Sunday, October 16th, the first annual Brooklyn Horror Film
Festival came to an end after a jam-packed weekend of screenings and
events with an award ceremony and World Premiere screening of festival
closer CHILD EATER at Syndicated Theater. Attending filmmaker Jackson
Stewart took home the Audience Award for his debut feature BEYOND THE
GATES, which screened to a packed room on October 15th.
The
first-year festival, which opened October 14th with DEAREST SISTER at
the Wythe Hotel Cinema, is proud to report 18 out of 22 events were
complete sell-outs with overall attendance and enthusiasm for the fest
defying expectations. “The reception that we’ve received from the NYC
horror community has absolutely blown me away,“ says festival director
Justin Timms. Additional venues that hosted BHFF were Videology,
Spectacle, Throne and The Muriel Schulman Theater At Triskelion Arts.
Cinematic
highlights of BHFF’s program were two world premieres, the
Icelandic/USA joint production CHILD EATER by Erlingur Thoroddsen and
locally made PSYCHOTIC! by directors Maxwell Frey and Derek Gibbons, as
well as the US premieres of Lorcan Finnegan’s WITHOUT NAME, Cody
Calahan’s LET HER OUT, Nathan Ambrosioni’s THERAPY, Fabien Delage’s FURY
OF THE DEMON and the North American premiere of Shaun Robert Smith’s
BROKEN. The festival was also thrilled to host best-selling author and
renown public speaker Grady Hendrix and his spoken word event SUMMERLAND
LOST: A GHOST STORY.
A total of 11 countries
were represented in the diverse line-up of 26 shorts and 14 features. “
Horror is in a really exciting place right now, with genre lines being
blurred and indie filmmakers from all around the world taking big
creative risks, and our lineup tried to capture as wide a range of that
as possible,“ says head programmer Matt Barone of the films picked. “
Based on the audience’s feedback throughout the weekend, I know that
we’ve succeeded."
Brooklyn Horror Film Festival is excited to announce the winners
for our first edition, chosen by our esteemed jurors and through
audience votes.
FEATURES AWARDS:
Our
features jury was composed of Laura Kern (Film Comment editor, Film
Society of Lincoln Center programmer), Matt Donato (We Got This Covered
film critic) and Sam Zimmerman (Shudder curator).
Best Feature - Without Name - Lorcan Finnegan
Best Director - Without Name - Lorcan Finnegan
Best Actor - Noé Hernández - We Are The Flesh
Best Actress - Angela Trimbur - Trash Fire
Best Cinematography - Piers McGrail, Without Name
Best Editing - Tony Cranstoun - Without Name
Best Effects - Master Cleanse - dir. Bobby Miller
Audience Choice Award - Beyond The Gates - Jackson Stewart
SHORTS AWARDS:
Our
shorts jury was composed of Eric Walkuski (Arrow In The Head/JoBlo
Critic), Erlingur Óttar Thoroddsen (Dir. Closing Night Film CHILD EATER)
and Jenn Wexler (Glass Eye Pix producer).
Best Short - Pigskin - Jake Hammond
Best Director - Disco Inferno - Alice Waddington
Best Actor - Richard Glover- The Monster
Best Actress - Trieste Kelly Dunn - The Push
Best Cinematography - Zoë White - The Push
Best Editing - Aleksandra Hansen - Pigskin
Best Effects - Gwilliam - dir. Brian Lonano
Best Score - John Carpenter - The Puppet Man
Audience Choice Award - Tilly - Robert Kotecki
Special Jury Award – The Sound Of Blue Green and Red - Joshua Erkman
The festival would like to thank our main fest sponsors: Coney
Island Brewery, Horror Pack, El Buho Mezcal, Syndicated, QuickFrame,
Brooklyn Fireproof Stages, and Throne Watches. Additional sponsorship
thanks goes to Uber, Bruce Cost Ginger Ale, Brooklyn Bean Roastery,
Essentia and Skinny Pop. Additional thanks goes out to supporting
sponsors Screencraft, Boroughs of the Dead, Hattan Media, The Kings Of
Karaoke, and Salty Road.
Special thanks to our
media partners We Got This Covered, and Bloody Disgusting as well as
our friends of the festival BK Horror Club and Brooklyn Music Festival.
BHFF
extends a huge thanks to all the audience, filmmakers, and volunteers
that came out to support us in this exciting first edition. We look
forward to returning again next year and bringing the festival back to
Brooklyn, even bigger and better than before.
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