Grimmfest Joins Méliès International Festivals Federation, Announces Jury
Mary Beth McAndrews
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Grimmfest is excited to announce that they’re now members of the Méliès International Festivals Federation! To celebrate, they’ll be hosting three short film programs across this year’s festival. But what does it mean to be a part of this Federation?
The Federation (which includes key European genre festivals such as Sitges in Spain), recently held their annual general assembly at the Cannes Film Festival. The 26 member festivals voted for Grimmfest to join, which is now the only English festival part of the Federation.
Each year member festivals vote for their best ‘Fantastic’ feature film and short film, with an award for each, presented at Sitges. Previous winners have included Alex Garland’s Men, Prano Baily-Bond’s Censor, Anders Thomas Jensen’s Riders of Justice, Peter Strickland’s In Fabric, and Julia Ducournau’s Raw.
As a competitive member, Grimmfest, now in its 15th year, will select at least six European short films in 2023 and a specially selected jury will vote and award the coveted Méliès d’argent (Silver Méliès) to the best short film. That film will then go on to compete for the Méliès d’or (Golden Méliès) prize, awarded each year at the Sitges film festival in October.
Grimmfest’s esteemed 2023 Méliès d’argent short film jury includes Caroline Couret-Delegue (French sales agent at Film Seekers), Sean Wheelan (Producer at Filmgate Films in Gothenburg), Ben Parker (UK Director of feature films, THE CHAMBER, and BURIAL) and Mary Beth McAndrews (Editor in Chief at Dread Central).
Grimmfest festival director Simeon Halligan said: “We are honored and excited to join the Méliès Federation which works tirelessly to promote and nurture genre cinema. Grimmfest has always made it our priority to exhibit exciting new voices in fantastic cinema, and as part of the federation, we will be able to further our support of burgeoning film talent through awarding a prestigious Méliès d’argent award each year.”
If you have a European-made short film that you would like to submit to Grimmfest 2023, with a chance of winning a Méliès award, there is still time to submit via the festival’s FilmFreeway page.
All selected short films from other countries will be eligible for the Grimmfest best short film award.
Grimmfest 2023 will take place in Manchester UK this October.
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