The Night Visions Film Festival in Helsinki, Finland wrapped up a little over a week ago, and a little film named Machete wound up making history as the first American film to win the 14-year-old festival’s Audience Award. From the official press release…
The high octane action and exploitation sensation MACHETE (USA 2010), directed by Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis, has won the Night Visions Audience Award 2010 at the Night Visions Film Festival in Helsinki, Finland. This is the first time ever that the award goes not only to an American film, but to an American film with a set theatrical release date also in Finland.
Now running in its 14th consecutive year, Night Visions Film Festival is the biggest and the oldest film festival in Finland focusing on horror, fantasy and cult cinema. The Night Visions Audience Award is voted on by festival audiences. The award is given out every year at the end of October at the Night Visions Film Festival in Helsinki, Finland.
A total of 20 feature films and documentaries released between years 2008 and 2010 – and all having their Finnish premiere at the festival – were eligible for the Night Visions Audience Award 2010. The first runner-up for the award was the hilarious splatter & skin extravaganza PIRANHA 3D (USA 2010) by Alexandre Aja. The second runner-up was ALIEN VS. NINJA (Japan 2010), director Seiji Chiba’s wicked mix extraterrestrial monsters and martial arts thrills. Other major contestants included the BFI London Film Festival opener NEVER LET ME GO (UK/USA 2010, dir. Mark Romanek) and the year’s most talked about sleaze shocker A SERBIAN FILM (Serbia 2010, dir. Srdan Spasojevic).
The Night Visions Audience Award is was established in 2008 to increase the recognition of new horror and fantasy cinema in Finland and to improve the availability and distribution of contemporary genre films in the territory. The previous winners of the Night Visions Audience Award include the horror thriller EDEN LAKE (UK 2008, dir. James Watkins) and the Scandinavian splatterfest DEAD SNOW (Dod sno, Norway 2009, dir. Tommy Wirkola).
Arranged this year from October 27th to October 31st, 2010, the Night Visions Film Festival also broke a new audience record with a total of over 5 200 admissions. This topped the previous record-breaking figures of October 2009 by almost five (5) per cent.
