Festival recap

So there we are... one film festival under our belts and what to show for it? Circles under our eyes, for one. And maybe a bit more experience in the realm of horror films. It was a great weekend! Except for the fact that the french really don't know how to organize their volunteers (this turned out to be almost a good thing because we got to watch a lot of movies... but because I like to work and feel useful I found this excruciatingly hard to deal with).

Day 2 of working the festival> Got to the theater by the lake a bit late, but still nothing to do. Lucked out and was able to watch the presentation of the Short Film category, where they introduced the jury and the directors of each film. Some very good, some verrrry bad...
Grand Prize for Best Short Film went to Le Miroir (The Mirror) by Sebastien Rossingol. Beautiful colors and a intriguing storyline made for a wonderful piece of work.

Volunteers weren't allowed to watch the next few movies because they were the sessions that were voted and in high demand for seats (so to be fair, they didn't even want us standing in the back)... after my shift ended we headed home for a quick dinner and drinks then returned to the Casino theater to help out for Olivia's shift. There we saw half of J'ai rencontre le diable by Kim Jee-Woon. Gruesome, violent and full of vengeance. Seriously, where do people come up with this stuff? Is it therapy so they don't go all crazy killing people in real life? And why are we so obsessed with it as viewers?




Last day of Festival>
My shift was only at the end of the night. I arrived just in time for the Prize ceremony. The theater was packed with photographers, video cameras and seemingly famous people (I didn't recognize anyone!)... but the atmosphere was a great thing to be a part of. They kept the ceremony short and sweet- Grand Prize went to Bedevilled by Jang Cheolsoo.



After the ceremony was a viewing of The Hunters by Chris Briant. Also a very twisted storyline about a group of men who play manhunt in the woods with real targets and kill people. Funny thing about this movie was that the actress who plays Quinn in Glee was a main female! Kind of weird to see her in a horror film, but I guess you have to start somewhere...

Alrighty! That's all the energy I have to put into this... exhaustion and excitement for this next week are taking over! For all of the award winners check out the festival website: http://www.festival-gerardmer.com/index.html