The 2012 Fantastic Fest, running September 20-27, 2012 in Austin, TX, has announced the films in the AMD Next Wave Filmmaker Spotlight competition. The fest, in coordination with Alamo Drafthouse and Badass Digest, is also running a festival bumper contest on the theme “Time Travel is Fantastic.” Rules can be found in the press releases below:
FANTASTIC FEST ANNOUNCES THE 2012 AMD NEXT WAVE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the U.S., is pleased to announce the 2012 AMD Next Wave competition, which recognizes outstanding new talent in genre film directing. Eight films from seven different countries have been selected to compete in the latest installment of this annual international competition.
These up-and-coming filmmakers are at the beginning of their movie careers and may well become the next generation of talent to shape the film industry for decades to come. The AMD Next Wave competition films will debut at Fantastic Fest, many in world and U.S. premiere screenings and compete for the highest honor of the festival.
The winning filmmaker will be awarded a $1,000 cash prize and AMD based computer hardware featuring their latest Accelerated Processing Unit (APU). The AMD Next Wave awards will be the final presentation at the annual Fantastic Fest Awards presentation on Monday, September 26th at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar.
The winner of last year’s AMD Next Wave competition, BULLHEAD, was acquired by Drafthouse Films and went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Director Michaël R. Roskam was heralded for his incredibly artful and original vision and has been compared to a young Martin Scorsese. Roskam’s next project is Focus Features’ THE TIGER produced by Darren Aronofsky and Brad Pitt.
“Michaël Roskam exemplifies the powerful potential of emerging genre directors,” said festival Founder and Creative Director Tim League. “In addition to being nominated for the best foreign language film Oscar, Michael is now working with Michael Mann on a high-profile American television pilot. The AMD Next Wave helps foster and support today’s most exciting debut directors who may become tomorrow’s industry leaders.”
“AMD technology continues to be utilized by top movie makers worldwide including the director Robert Rodriguez. We created the AMD Next Wave award along with our great partners at Alamo Drafthouse to recognize up and coming directorial talent across the globe. Fantastic Fest has become the premier genre festival in the world,” said Charlie Boswell AMD Director of Digital Media and Entertainment. “The Oscar nominated film Bullhead from Belgium director Michael Roskam is the latest product coming through the festival.”
All eyes look to the AMD Next Wave for the hottest new international directorial talent. Below you will find a brief description for each of the 2012 AMD Next Wave competition films:
COMBAT GIRLS (2011)
North American Premiere
Director – David Wnendt, 103min
The debut feature from director-writer David Wnendt is a bleak tale of two girls who, for very different reasons, get swept up in the resurgent Neo-Nazi movement in Germany.CONSPIRACY, THE
World Premiere
Director – Christopher MacBride, 85min
Two young documentary filmmakers are drawn into a shadowy world of secret societies when the subject of their film simply disappears. Have his investigations led to his demise?CRAVE (2012)
U.S. Premiere
Director – Charles de Lauzirika, 113min
CRAVE follows a mentally unstable crime scene photographer on his descent into violence and madness. CRAVE won the New Flesh Award for Best First Feature at the 2012 edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival.ERRORS OF THE HUMAN BODY (2012)
U.S. Premiere
Director – Eron Sheean, 101min
Plagued by the memory of the infant son he could not save, geneticist Geoff Burton plunges into a web of intrigue, jealousy and lies in this icily precise thriller.FLIMMER (2012)
North American Premiere
Director – Patrik Eklund, 99min
Oscar-nominated short film director Patrik Eklund’s feature debut showcases the wry wit that made his shorts so hugely popular in this tale of a small town telecom company plagued by anti-radiowave anarchists.F**K UP (2012)
North American Premiere
Director – Øystein Karlsen, 135min
Clearly it’s all the moose’s fault. Jack had everything under control until his best friend crashed into a moose on the Swedish border. With a trunk full of cocaine. Now it’s all gone to s**t.KING OF PIGS, THE (2011)
Texas Premiere
Director – Yeung Sang-ho, 97min
THE KING OF PIGS is an emotionally punishing animated indie film about a group of friends whose brutal childhoods continue to haunt them as adults.PLAN C (2012)
World Premiere
Director – Max Porcelijn, 95min
Detective Ronald Plasmeyer has a problem in need of a solution: A ten thousand Euro debt to the Chinese mafia. Plan A didn’t work. Plan B made things much, much worse. Now it’s time for Plan C.Look for more film & event programming announcements for Fantastic Fest in the weeks ahead.
FANTASTIC FEST, ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE AND BADASS DIGEST PRESENT THE FANTASTIC FEST 2012 BUMPER CONTEST
Fantastic Fest, Alamo Drafthouse and Badass Digest are thrilled to present the Fantastic Fest 2012 Bumper Contest! Every year Fantastic Fest hosts a bumper creation contest where filmmakers are invited to create the most outrageous and entertaining thirty second video possible. Fantastic Fest will use as many entries as possible and play different bumpers onscreen before every single screening during the festival with two goals in mind: 1) to represent the creativity (and often bizarre sense of humor) of the Fantastic Fest community and 2) to ensure that unlike other festivals, the audience at Fantastic Fest won’t have to sit through the same six or seven bumpers over and over again.Your bumper can be almost anything you can imagine, but there are three ground rules:
- The theme this year is Time Travel Is Fantastic. Feel free to interpret that in whatever manner you choose.
- The video must be between 15 seconds and 45 seconds.
- The last line of dialogue or narration in the video must be, “That’s fantastic!”
Check out some bumpers from previous festivals for inspiration! http://tinyurl.com/ffbumpers
All 2012 Fantastic Fest bumper videos selected by our programming committee will be screened in front of an unsuspecting audience during Fantastic Fest (September 20-27, 2012). Each of those audiences will include visiting filmmakers from around the world, press from the likes of Badass Digest, IFC, TwitchFilm, Fangoria, SlashFilm, Film Threat, Ain’t It Cool News, Variety, USA Today and more, plus a legion of the most devoted and intelligent genre film fans on the planet.
And as if that weren’t enough, there are more prizes!
The Fantastic Fest programming committee will select the Top 4 bumper finalists, and members of the Filmmaking Frenzy voting community will select the 5th finalist. The Top 5 bumpers will play at the Fantastic Fest 2012 Awards Ceremony, and the audience will select the grand-prize winner. That winner will receive two VIP badges to Fantastic Fest 2013! These VIP badges are always sold out by the end of the previous year’s festival, and they are seriously hot ticket items. VIP Badges include an exclusive limited edition t-shirt and poster, plus a souvenir Fantastic Fest shoulder bag filled with tons of fun swag. The main benefit of the VIP badge, however, is guaranteed admission to the movie of your choice at any given show time at next year’s Fantastic Fest.
The Fantastic Fest 2012 Bumper Contest is hosted by Badass Digest, and you can read all rule submissions and guidelines and submit your film here: www.filmmakingfrenzy.com
Fantastic Fest runs from September 20 through September 27, and because time is needed to build the festival’s preshow, Fantastic Fest Bumper Contest entries are all due no later than Saturday, September 15, 2012. Any videos we receive after that date can’t be guaranteed to play during the festival and won’t be eligible for any prizes. Good luck and be fantastic!
Look for more film & event programming announcements for Fantastic Fest in the weeks ahead.
