Grimmfest Easter 2022 Announces Their “Grimm Reaper” Award Winners [Exclusive]

Congratulations to all the winners!

Grimmfest Easter launched in 2021 as an annual event, taking place over the Easter Weekend, and complimenting the long-established festival in October. 

This year the mini-festival was a hybrid event that took place at the Odeon Great Northern in Manchester and online, and incorporated exclusive feature film premieres, a short film showcase, and plenty of filmmaker Q&As. 

Grimmfest Easter, like the October festival, was a competitive festival, with a number of awards up for grabs. This year’s awards included, BEST FEATURE, BEST SHORT, BEST DIRECTOR, BEST SCREENPLAY, BEST PERFORMANCE, BEST SCARE, and BEST SFX. 

The Grimmfest Easter Jury consisted of four experts in genre cinema. Deliberating and debating over the various films were actress and producer, Joanne Mitchell (Bait, Before Dawn), Grimmfest’s long-time visual guru and graphic designer, Ilan Sheady, Mary Beth McAndrews editor-in-chief at Dread Central, and Rosie Fletcher, UK editor at Den of Geek.

The jury viewed eight feature film premieres, that were presented on the big screen at the Odeon Great Northern in Manchester, with a further two features, exclusive to our online offering. The features included; POST MORTEM (Hungary, Northern UK premiere), CROSS THE LINE (Spain, UK premiere), EGO (Spain, Euro Premiere), A PURE PLACE (Germany/Greece, UK premiere), THE CELLAR (Ireland, English premiere), GHOSTS OF THE OZARKS (US, International Premiere), WOODLAND GREY (Canada, Euro Premiere), THE FAMILY (Canada, Euro Premiere), THE WOMAN WITH LEOPARD SHOES, (France, Northern UK premiere) BRING OUT THE FEAR (Irish, Northern UK premiere). 

The task cannot have been an easy one, but the votes are now all in. The Grimmfest team is delighted to announce the Award-Winners for the second GRIMMFEST EASTER event.

Best Feature: POST MORTEM

Pretty much a unanimous Jury decision, with one Juror saying they could happily have given it all of the Awards, Peter Bergendy’s sumptuously-visualized tale of pandemics and possession in post-World War I Hungary combines a full-scale, widescreen historical epic, with a surprisingly intimate tale of survivor guilt and redemption, and generated spontaneous applause from our audience. It was also Hungary’s nominated film for the 2022 Oscars.

Best SFX/VFX: POST MORTEM

The sheer scale of the Effects work, and the constant visual inventiveness, really impressed everyone.

Best Director:   DAVID VICTORI for CROSS THE LINE [NO MATARÁS]

David Victori’s ferocious spin on the “Yuppie Nightmare” neo-noir was another real jury and audience favorite. The jury was particularly impressed by the jittery, constantly moving camera, and long, fluid takes, creating the relentless, breakneck pace and sense of unstoppable momentum, as we watch the hapless protagonist’s life spiraling increasingly out of control. The film also stars some big names from Spanish cinema and TV, Mario Casas from Netflix’s THE INNOCENT and Melina Smit from Almodóvar’s PARALLEL MOTHERS.

Best Performance:  MARÍA PEDRAZA for EGO

Alfonso Cortés-Cavanillas’ cunning and claustrophobic study in paranoia and personality breakdown in the midst of a country-wide lockdown is essentially a one-woman show for much of its running time, and Pedraza’s nuanced, complex, constantly unpredictable, utterly authentic performance anchors the film in a very real sense of terror and disorientation. Maria Pedraza is one of the stars of Netflix’s MONEY HEIST.

Best Scare: EGO

“Tell your mother to buy oranges.” Never has a simple request been so bone-chilling in context.  

Best Screenplay:  NIKIAS CHRYSSOS  &  LARS HENNING JUNG for A PURE PLACE

A slyly satiric, subtly creepy fable of cleanliness, godliness, and the correct use of soap, this is a sharp, literate, and penetrating exploration of cultism, group-think, and gaslighting, with a carefully grounded sense of mythology and how it can be manipulated.

Best Short: CRICKET

Chris Suchorsky’s cool, cruel neo-noir plays like a feature in miniature, deftly sketching in its blue-collar small-town milieu with the deftness of a Raymond Carver short story, before delivering a truly brutal final twist. A favorite with the Grimmfest team and audiences alike.

Grimmfest jury member Ilan Sheady said:“There were some truly anxiety-inducing nightmare-fuelled moments in these movies that will stick with me for years to come”

And jury member Mary Beth McAndrews said: “I was so impressed with the films screening as part of Grimmfest Easter. I was especially blown away by María Pedraza’s performance as Paloma in the stunning, and terrifying, EGO. I’m glad we as a jury were able to acknowledge such a powerful actor, along with the rest of our incredible award winners.”

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