STARBURST reports on 2024’s celebration of science fiction and fantasy…
The beautiful coastal town of Trieste in northern Italy became the centre of sci-fi at the end of October when the Science+Fiction Festival took over. Utilising several magnificent venues, a selection of films, presentations, and interactive events kept the 20,000-strong attendance busy and fascinated.
Amongst the movies screened were crowd pleasers such as The Substance, Broken Bird, The Invisible Raptor, Time Travel is Dangerous!, and The Bunker. There was also a strand of retro films, with special screenings of The Terminator, The NeverEnding Story, Them!, and Roger Corman’s classic The Little Shop of Horrors. There was also a rare chance to catch Robert Wiene’s silent classic The Hands of Orlac (1924) with a score specially created by Italian musician kariti. Festival goers wanting a bit more fun in their movies revelled in the midnight screenings of Spermageddon, an animated film from the director of Dead Snow, Tommy Wirkola, Ezra Tsegaye’s Monster on a Plane delivered Troma-esque fun, while Destroy all Neighbors, directed by Josh Forbes and featuring a heavily made-up Alex Winter as the next-door neighbour from hell! There was also ShinyaTsukamoto’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man, which played to a suitably gonzo crowd.
It wasn’t all about films, though. There were panel discussions and presentations on subjects like the application of artificial intelligence in media, in which Pigeon Shrine CEO Tom Paton revealed how his company is developing advanced methods for creating AI content. He also gave a masterclass on how to use consumer-level websites to create a film for yourself. Trieste artistic director (and FrightFest co-director) Alan Jones hosted a panel for his recently released book that collects all his reviews from STARBURST alongside Jeremy Dyson (Ghost Stories) and our very own Martin Unsworth.
The culmination of the event was an award ceremony in which the most popular films were honoured.
The Asteroid Award is presented to the best science fiction, horror, and fantasy film by emerging directors (first, second, or third works) screened at the festival. The international jury was composed of Allison Gardner (co-director, Glasgow Film Festival), Justin Lockey (guitarist in Editors and director), and João Monteiro (co-director, MOTELX). The winner was U Are the Universe, a Ukrainian film directed by Pavlo Ostrikov. Written and shot during the current Russian invasion of Ukraine, it’s a mediation on how important it is to have contact with a person who understands us during the darkest times.
The Méliès d’argent Award is organised in collaboration with the Méliès International Festivals Federation (MIFF) and is given to fantasy feature films produced in European. The jury was Jeremy Dyson, Luna Gualano (Tales from the Block), and Cristian Solimeno (photographer/director). The winner was Finnish director Arto Halonen’s After Us, The Flood, which is set in 2064 when the world is on the brink of an environmental catastrophe. The UN has developed a way to travel through time, where you can transfer your personality and memories to the moment of birth.
A further Méliès d’argent Award was given in the short film category that was decided by public vote. The winner was Où Va Le Monde, directed by Mickaël Dupré. The story follows the captain of a crew who decides to abandon his duties to follow a creature called ‘Intuition’. This takes him to a strange and mysterious desert planet where he hopes to find the meaning of life.
Sponsored by The Begin Hotels, the Audience award went once again to U Are the Universe. The winner of the Wonderland Award, sponsored by TV channel Rai4, was The Complex Forms, directed by Fabio D’Orta. In this enigmatic film, desperate people can offer their bodies to mysterious, Lovecraftian entities for a short time in exchange for money. The Italian Critics’ Award winner was Michael Felker’s Things Will Be Different. A sci-fi thriller full of plot twists, horrific darkness, and suspense, it involves brothers attempting to escape the police but instead finding a time portal that transports them to another dimension. The Event Horizon Award winner was the popular U Are the Universe. Finally, the CineLab Spazio Corto award winner was the short Golden Shopping Arcade, directed by Francesco ‘Skino’ Ricci Lotteringi. Here, a receptionist working at a hospital owned by an evil multinational corporation takes pity on an elderly man with financial difficulties.
Comparing the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival to UK events is difficult. The different vibe goes beyond the language differences. Before each screening, there was a spirited atmosphere. Opposing ‘factions’ playfully shouted against each other, leading with single claps that reverberated around the stunning Politeama Rossetti Theatre. Brilliantly organised and curated, the festival was wonderfully welcoming and every filmmaker and creative we spoke to had the best time.
