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The annual Trieste Science+Fiction Festival has just come to a close with the awards hardware being handed out to an interesting collection of films. The Silver Melies Award - an award granted by every accredited festival of the European Federation of Fantastic Film Festivals, qualifying the film for the year end Golden Melies award - went to Tom Shankland's The Children, the Audience Award went to Jac Schaeffer's TiMER, lifetime acheivement nods to Roger Corman and Christopher Lee and the Asteroid Award - the hardware being hoisted in the photo to the left - for Best Feature in the competition section went to Russian anime First Squad, with an honorable mention to Tarik Saleh's Metropia. Here's the full announcement:
Science+Fiction
SCIENCE FICTION FESTIVAL
ZERO/NINE EDITION
TRIESTE 22-28 NOVEMBER 2009
Cinecity Multiplex - Torri d'Europa
ANIMATED MOVIE FIRST SQUAD WINS THE ASTEROID AWARD AND ANOTHER ANIMATION, METROPIA, GETS AN HONORABLE MENTION
THE CHILDREN WINS THE MÉLIÈS D'ARGENT
This year's edition Science+Fiction (Trieste International Science Fiction Festival), just finished. The festival assigned life achievement awards to movie stars Roger Corman and Sir Christopher Lee, as well as a new award (New Visions) to Federico Zampaglione, as the most interesting European author.
The winner of the ASTEROID AWARD for the best feature film in competition was First Squad-The Moment of Truth, directed by Japanese filmmaker Yoshiharu Ashino. Swedish movie Metropia, by Tarik Saleh, got an Honorable Mention. The animated movie won thanks to an utilisation of computer graphics that was unanimously appreciated by the Science+Fiction 09 jury, headed by writer Bruce Sterling. The other members were two great experts and researchers in fantastic worlds: comics author Antonio Serra and French film critic Gilles Esposito.
As for the Méliès d'Argent, which was assigned at Science+Fiction for the first time this year, the winner was The Children, by British director Tom Shankland: in this way the movie will also compete for the Méliès d'Or, which will be given in occasion of the next edition of Sitges Film Festival. The Jury was headed by director Enzo G. Castellari, other members were Marcello Rossi of Sci-Fi Channel Italy and Andrea Magnani, Italian producer and screenwriter.
In the European Fantastic Shorts selection, the Jury headed by Castellari gave the Nomination for the best Méliès d'Or to French film Virtual Dating, by Katia Olivier.
Finally, the Audience Award - organised for the first time this year - went to TiMER, directed by Jac Schaeffer, and was chosen by the public among all the movies in and out of competition.
Yay Great News for Studio 4c. Hopefully this will get them closer to a US bluray release for First Squad.