Sleep wins at the Gerardmer Festival

Witches, gore, sleepwalkers and vampires… the 31st edition of the fantasy film festival did not disappoint. Complete list.

Nothing changes in the Gerardmer rooms. Every year, on the shores of Lake Vosges, the rituals before the screenings begin again. The spectators yell “no” in unison at the appearance of each anti-piracy logo, they imitate the cry of the werewolf when it appears on the screen, utter a “glugglouggulglou” when it is the creature from the black lake which arises, applaud each mention of the co-producers of the films on screen… “When someone asks me why you have to see the films in theaters, explained Jason Yu before the presentation of his film Sleep Saturday evening, I would tell them to go to a screening at Gerardmer” – crazy ovation from the audience!

Some things are therefore immutable, but others evolve. Like the selection of fantasy films for example. If last year had been marked by radical, hard-line and confusing proposals (Pieta, which received the Grand Prix of the festival last year has just been released on VOD), this year, we went back to basics. Jumpscare, gore, pure angst, lots of encores and… witches. This was indeed the main trend of the festival, both in competition and out of competition. Of The Forbidden Play by Hideo Nakata (who disappointed festival-goers), through The Funeral (strange Turkish film which shook the beginnings of the Vosges gathering) or Roqya (with Golshifteh Farahani as Circe of 9-3) the armids were everywhere.

The other trend of this 31st edition was the return of the French. Waiting for the night, a delicate vampire film made in France, is a coming of age story that watches its main character try to integrate a society that doesn’t want him. Somewhere in Walrus And The Animal Kingdom (for the themes), the film imposes the strange presence of the young actor Mathias Legout Hammond and leaves with the Jury Prize. Outside of competition, we were also able to see Roqya And The Soul Eater of the duo Bustillo and Maury who, in their own ways, bear witness to the vitality of the genre in France.

But it is therefore Sleep which made it to the charts last night. Powerful frames, mix of genres (we oscillate between comedy and pure anguish), Jason Yu’s first film made everyone agree. By telling the story of a young Korean couple who are plunged into horror when the husband becomes sleepwalking (the wife fears for the life of her newborn…), Yu, Bong Joon-ho’s former assistant, succeeds in marrying opposites, humor and fear, modern science and ancestral beliefs, closed doors and supernatural vertigo… A nice move.

In another register, When Evil Lurks impressed his world as well. A little hardcore slap from Argentina, Damien Rugna’s film is a clever and violent film of possessed people, which skillfully plays with clichés to deliver its shocks of pure fear and it legitimately leaves with the Critics’ Prize and the Audience Prize .

Here are the winners of the 31st edition of the Gerardmer International Fantasy Film Festival.

Grand Prize: Sleep by Jason Yu

Jury Prize: Amelia’s Children by Gabriel Abrantes and Waiting for the night by Céline Rouzet

Critic’s Prize: When Evil Lurks by Damien Rugna

Audience Award: When Evil Lurks by Damien Rugna

Grand Est Region Youth Jury Prize: The Seeding by Barnaby Clay

Short Film Grand Prize : Transylvania by Rodrigue Huart