down Psycho Goreman – Mimi coined the name, she thought his other titles were “kinda lame” – and finish him off for good! Steven Kostanski is of course no stranger to us: director of MAN-BORG, FATHER’S DAY (BIFFF 2012), THE VOID (BIFFF 2017) as well as make-up for CRIMSON PEAK, but here he has truly outdone himself. It’s got the fun-for-the-whole-family feel of E.T. but starring Troma’s THE TOXIC AVENGER going Super Saiyan in the midst of a wild bunch of animatronic and rubber suit space monsters that are halfway between STAR WARS and THE POWER RANGERS. To end up with something genuinely unique and, most of all, just some insane, gory fun for the whole family!

Director: Glenn ChanCast: Stephy Tang, Philip Keung, Tse Kwan-ho, Ben Yuen ,...Runtime: 94 min

Forensic psychiatrist Ching has a special gift to help her solve her cases. She can penetrate her patients’ subconscious and find out what they keep hidden, even from themselves. Her newest case baffles the police. An exemplary social assistant has brutally murdered his own family and then tried to kill himself. He claims that voices inside his head forced him to commit this grue-some act. With the help of a tough cop who loves to go outside the book, she discovers that there are similar cases like this. But Ching finds herself under suspicion when she’s confronted with an unresolved trauma from her own past. Glenn Chan’s first feature is a breathtaking psychological thriller about the evil that hides within our subconscious and the terrifying consequences of what could happen if that evil is unleashed. Stylish cinematography, razor sharp acting from Stephy Tang (SOCCER KILLER, L STORM) and Philip Keung (SHOCKWAVE, CALL OF HEROES) and an intense and moving story make SHADOWS one of the most remarkable movies to come out of Hong Kong in recent years.

PSYCHO GOREMAN2020

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Director: Yong-Joo LeeCast: Gong Yoo, Park Bo-Gum, Jang Young-Nam,...Runtime: 114 min

Ki Heon, a terminally sick former secret agent, is entrusted with a last mis-sion: to ensure the safe transport of Seo Bok, the first human clone created from stem cells, but above all, the holder of the secret to eternal life. This kind of added value attracts a lot of unwanted interest, and the trip quickly starts to resemble a permanent state of siege... SEOBOK, a cheeky mix between THE TRANSPORTER and Michael Bay’s THE ISLAND, offers you not only insight into the eternal ethical dilemma of cloning and Woody Allen’s philoso-phical conundrum («Eternity is a bit long, especially towards the end»), but it also sets itself up as a benchmark for aspiring blockbusters, who’ll have to pull out all the stops to be more spectacular. Even better, a few hours after the Korean world premiere, you can already enjoy this epic adventure. Just goes to show that BIFFF Online has unsuspected advantages....

Director: Ba-reun JoCast: Min-ji Lee, Ji-hye Ahn, Tae-San Park,...Runtime: 100 min

Ever since she was a little girl, Yeon-hee has only had one dream: to beco-me an action movie star. She sacrificed all other possible careers to obtain a black belt in Kendo, Kempo, Karate, Kung-fu, Katana and many other cool things that start with a K. One fine day, she’s hired as a stunt double for an actual movie star. She’s never been this close to her childhood dream. But there’s nobody on set. Just a movie slate. She can’t resist the temptation to clap and… wham! Yeon-hee is transported to a parallel world full of ri-val clans, tyrants and arbitrary murders. When the locals confuse her with the legendary Soul Killer, she suddenly find herself in the position of Ash in ARMY OF DARKNESS; namely that of the heroine who’s going to put all her cool K-tricks to practice to fight The Big Evil One. SLATE is as colorful as it is bloody, and could be the missing link between EVIL DEAD and KILL BILL.

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Director: Beniamino CatenaCast: Marta Gastini, Davide Iacopini,,...Runtime: 105 min

On a beautiful day on the Italian coast, young Vera disappears. Two years later she turns up again, but as an adult woman with complete loss of memo-ry. Her still grief-torn parents can hardly believe that this woman is their little girl, until DNA-tests prove Vera’s identity. The plot thickens when memories start to resurface from those two lost years. Vera is convinced she had led the life of a Chilean man who had been pronounced clinically dead, but re-gained consciousness on the day that she disappeared. VERA DE VERDAD is an incredibly ambitious and organic piece of work. Beniamino Catena’s metaphysical drama uses fantasy tropes as the couplets of a cosmic poem. He takes us on a journey from the rough landscapes of the Ligurian coast to the dry plains of the Atacama Desert. VERA DE VERDAD is a thoughtful mix between a Pink Floyd number and an essay by Carl Sagan. Or maybe it’s just a poetic way to remind us that we are all stardust in an infinite universe.

Director: Eui-jeong HongCast: Yoo Ah-In, Yoo Jae-Myung, Seung-ah Moon,...Runtime: 99 min

Have you just committed a crime and can’t get the stains out of the carpet? Do you want to dismember a corpse, but your saw can’t cut through bone? Don’t panic, Chang-bok and the not very talkative Tae-in, loyal subcontrac-tors of organized crime, can take care of everything. One day, one of their clients entrusts them with a peculiar mission: to recover a freshly kidnapped girl and keep her busy for 24 hours until her parents drop the ransom. Seems easy, except that nothing will go as planned, starting with the very stingy pa-rents and their client getting killed by the competition... VOICE OF SILENCE was selected as one of the 12 best screenplays of the Venice Biennale and ended up on the Sundance shortlist. Eui-jeong Hong’s debut feature is a rare gem and a bold mix of genres, moving from dark thriller to social drama and comedy. VOICE OF SILENCE is about family and feeling abandoned. It’s about violence and love. About the paradoxes of life, like that unbearable voice of silence that cries out its helplessness. And it’s simply terrific.

VERA DE VERDAD2020

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retro south korea

As you know, we had planned a vintage edition in the Passage 44. The pandemic’s nasty tail decided otherwise. But we would still want to mark the occasion by adding Hyun Seung-lee’s IL MARE to the program. Nothing but good memories from its 2001 projection at the Passage 44 and a heartwarming injection of romance and fantasy as an antidote to these trying times.

Director: Hyun-seung LeeCast: Lee Jung-jae, Jun Ji-Hyun, Mu-saeng Kim,...Runtime: 96 min

And what about love in all this? Of all long-distance romance stories, it’s time to polish the dust of this one, a movie that rocked the Passage 44 during the BIFFF 2001. Don’t you remember? Of course you do! It’s that incredible relationship between Eun-joo and Sung-hyun and their time travelling let-ters. Sung-hyun buys a house by the sea, «Il Mare». He finds an abandoned Christmas card in the mailbox. It was written by Sung-hyun before she mo-ved out. But the card is dated two years in the future. They realize that they live in different times and can communicating through the mailbox. In spite of everything, they will do whatever it takes to meet each other... A little jewel of fantastic sweetness which will get its Hollywood remake five years later with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.

IL MARE2000

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belgian competition

Lips Migrations

Director: Nicole TegelaarRuntime: 14 minCast: Celine Verbeeck, Phedra Vandenbergh, Caro-line StasWhen Lily wakes up in a surreal cosmetic clinic with someone else’s lips on her face, she is determined to find out what happened to her. A colourful, stylized trip with killer lipstick.

Director: Jerome PetersRuntime: 14 minCast: Jean-luc Couchard, Didier Colfs, Jan DebskiA family of farmers comes across a stranger with a peaceful message. The problem is that they don’t like visitors...

short films

Once again this year’s Belgian short film competition shows the richness and diversity of our na-tional genre cinema. With promising student films, but also with familiar names such as Xavier Seron, Michiel Blanchart or Bruno Du Bois (who moved to New Zealand, where he worked on titles such as The Hobbit, Mortal Engines, Jumbo by our Méliès jury member Zoé Wittock and the Avatar sequel), we can only look forward to a promising Belgian movie future.

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Squish T’es morte Hélène

Director: Xavier Seron Runtime: 20 minCast: Jean Le Peltier, Martin Verset, Youri DirkxTom forgot to take his son Sam to his guitar class. Qui-ckly, he starts the car, goes back. SQUISH...

Director: Michiel BlanchartRuntime: 24 minCast: Théophile Mou, Lucile Vignolles, Maylis Dumon She was the love of his life… Now he is the love of her death.

Old Born

Director: Jordan De DekenRuntime: 21 minCast: Kimke Desart, Céline Timmerman, Tim Van Der DonckDawa is a girl born in a apathetic society of faceless creatures. She ventures out of the village to discover the limits of her world.

The Scent of a Forest

Director: Servaes DewispelaereRuntime: 21 minCast: Eliza Stuyck, Luca PersanTwo lovers try to keep their relationship alive in a dystopian world where people sell their souls in order to escape reality.

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Triskelion

Director: Jessica RaesRuntime: 10 minCast: Sim Meavorn, Casey MeavornA celtic stop-motion animation fable: While the clan chief is dying by the arrow of a rivaling clan, he gives his daughter the quest to make peace with that tribe.

Zealandia

Director: Bruno du Bois Runtime: 15 minCast: Laura Thompson, John Bach, Shane Rangi In 2032, Zealandia is the only virus free country left on earth at a high cost to its population. Could the bag carried by a fearless woman entering the country be the downfall of this oppressive state?

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jury

This die-hard fan has been a BIFFF-regular since the 2nd edition. He’s crazy enough to spend his holidays each year at the festival. He’s a member of our short film jury and responsible for the smooth progress of the Audience Award. His name is Alain Galand, but everybody knows him as Tom Pouce.

Born in Tournai on June 20th 1950, a painter and a sculptor, he is one of these artists whose voice never fades and constantly brings food for thought to the world surrounding us.

AAlainlain GALAND GALAND

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Born in 1954, Christian Bontinckx studied psy-chology, pedagogy and cinematography at the ULB in Brussels. He also finished studies in art at the art academy of Sint Josse and An-derlecht, worked as a psy and helped on papers like “does cinema make you a mean person? “ that was presented at BIFFF in 2001. He par-ticipated at at the writing of pedagogic short movies made by Fredeirc Dumont in 1994 and Vincent Lannoo in 1996. He also curates expos.

In 1978, after graduating from the INSAS film school, Louis-Philippe Capelle takes part in nu-merous projects as director of photography: from art house documentaries to television films, from fiction to advertising and TV documentaries. At the start of his career, he helps to create the pro-duction company Triangle 7, where he stays for 15 years. He then sets up the postproduction company Hoverlord, which will last for 5 years. After that, he begins to work for Eye-Lite, Bel-gium’s biggest audiovisual material company. He first participates to the development of digital cinema and then manages the commercial and artistic relations of the organization. This doesn’t prevent him from continuing his passion as he partakes in different projects as director of pho-tography. But Louis-Philippe doesn’t stop there. Besides from teaching at various schools, he’s the chairman of IMAGO, a European federa-tion for directors of photography that regroups 53 countries with almost 5.000 members world-wide. Since January, he’s vice-chairman of the SBC (Belgian Society of Cinematographers).

CChristian hristian BONTINCKX BONTINCKX

Louis-Philippe Louis-Philippe CAPELLECAPELLE

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Thierry Vandersanden (Brussels, 1968°) stu-died editing at the Institut des Arts de Diffusion. After some jobs and a short period at the RTBF, he takes over “Le Moniteur du Film” in 1994. This is a magazine specializing in the distribu-tion and the exploitation of films in Belgium. For five years, he’s the only editor, courier, typist, encoder and stamp gluer. In 1999, he joins the team of the Centre du Cinéma et de l’Au-diovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles. Nowadays he’s head of the promotion and dis-tribution services, responsible for supporting distributors, theater owners, workshops and festivals.

After graduating from the Saint-Lucas School of Arts in 2012, Sarah Gury joins the team of Uni-versCité Belgium as editorial and marketing ma-nager. UniversCiné, an initiative of Belgian inde-pendent producers and distributors, is a platform for renting and buying video on demand films (www.universcine.be) and also offers subscrip-tions (www.uncut.be).

TThierryhierry VANDERSANDENVANDERSANDEN

Sarah GURYSarah GURY

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Ellen J. Babeliowsky (15/05/1986) is a Bel-gian filmdirector and cinematographer. From a very young age she was a natural storyteller and encouraged by her grandfather, she fell in love with cinema. In 2015 she graduated cum laude at the Royal Institute for Theatre, Cine-ma and Sound - Brussels (RITCS). Her most known shortfilm ‘Motel Motel’ was nominated at several Film Festivals abroad and won some very nice awards like ‘Best Cinematography’ at the Wildsound Film Festival Toronto. Ellen has a special interest for genre-cinema and the surreal. As it seems, all her films have certain surreal elements and turn out to be a complete mindfuck. She finds her inspiration with Lynch and Buñuel. For now, Ellen is mostly writing scripts. She has a feature film and a docu-mentary going in pre-production very soon and she’s selling her script for a tv-series to a big production company.

EEllenllen BABIELOWSKY BABIELOWSKY

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european competition

Aquaticans Cerberus

Director: Alice Barsby Runtime: 15 minCast: Finnegan Oldfield, Julie Maes, Jean-Michel Bal-thazar On Christmas Day in a near future, a young man meets his parents at their apartment near the sea, while out-side a gigantic tide is starting to rise and threatens to submerge everything.

Director: Kaspar Ainelo Runtime: 19 minCast: Indrek Sammul, Inderk Taalmaa, Markus Haba-kukkWhen truth goes missing, lies start to grow, leaving no room for miracles to be born. An ode to post-truth world.

Les curiosités du mal

Director: Victor TrifilieffRuntime: 23 minCast: Jason Illien, Nicolas Foray, Ava BayaThoughts as dark as a night in the woods.

Dana

Director: Lucía Forner Segarra Runtime: 18 minCast: Thais Blume, Niko Verona After being attacked one night, Diana decides that so-mething must change.

From France to Finland, from Spain to Estonia and from the UK to Switzerland, our European short film competition illustrates once more the bountiful variety in productions from our continent. And it shows in the represented genres: werewolves, time travel, dystopias, westerns… Let’s just say that you won’t be disappointed.

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Expectancy

Director: Juho Fossi Runtime: 15 minCast: Heikki Ranta, Anna Böhm Alex is left alone for the weekend to renovate a room for his and his wife’s unborn child. Soon, a baby moni-tor starts to play him horrifying sounds about his future failures as a father.

Faces

Director: Iván Sáinz-Pardo Runtime: 9 minCast: Román Relles, Claudia Bouza, Myrian MarineA love story in the times of programmed obsolescence.

Healing

Director: Adrian Perez Runtime: 12 minCast: Pacale Sauteur, Markus Amrein A magical place in the mountains is said to have hea-ling powers, but only if you believe in them.

Heart of Gold

Director: Simon Filliot Runtime: 13 min The gradual alienation of a mother, forced to sell her organs to a dying old lady to support her son

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The Last Marriage Nightingale

Directors: Gustav Egerstedt & Johan Tappert Runtime: 16 minCast: Emma Molin, Christopher WagelinA comedy about how everyday life continues even af-ter the global zombie apocalypse has struck.

Director: Jasper de Bruin Runtime: 14 minCast: Nina Fokker, William Dashwood, Johan Vander-pol Night shifts can be killing.

See You in an HourS.A.D. – The Movie

Director: Markus Virpiö Runtime: 13 minCast: Julia Lappalainen, Santeri Helinheimo Mäntylä, Petteri PenniläAnother round, another chance.

Director: Guilherme Gehr Runtime: 9 min A kid creates space adventures with his toys. As sum-mer break arrives, he travels with his parents to the Scottish highlands, but a storm puts his imagination to the test, and his fate will depend on it.

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Sins of a Werewolf Who Goes There ?

Director: David Prendeville Runtime: 22 minCast: Paul Kennedy, Lalor Roddy, Elva Trill When a seasoned parish priest is bitten by a myste-rious animal, he begins transforming into a werewolf every full moon.

Director: Astrid Thorvalds Runtime: 24 minCast: Nina Yndis, Siri Meland, Rikké Haughem, Liam Mcmahon Minnesota 1880: The trust of three Norwegian sisters is tested when a stranger appears on their prairie. When the eldest invites him in to heal her dying sister, she doesn’t realise that a supernatural force is cros-sing her threshold.

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jury

François Stassens is the head of the SABAM’s audiovisual department. His mission is to be the go-to person between the SABAM and the French-speaking members of the audiovisual business. His main role is to be present on the field, handle communication, operating files as well as the requests for sponsorship in the audiovisual business. He’s also very active at the Pro Spere federation, which is consisted of many authors’ associations specialized in au-diovisual, as well at the movie department’s Consultation Committee of the Wallonia- Brus-sels Federation.

Since 2006 she’s been the head of the RTBF’s Short Films Acquisitions and TV shows, es-pecially with La Trois Channel’s «Tout Court».When the RTBF started coproducing Belgian short films, back in 2009, she also became a member of the selection committee for the pen-ding scripts. For several years now, she’s been working with the editing short film committee at the WEBKey of the Centre of Wallonia Brussels imagery promotion tool which aims at putting our directors’ works on the big screens of foreign markets and festivals.

FFrançoisrançois STASSENS STASSENS

Bénédicte BOURGOISBénédicte BOURGOIS

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After working for 5 years as marketing mana-ger at the Cinéart movie distribution company, Gilles Reunis now is head of acquisitions at Be-tv-VOO and is in charge of broadcasting, selec-ting and buying feature films, movies made for TV and short films for PayTV and VOD. He’s also in charge of coproducing Belgian full len-gth and short films.

Studied literature and cinema at the University of Paris VIII. Since 2006, head of Sales and Acqui-sitions at the short films Agency, Broadcast ser-vice: «I’ve had the pleasure of discovering many short films masterpieces, all by working in colla-boration with producers, directors and buyers to put forward and valorize a thousands short films filled catalog made for all types of broadcasters around the world.»

GGillesilles RÉUNIS RÉUNIS

Nathalie LEBELNathalie LEBEL

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Gökhan’s early fascination with movies was en-couraged by his father, who took him to Sunday Matinées, where he saw his first sword-and- sandal film as well as lots of martial arts movies. He was performing as an extra in several short films and TV series. Gökhan is responsible for the selection of the short films for the Fantasy Film Fest which takes place in the late summer in several cities in Germany.

GGökhanökhan KULAK KULAK

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international selection

Inferno Last Dream Before Sunrise

Director: Katherine Chediak Putnam Runtime: 16 minCast: Sam Cotton, Keiran McGinley, Karen Pudlyk When a family man tears down the remains of his burned-out childhood home in attempt to bury his fa-mily’s tragic past, he finds himself tormented by so-mething sinister uncovered in the demolition.

Director: Tom Albanese Runtime: 11 minCast: Marian Frizelle, Jean Charles, Lucas RoyaltyA grieving woman travels to an isolated cabin with a strange power.

NuageMr James is Dead

Director: Joséphine Darcy Hopkins Runtime: 27 minCast: Cypriane Gardin, Solène Rigot, Catherine SaléeThree women hit the road as they try to escape a ra-dioactive cloud of ashes.

Directors: Daniel Irving & Josh Aries Runtime: 15 minCast: Dan Payne, Peter Hoskins, Francisco Trujillo, Donovan Ahmadi Gammon Tom attends his estranged father’s funeral only to find out that his father had been a spy all along, and his funeral is filled with spy villains from all shapes and sizes from his past.

Eat my shorts 1Our first selection of international shorts is a riveting overview of genre cinema’s big themes. Between the dystopia of Nuage, the James Bond parody Mr James is Dead and the horror of The Painted and Inferno, there are more than enough goodies for genre buffs.

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The Painted Upstairs

Director: Sasha Sibley Runtime: 11 minCast: Mike Ossedryver, Jill Young, Victoria Strange A man undertakes a dangerous ritual in an attempt to save his ailing wife.

Director: Phillip Trow Runtime: 17 minCast: Iain De Caestecker, Sorcha Groundsell, Luke Newberry Don’t go upstairs.

Wake Up

Director: Quentin Porte Runtime: 2 minCast: Benoît Gunalons, Jules Nouvel In the middle of the night, a young child calls his father to be reassured. But will his father be up to it?

The Water

Director: Andrea Dargenio Runtime: 14 minCast: Nicolás Maiques, Jorge Booth, Claudio Lauria A man wakes up in a world where water has disap-peared, however, everyone acts like nothing happe-ned.

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Couple Rings Eggshell

Director: Anglee Runtime: 21 minCast: Taejee Lee, Jungmin Yang, Minsung Kim When I saw the couple rings on your fingers, I knew today’s game would be really fun.

Director: Ryan William Harris Runtime: 15 minCast: Charlie Carbery, Shauna Higgins, James Cos-telloJoey’s life is a constant switch between a child’s vivid imagination and the harsh reality of the Irish suburbs. After building himself a Robot head to protect himself Joey is soon forced to face up to adulthood.

Night BusHorrorscope

Director: Joe Hsieh Runtime: 20 minCast: Shu Fung Chen, Ming-hsiu Tsai, Shang-sing Guo There will be a time when we grow from our fragility to find strength in the quest for life.

Director: Pol Diggler Runtime: 5 minCast: Clàudia Trujillo, Miriam Marcet, Morgan Symes, Josep Rigo Reventós An ordinary schoolgirl’s life unravels after an evil crea-ture takes over her body.

Eat my shorts 2What if grandma would be possessed? What if we would recycle children? What if our romantic dates would turn into nightmares? If you want answers to these questions, just pick They’re Here, The Recycling Man and Couple Rings from this selection.

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The Recycling Man They’re Here

Director: Carlo Ballauri Runtime: 13 minCast: Virginia Newcomb, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Terence AndersonIn suburban neighborhood, Jacob, a boy immobi-lized in a wheelchair, fights boredom by spying on his neighbors. Sarah, a girl of the same age, spots him out and says hello with a piece of paper.

Director: Sid Zanforlin Runtime: 12 minCast: Melia Cressaty, Al Goulem A young girl sets out to convince her father that her grandmother is not who she seems.

The Water Will Regret You

Director: Marco Betancor Runtime: 15 minCast: Gustavo Suárez, Alfonsina Carrocio, Rafael So-liwoda, Stefanía Tortorella No matter how deep you submerge a secret, it will always return to the surface.

You Don’t Know Me

Directors: Isabelle Giroux & David Emond-Ferrat Runtime: 11 minCast: Métushalème Dary, Stephen MacLean Roger, Claire Jacques An american couple gets involved into a messy situa-tion while stopping for gaz in rural Quebec.

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Ad Lib Carmentis

Director: Joseph Catté Runtime: 11 minCast: Thomas Alden, Pauline Helly, Nouritza Emma-nuelian Max and Julie are very much in love. Julie is rather jealous but Max knows nobody’s perfect. Certainly not himself. ‘Ad Lib’ is a romantic drama in the world of karaoke. A story of appearances.

Director: Anthony Webb Runtime: 15 minCast: Ben Mortley, Adriane DaffA grief-stricken miner finds himself injured on the de-solate planet Carmentis and must overcome his per-sonal demons in order to survive, but can he get there before the planet freezes?

Pickup ArtistNarrow

Director: Mario Alexander Schuster Runtime: 3 minCast: Kevin Thiel, Fee Zweipfennig, Manuel Nero A short horror comedy about the art of «how to pick up girls».

Director: Anna Chazelle Runtime: 10 minCast: Anna Chazelle, Matthew Gallenstein, Maia Henkin In a post-apocalyptic world where survival means ne-ver stepping off a thin narrow path, a lone woman must evade a creature who stalks her every move.

Eat my shorts 3Eat my shorts number 3 could be called an exercise in style. We have an adaptation of a song with A Tale Best Forgotten, a movie in which the characters play with the subtitles (Ad Lib) and high octane scifi adventures with Carmentis and Today. All of this topped off with a piece of post-apo-calyptic fiction (Narrow), of which its director/lead actress’ name should ring a bell with you.

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Red Light S.O.S

Director: Alex Kahuam Runtime: 10 minCast: Ted Raimi, Brian Krause Rule Number One … No Screaming.

Director: Ángela Tobón Runtime: 19 minCast: Juana Restrepo, Alonso Uribe Aurelio (72) is the lifesaver in a parallel world where people in coma go. Esther (67) arrives at the pool and joins a group of people who train for a competition, the winner will return to life with their families.

A Tale Best Forgotten

Director: Tomas Stark Runtime: 5 minCast: Julia Sporre, Adam Stålhammar, Ola Wallinder In a house by a river that lamented as it ran, lived a father, and his daughter, and the dog-headed man... A murder ballad.

Today

Director: Andrew Jaksch Runtime: 20 minCast: Tom Farrah, Jessica Tanner, Tim Clarke Is Tomorrow beyond the Void?

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We Came From the Sea

Director: Jeremy Lutter Runtime: 15 minCast: Chad Rook, Cadence Compton Einar, an addict recently abandoned by his wife and five year-old daughter. As he fights to go clean in their ocean side home, Einar is haunted by an uninvited stranger.

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The Archivists Beyond the Skin

Director: Igor Drljaca Runtime: 14 minCast: Noah Reid, Bahia Watson, Maxwell McCabe-Lo-kos In a dystopian future, a trio of musicians discover a degraded vinyl record and attempt to reimagine one of its songs.

Director: Hugo Dao Runtime: 19 minCast: David Salles, Georges Slowick, Tony BodinEric is a butcher. Recently divorced, his wife has filed a restraining order for alleged domestic violence, forbid-ding him to see his son. Since then, a strange wound has appeared on his arm and is beginning to spread through the rest of his body.

HeatCDD : Corpus Crisis

Director: Thessa Meijer Runtime: 3 minCast: Famke Louise, Daniël Kolf During an extreme heat wave, a shy girl seeks refuge in an ice cream shop. But when she looks into the eyes of the charming vendor, she is on thin ice.

Director: M. Tikal Runtime: 24 minCast: Jérôme Villain, M. Tikal, Eric Godon, Xavier Hosten, Stanislao Mannu, Frédéric Diefenthal Two young students are desperate to work. To do so, they are hired by a local kingpin as «cleaners», but nothing is going to go down as expected!

Eat my shorts 4We start this last selection with a bit of Bronski Beat in the sympathetic post-apocalyptic tale The Archivists. But we’re also going to laugh our ass off with Heat, Plants, Monster and Rock & Roll and the wacky Belgian crime comedy CDD: Corpus Crisis. The pure horror of Strange Calm and Beyond The Skin provides a fitting coda to this collection of shorts.

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One Left Plants, Monsters and Rock & Roll

Director: Sebastian Doringer Runtime: 6 min Several patients are waiting in a doctor’s office to hear test results regarding their remaining lifetimes. In most cases, the allotted time is not as long as they had hoped for.

Director: Edu Marín Runtime: 14 minCast: Albert Bufill, Guim Puig, Judit Ampudia When Leo, a guy full of insecurities, turns the love of his life into a fearsome monster, he must do everything in his power to return her to normal.

A strange Calm

Director: Austin Rourke Runtime: 15 minCast: Giovanna Bush, Jacob Sandler, Price CarsonWhen 12-year-old Rosie and Miles encounter a strange man on the 4th of July, their journey to watch the fireworks on the outskirts of town becomes an unexpected fight for survival.

Stuck

Director: David Mikalson Runtime: 14 minCast: Nicola Lambo, Davey Johnson, Tara Dininno A gymnastics coach must deal with a man that has taken an interest in the young girls she coaches.

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courts mais trash

BFF Girls Fais pas chier

Director: Brian Lonano Runtime: 13 minCast: Marylin Chung, Jessica Nam, Carolann Uttley

Unity is tampon.

Directors: Patrick Fortin, Élie Dubois-Sénéchal Runtime: 8 minCast: Élie Dubois-Sénéchal

By the directors of the super cult «Termitator.

The Jerry Show Five Course Meal

Director: Stephen Stull Runtime: 9 minCast: David McMahon, William Keevan

It’s too early or not..

Director: James Cadden Runtime: 7 minCast: Melissa Kwasek, Murray Farnell

The grand bouffe.

Pandemic or not, Courts Mais Trash always answers when the BIFFF comes calling. François Marache, director of the KIFF festival, has selected the most gory, politically incorrect and trashy films from their last two editions. In short, the cream of the crop of the most “Bifffian” shorts. By the way, we’re expecting you for the first online edition of the Courts Mais Trash festival. This will take place from 21 till 28 April and it will get you on your way to fighting doom and gloom with a healthy dose of funky cinema. Info: courtsmaistrash.net

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Karaoke Night Numerus Duo

Director: Francisco Lacerda Runtime: 8 min Cast: Fernando Alle, Rita Borges

A little song.

Director: Nick Fiorella Runtime: 8 minCast: Makenna Weyburne, Rick Montgomery

A remake of the Exorshit.

Valerio’s Day Out

Director: Michael Arcos Runtime: 9 minCast: Valerio

The adventures of Valerio at the zoo.

Who’s That At the End of the Bus ?

Director: Philip Hardy Runtime: 5 minCast: Susan Barham, Richard James-Neale

Penguin, is that you in the dark?

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bifff zone

Welcome to the BIFFF Zone.

You will now enter the other side of the screen, beyond the borders of your imagination and into another dimension.A parallel universe that will make you forget reality and dive into a virtual world somewhere stuck into the 80ties! Bring (a bit of) that unique BIFFF atmosphere in your home with the BIFFF Zone, along with exclusive content as well as revisited classics !

After the twilight, prepare for what cannot be shown, the unseen, the unknown... Discover the fantastic world of the BIFFF through the BIFFF Zone: exclusive content and events such as the Fantastic Night, the Bal des Vampires, contests, chat rooms, challenges and clips, without forget-ting our virtual guests and many other surprises.

www.bifff.net

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bifff packs

Even online, the BIFFF is on a roll! Order your pack, choose your delivery date and time. Order before 5PM and receive your parcel the next day! Our volunteers will gladly roll up their sleeves to deliver a bit of BIFFF to your doorstep! Only available in Brussels!

Slowpokes be cursed, it’s a limited edition!

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bif market

The BIF Market reaches its 5th edition (7-10 April) on a wave of enthusiasm. We are both proud of last year’s results and of the remarkable rise in inscriptions for the 2021 edition.

To start off, there is an impressive increase in participants. We welcome no less than 230 parti-cipants from 38 countries and we present more works in progress than ever before: 25 from 18 different countries. Organizing a first completely online edition - we have no other choice, given the current health crisis - has its fair share of challenges. But it has also attracted a large number of new participants who might not have attended the BIF Market in ‘normal’ circumstances. Free accreditation to the market is also kindly offered by the City of Brussels and the Brussels-Capital Region, which is another welcome incitement to take part this year. The main mission of the BIF Market has not changed: creating an international window, with parti-cipants from all over the world, to shine a light on the Belgian film industry. Because Belgium has now become a real hub for the film industry. It not only offers various production services (support and logistics during filming, pre- and post-production…), but also has attractive regional and fe-deral financial levers (Tax Shelter, Screen Funds, screen.brussels…).

That is precisely why we see an important role for the BIF Market as an advocate of the Belgian (genre) film industry and as a facilitator of networks between national and international professio-nals. For our 2021 edition, this translates into an entire page dedicated to Belgian film companies (specialized in post-production, special effects, make-up, etc…), information sessions about Bel-gian financial support mechanisms, panels and masterclasses with national and international film professionals, a networking event with Belgian market participants, the presentation of 10 Belgian projects during our second Pitchbox session… At its fifth anniversary, the market is more ambitious than ever, and delivers a remarkable pro-gram. Reason #1 to come to the market is of course the possibility to meet, mingle and network with Belgian and international film professionals, but there is so much more to experience during the market days. First of all, there are 25 selected works in progress from around the globe, with two sections: a general, international section and an INCAA / Blood Windows section with 10 projects from Latin America.

We also propose an online video library - a first for the market - with more than 60 completed films looking for distribution.

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Three panels about the current state, issues and possibilities in the film sector with Belgian and international experts: • ‘How to distinguish our film’ with moderator Pedro Cristiani (Molino Studio), Arnaud Cheval-lier (Reel Suspects), Mateo Rolleri (Devilworks), Lize Lefaible (Potemkino)

•‘The film festival as a post-pandemic production hub’ with moderator Pedro Cristiani, Olivier Van den Broeck (The Searchers), Andrew Hunt (Raven Banner), Julian Richards (Jinga Films) and Anaïs Bertrand (Insolance Productions) • ‘Physical vs. online world premieres’ with moderator Mark Adams, Colin Geddes (Ultra 8 Pictures/Shudder), Todd Brown (XYZ), Monica Ciarli (Minerva Pictures) and Peter De Maegd (Po-temkino)

Several info sessions, both Belgian (Casa Kafka - Tax-Shelter, Screen Flanders, screen.brus-sels, Wallimage) and international government funding mechanisms (Lazio Cinema International, Basque Genre Showcase, Eurimages).

Three masterclasses: ‘How to promote your project in a post-COVID landscape’ by Pedro Cris-tiani, ‘The perfect pitch to start off your genre project’ by Marian Sanchez Carniglia and ‘Your corona-proof film set’ by Jean-Louis Decoster (Octopods Xr Studio). We also invited Belgian film school students to watch these masterclasses and be part of the live Q&A with the speakers.

A day completely dedicated to Virtual Reality, with a panel, a masterclass and an event to meet VR film professionals.

The second Pitchbox Session, a pitch competition with 10 Belgian projects, in collaboration with the Association des Scénaristes de l’Audiovisuel (ASA), the Association des Réalisateurs et Ré-alisatrices Francophones (ARFF), the Union des Producteurs de Films Francophones (UPFF), screen.brussels and Sabam for Culture. The contestants will present their project in front of an international jury, who will chose their winner during the BIF Market. And, essential for an online edition: informal networking events at the end of each market day on Gather, our virtual lounge room!

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practical information

3€/ film

Access to the BIFFF Online platform : www.bifff.net

Payment via Visa, Mastercard and Bancontact

Access to the BIFFFzone : via www.bifff.net

Specific restrictions for some movies :

SEOBOK - only available from 15 till 18 April 2021RIDERS OF JUSTICE - only available starting from 7pm on 18 April 2021

Don’t hesitate to consult our FAQ file!

EXCEPTIONALLY one accreditation per media

HD visuals available with jonathan@bifff.net

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CONTACT ANDSOCIALNETWORKS

INSTAGRAM

TWITTER

FACEBOOKWEBSITECONTACTinfo@bifff.net

FLICKRYOUTUBE

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thanksAVEC LE SOUTIEN DES / MET DE STEUN VAN / WITH THE SUPPORT OF

Institutions / Publieke Overheden / Public Institutions

La Région Bruxelles Capitale / Het Brussels Hoofdstedelijk GewestLa Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles (Culture, Audiovisuel, Promotion, Rayonnement et Loterie Natio-

nale)Het Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds van de Vlaamse Overheid

De Stad Brussel / La Ville de BruxellesLa COCOF

Visit Brussels / Brussels Film Office Wallonie - Bruxelles International

Sabam for CultureLe Ministère de l’emploi de la Région BRUXELLES CAPITALE,

Le Fond Maribel Social des secteurs socioculturels et sportifs desCommunautés française et germanophone,

Service Outdoor & Indoor – Opération Transport de la Ville de Bruxelles,Le Centre de Prêt de matériel de la Communauté française de Belgique,

Le Centre de Prêt de la Commission Communautaire française dela Région de Bruxelles-Capitale,

Le Service général de la culture de la Communauté française de Belgique.Le Ministère des Affaires Etrangères

Nos main sponsors / Onze hoofdsponsors / Our main sponsors

La RTBF, Classic 21 & La Trois (ainsi que La Première, Vivacité, Tipik, et La Une)

Nos sponsors / Onze sponsors / Our sponsors

EuromillionsDe Morgen

Be TVBeCyber

Bx1

Producteurs belges / Belgische Producenten / Belgian Producers

Tarantula

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Nos Partenaires / Onze Partners / Our Partners

Le Géant des Beaux Arts La Galerie Pieter Pauwel

Shadow FilmClari-Screen

Merci aux / Bedankt aan / Thanks to

FIRMES DE DISTRIBUTION BELGES / BELGISCHE FILMVERDELERS / BELGIAN FILM DIS-TRIBUTORS

CINEART, SEPTEMBER FILM

AIDES DES AMBASSADES / STEUN VAN AMBASSADES / EMBASSY SUPPORT KOREAN CULTURAL CENTER TO THE EUROPEAN UNION

TAIPEI REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE IN THE EU AND BELGIUMEMBAJADA DE ESPANA EN EL REINO DE BELGICA

HONG KONG ECONOMIC AND TRADE OFFICE / BELGIUM HONG KONG SOCIETY

TOUTES LES FIRMES INSTITUTIONS ET ORGANISMES QUINOUS ONT AIDES POUR CETTE 39e EDITION

ALLE BEDRIJVEN, INSTELLINGEN EN ORGANISATIESDIE ONS GEHOLPEN HEBBEN VOOR DEZE 39ste EDITIEALL COMPANIES, INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS

THAT SUPPORTED US FOR THIS 39th EDITION

Ajile, Point Culture (ulb), L’ecole de maquillage Jean Pierre Finotto, Georges stevens

cie., Cityclash, Propa,IPM printing, La Cerm faculté de traduction et d’interprétation

de l’université de Mons, Dreamscreen, Talencentrum & OndertitelingKU Leuven Campus Brussel, ASA,

Modern City, Fermenthings, Eva Luna, Brussels Summer Festival, CF Production

The Vex Louvain-La-Neuve, Koezio Bruxelles, Courts mais Trash, les communes d’Auderghem, St Josse, Schaerbeek,

Bruxelles, Ganshoren, Ixelles, Berchem-St-Agathe et,

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The BIF Market wants to thank:

for their support:

Stad Brussel / Bruxelles VilleBrussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest / Région Bruxelles-Capitale

Visit BrusselsFédération Wallonie BruxellesService Publique de Wallonie

for their collaboration to the information sessions and showcases:

Amania Films, Casa Kafka, Eurimages, Roma Lazio Filmcomission / Lazio Cinema Internatio-nal, Screen.brussels, Screen Flanders Ventana Sur / Bloodwindows & Wallimage

for their support and collaboration to the Pitchbox:

Association des Réalisateurs & Réalisatrices Francophones, Association des Scénaristes de l’Audiovisuel, Sabam for Culture, Screen.brussels & Union des Producteurs de Films Franco-

phones

For the Masterclasses:

Pedro Cristiani (Molino Studio), Jean-Louis Decoster (Octopods Xr Studio), Marian Sanchez Carniglia & Leen Segers (Lucid Web)

for their participation to our debates:

Myriam Achard (Centre Phi), Mark Adams, Anais Bertrand (Insolence Productions), Todd Brown (XYZ), Monica Carli (Minerva), Mathias Chelebourg, Arnaud Chevallier (Reel Suspects), Eric Chou (Greener Grass Production Co., Ltd.), Pedro Cristiani (Molino Studio), Peter De Maegd

(Potemkino), Jean-Louis Decoster (Octopods Xr Studio), Colin Geddes (Ultra 8 Pictures), Andrew Hunt (Ravenbanner), Lize Le Faible (Potemkino), Julian Richards (Jinga Films), Sa-mantha Richardson (Devilworks), Leen Segers (Lucid Web) & Olivier van den Broeck (The

Searchers)

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