Julie Gayet’s awards place women and children at the forefront

Can horror cinema be feminist? The answer was a big yes at the Gérardmer Fantastic Film Festival. The jury chaired by Julie Gayet followed the trend by giving its grand prize to
Ego by Hanna Belghorm which will be released on DVD, BLU-Ray and VOD on April 27. A teenage girl oppressed by an overbearing mother discovers a strange egg there that gives birth to a not-so-nice creature.

“It’s the story of a girl who refuses the perfection that is imposed on her”, confides the filmmaker to 20 minutes. The critter, half-bird half-teen, has convincing arguments to calm the overly perfectionist mother. A touch of welcome humor completes the viewer’s adherence to this fable, the first feature film by a Finnish director also acclaimed by young people from the Grand-Est region.

Two other women’s stories in the spotlight

The “grand” jury also crowned two other women’s stories. samhain, the directorial debut of Kate Dolan, offers a fascinating variation on mental illness, witchcraft and the relationship between a mother and her daughter. This tale draws on Irish legends to celebrate femininity and its powers. As for Abuela of Paco Plaza, who returned to Gérardmer fourteen years later REC, this horrific story confronts a young model with her grandmother whose apparent senility hides a formidable secret. “The fantastic is a good way to evoke a subject as painful as Alzheimer’s disease”, explains the director to 20 minutes.

Our favorite, The Innocents by Eskil Vogt, already noticed at Cannes and at L’Etrange festival, seduced the critics and the public who rewarded him. Four kids with paranormal powers confront each other in a bar of Norwegian buildings. This violent and very disturbing work, the first film by screenwriter Joachim Trier, will be released in theaters on February 9. She bewitches by plunging into the mysteries of childhood and their cruelty.

No price for The Sadness, which still made an impression

Although it was not singled out by any jury, the spectators will undoubtedly keep an unforgettable memory ofand The Sadness by Robert Jabbaz. This incredibly transgressive Taiwanese zombie film was the shock of the festival with these undead obsessed with sex and blood.

The Gérardmer Festival has proven to be ideal for taking the pulse of international fantasy production. It pulsated with such vitality that one wonders what the organizers can imagine to celebrate, next year, the thirty years of the event.

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