The co-directors of the Festival de Cine Fantástico de Canarias Isla Calavera, Ramón González Trujillo and Daniel Fumero, unveil the list of winners of its third edition in a ceremony at the Casa de los Capitanes in La Laguna, in the presence of Mayor Luis Yeray Gutiérrez and the Councilor of Culture Yaiza López Landi.
The jury of the Official Section of Feature Films in Competition of the third edition of the Canary Islands Fantastic Film Festival - Isla Calavera, composed by the professor of Theory and History of Cinema of the University of La Laguna (ULL) Fernando de Iturrate Cárdenes (as president), journalist and member of the Asociación de Informadores Cinematográficos de España Fran Domínguez, professor and vice-dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication of the ULL Vanessa Rodríguez Breijo, producer Luis Adern and professor of psychology at the ULL Esteban Torres, has decided that of the 13 participating films, the Best Feature Film is: 'Little monsters', written and directed by Abe Forsythe. This title also won the Best Screenplay Award.
The film 'Vivarium' also won two awards, the Best Director Award for Lorcan Finnegan, and the Best Actress Award for Imogen Poots.
The "Jack Taylor" Award for Best Actor was given ex aequo to the leading couple of 'Amigo', David Pareja and Javier Botet.
The "Colin Arthur" Award for Best Special Effects goes to the German production 'Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver'.
On the other hand, the jury of the Official Short Film Competition Section of the Festival, formed by writer Víctor Conde (president), actor David Pareja and Fernando de Iturrate, has decided that the Isla Calavera Award for Best Short Film goes to 'La noria', by Canarian director and screenwriter Carlos Baena. The Jury has also decided to give a special mention to the short film 'La guarida', by Iago De Soto.
The jury decided to award the top prize to 'La noria' "for its graphic beauty, its amazing visual narrative and its ability to touch the heartstrings of the viewer, telling a beautiful story of filial love and how a child overcomes his fears. But he also wanted to highlight among the other short films presented 'La guarida', "for the excellent acting work, the staging and the escalation of tension that the screenwriter and director knew how to build so wisely, which offers an excellent sample of Spanish suspense cinema".
The Audience Awards for Best Short Film and Best Feature Film, determined by the votes of those attending the different sessions of the program, went to 'Amargo era el postre' (Diego H. Kataryniuk Di Costanzo) and 'Amigo', Óscar Martín's opera prima.
HONOR SKULL ISLAND AWARDS
This third edition of the Canary Islands Fantastic Film Festival has counted with the presence of luxury guests, who have visited Tenerife to collect their Honorary Isla Calavera Awards.
Belén Rueda collects her award this Saturday, November 30, as part of the tribute to the actress that the festival will offer with the screening of 'El Orfanato'.
The actress from Madrid, winner of the Goya Award for Best New Actress in 2005 for 'Mar adentro' and nominated on two other occasions for her leading roles in 'El orfanato' (2007) and 'Los ojos de Julia' (2010), receives the Honorary Isla Calavera Award in recognition of her career linked to the genre. Since his participation in the debut film of J. A. Bayona's horror film 'El orfanato', Belén Rueda has starred in numerous horror and science fiction thrillers such as 'El mal ajeno' (Oskar Santos, 2010), 'Los ojos de Julia' (Guillem Morales, 2010), 'El cuerpo' (Oriol Paulo, 2012), 'Séptimo' (Patxi Amezcua, 2013), 'No dormirás' (Gustavo Hernández, 2018) , 'El pacto' (David Victori, 2018) or 'El silencio de la ciudad blanca' (Daniel Calparsoro, 2019), among others.
In addition, this Saturday, during the Closing Gala of the Isla Calavera Festival, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo will receive the Isla Calavera S.S. Venture Award. This new award is added this year to the festival's annual list of winners, with the aim of recognizing the trajectory of those Canary Islanders who have taken their talent to the frontiers of the fantastic.
The screenwriter and film director born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, who, with his directorial debut, the short film 'Esposados' (1996), was nominated for an Oscar in 1996, premieres this year this recognition. His link to the genre has been a constant in his career, with feature films such as 'Intacto' (2001, with which he won the Goya Award for best new director), '28 semanas después' (2007, his leap to international cinema) or the thriller 'Intruders', starring Clive Owen.
These awards are in addition to the other two honorary awards collected this Friday by the master of special effects and makeup Rick Baker and actor David Naughton, star of 'An American Werewolf in London', thirty-eight years after the release of the legendary film by John Landis in which they worked together.
The programming of the III Festival Isla Calavera closes this Saturday with the screening of the classic 'Races of Night', a 1990 film written and directed by Clive Barker, based on his novel. This session is offered free of charge, prior withdrawal of invitation at the box office until full capacity, by the hand of the distributor Reel One Entertainment.
