This year’s Brooklyn Horror Film Festival is still in full swing, but the jury has spoken, and we've got the exclusive reveal of this year's jury awards. Split into three categories — Dark Matter, Head Trip, and Shorts — the awards honor the best at the fest, spanning from awards for best feature and performance to below the title categories like cinematography and special effects.
Esteemed features jurors for this year's edition of the fest include Zena Dixon, Jonathan Penner, and João Pedro Fleck for Dark Matter, Madeleine Schumacher, Sharai Bohannon, and Kurtis David Harder for Head Trip, with Lucia Pistone, Kara Grace Miller and Luigi Sibona judging the Shorts selection.
Winners in Brooklyn Horror Film Festival's Dark Matter block, for films grounded in serious, ambitious, or challenging subject matter, include Marion Le Corroller, who wins Best Director for French body horror Species, Hailley Lauren and Kelsey Pribilski for Best Performance for their work in festive frightener American Dollhouse, and Michelle McGilvray who picks up a Best Editing win for supernatural thriller Posthumous.
Taking home the grand Best Feature prize in the Dark Matter program is Gabrielle Christensen's Mountain King. Set in the highlands of Scandinavia, where folklore and reality converge, Mountain King follows Hannah, who travels to surprise her boyfriend and meet his family. However, her unexpected arrival unlocks family secrets and unleashes mystic danger.
Here's what Christensen has to say about Mountain King taking the crown:
“We’re so thankful to receive this award and to the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival for hosting the chaotic, sold-out East Coast premiere of Mountain King. Eternally grateful for our entire cast and crew for making this movie a reality! We love you all! Skål!”
Over in the Head Trip selection, for features which expand (and blow) your mind, Aminata Thiboult is awarded Best Performance for her role as Parisian singer turned vampire in Nicky Murphy's I Love Paris, Charlie Cole wins Best Cinematography for the dreamy and debauched Corpus, with Henry Chaisson and Simon Waskow awarded Best Score for their work on Josh Lobo's cerebral thriller Night After Night.
Kick On, the latest Aussie splatterfest from Nick Kozakis (Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism) is awarded Best Feature in the Head Trip slate, with Kozakis also winning Best Director. The action thriller, which closes out Brooklyn Horror Film Festival's festivities on October 22, follows four friends whose night of partying leads them to the extravagant drug-fueled lair of a mobster's reckless son, where they find themselves fighting for their lives amidst a brutal spiral of paranoia, violence and ultimate betrayal.
Here's what Kozakis has to say of his double win:
THANK YOU SO MUCH, Brooklyn Horror Fest, for these insane wins for KICK ON! Closing out this awesome festival and coming away with Best Feature Film AND Best Director is absolutely crazy. This is a dream come true! Genre fests mean so much to me. It’s the place I wanna be because you’re all my people. You love the tension, you love the scares, and you love seeing body parts explode. Shout out to the amazing cast and crew involved, and to the Brooklyn Horror fest team, volunteers, jury and audiences! Hope you have a killer night. Get loose, get wild, and KICK ON!
Over on the Shorts side of things, Connor Gaston and Vaughn Gaston win Best Director for wildlife cam creepfest Bagman, Jean-Michel Anctil wins Best Actor for Living Grounds, Gabby Beans wins Best Actress for Angels Pull Your Hair, Remi N. Sørdal wins Best Production Design for Mancave. Kyle Spleiss' House Cat wins Best Horror Comedy in the Laugh Now, Die Later program, while Ciara Sergi's No Free Brains takes home the Home Invasion Award. Sebastian DiNatale's Echelon bagged a Special Jury Mention.
Winner of the Best Short went to Summer Project from director Yuki Hara. The psychological thriller is set in rural Japan during the 1990s, and follows Akira, a lonely elementary school boy who struggles to connect with his classmates. After a macabre discovery, what begins as a strange and innocent “summer research project” with his peers gradually reveals the darker side of childish curiosity.
Here's what Hara has to say about being awarded the coveted prize for Best Short:
“Receiving the Best Short Film award is an absolute honor! I deeply thank the jury for this amazing recognition, as well as the incredible cast and crew who brought this film to life. I will turn this wonderful honor into confidence and keep challenging myself to create borderless horror entertainment that will terrify audiences all over the world!!”
The fun and frights of Brooklyn Horror Film Festival are far from over, so if you're in the area, head over to the official site to see what's still to come and grab yourself tickets.
