One thing they do a little differently here at Fantastic Fest is announcing their award winners early. Early as in mid-way through the festival, so audiences still have the chance to jump on the awarded films of the fest and the big list of winners came down last night. The titles that stand out? Human Centipede and Mandrill both took home a pair of awards, Truffe director Kim Nguyen scored a best director nod, Ben Wheatley's Down Terrace took the coveted Next Wave award and - with the results too close to select just one - the festival awarded FIVE Audience Choice awards, with the winners being A Town Called Panic, Fish Story, Breathless, The Revenant, and Indonesian ass-kicker Merantau.
Fish Story really is a great little movie - must check out the rest asap. Particularly happy to see Merantau there!! Congrats one and all!
Another award for "Breathless"? An audience one no less?
That part actually surprised me a little as this title never struck me as a crowdpleaser.
Then again, domestic violence and Texas...
I hope that second comment is some kind of joke.
It was. I just haven't found the "no offence" smiley yet.
Shall I delete the remark?
If I'm not mistaken Breathless came in as a runner up at NYFF for audience award... against Fish Story. People really do "like" the film. May not be a crowd pleaser.
I'm a little bummed Love Exposure didn't rack up anything, it would have been nice. Still the best film I've seen this year.
The thing about "Breathless" is, there is one scene between the leads about two thirds into the movie which is acted so incredibly well that it pulls the entire movie onto a different level.
I'm probably not going to watch the whole movie in one go ever again, but I have rewatched that scene several times and it still gives me goosebumps.
And a major lump in my throat too...
That one sublime moment made "Breathless" one of the best acted films of this year. Without it, Yang Ik-June's performance could be judged as being too deadpan. But with that one scene, that whole role got extra depth and dimensions added to it.
So the movie is still an endurance test of sorts, but in the end I like it a lot even though I don't plan on rewatching the whole thing.
Ehm... and it's the first and last part of that sentence why I was surprised it won an audience award.