FIXION Fest News

We have a lot of news about the next and fifth edition of our festival.

After much deliberation and taking a time, perhaps too long, the fest’s production team has decided to announce that the winner of the 2019 Illustrations Contest is Waldo Retamales, from Santiago de Chile, with his work The Medusa: that Greek myth of the monstrous turned into a gorgon, that cursed, stony look and thirsty for revenge. We believe that Retamales manages to capture very well the essence of the legend, creating a unique, enigmatic, terrifying and fantastic atmosphere. So we only have to congratulate its author, since it will be the official art for this version of our contest.

In addition, we want to remind you that the dates of the festival will be from 8th to 17th May and we will be at the Centro Cultural Casona Nemesio Antúnez in La Reina and at the Centro Cultural Espacio Matta in La Granja and, best of all, it will be with free entrance, but, voluntary contributions are welcome! There will be 10 intense days where not only will we have double functions of pure fantastic and horror cinema, but we will also have many other activities such as conferences, presentations, exclusive premieres, practical workshops, conversations, among others. When we decided to assemble this reboot, we promised them many changes and we hope to fulfill them. Pretty, isn’t it?

On past 31 March we closed the 2018-2019 call and, at the risk of sounding like a commonplace, expectations were far exceeded. The large number of shorts and feature films show the immense number of different ideas and visions that are currently being developed by filmmakers all over the world. What has especially caught our attention is the growing participation of women in gender cinema, as well as the LGBT community. Many of the titles we have received have been directed or written by women, which accounts for an authentic and special approach, with a unique sensitivity to portray situations to the limit, sometimes challenging, but never naïve.

The list of those selected, in all categories and the official competition, will be published on our website and in all our socials networks during the first fortnight of April, together with the jury team.

Finally, if you want to promote a product or present a related activity, we have the possibility to give you the necessary space. Just write to us in contact section for coordination.

René Weber Q.
Director.
April 3th, 2019.
Possunt quia posse videntur.

Some time ago, during the first edition of the festival, I was approached by someone who was visibly anxious and something nervous. Between congratulations and handshakes, he told me how excited he was to finally be able to see at last one of his short films at a genre film festival, as well as the plus of being appreciated by an audience that understood him. That small fragment that told a story of persecution between a murderer and his victim, had taken him months to complete the work, sleepless nights and some discussions with his family… not to mention the fact that he had previously sent him to several mainstream festivals, without any results. He finally told me something I still remember: “when I decided to start counting this story, I never thought of abandoning it. Simply the call, the desire, was stronger”.

11 years later, and after a parenthesis of 7, we wanted to start again. This reboot won’t be from zero, maybe we would have changed the name, maybe started a new numbering, but we didn’t want to leave behind all the valuable experience learned in previous years, as well as that obtained in other film festivals. We were the first, the only ones, the strangers and we were proud of that, but that wasn’t enough to keep it alive. Leaving it in suspended animation was the best option. So, like the good doctor, we injected him with the best formula of the re-animator serum and during a cold night of thunderstorm we shouted madly: “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!”.

From now on, we have planned to make some changes to the festival that will simplify production, as well as the participation of directors, sponsors and the audience that attends. These changes include the use of digital distribution platforms, demanding higher quality standards for the works that participate, include other formats, other more experimental topics and also incorporate other types of activities.

For now, and independently of the main edition of the fest, we will have for the first time our Halloween Horror Special 2018, which will be presented exclusively at Cineplanet. For one afternoon, it will be a marathon of premieres whose only theme will be terror. There we will have the latest, the best shorts and feature films… and more than one surprise!

You are warned.