These are busy times for the Nightmare Cinema team.
This weekend, Mick Garris (the film’s producer and writer/director of “Dead”) and Sandra Becerril (writer of the Ryûhei Kitamura directed “Mashit”) are in Strasbourg for the film’s French premiere at FEFFS — Le Festival européen du film fantastique. The premiere will take place at a special midnight screening on Monday, September 17, with additional screenings scheduled for September 18 and 23.
Since its launch in 2008, FEFFS has become one of Europe’s most comprehensive genre events, with a focus on international fantastic films as well as thrillers, film noir, black comedies, and even video games and virtual-reality cinema.
This year, the FEFFS Guest of Honor will be John Landis, director of Animal House, The Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf in London, and Into the Night (the film that made stars of Jeff Goldblum and Michele Feiffer).
While Mick Garris and Sandra Becerril are hosting the EU premiere at FEFFS, David Slade (“This Way to Egress”) and Ryûhei Kitamura (“Mashit”) will be in London and Japan respectively, with David working on the upcoming season of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror and Ryûhei hosting the Japanese premiere of his thriller Downrange, which has been receiving strong notice since its L.A. premiere last spring. And there’s more, as some of the film’s actors and producers will be hosting a panel at Son of Monsterpalooza in Burbank.
Next month brings more premieres, with Nightmare Cinema screening in Spain and England before returning to Canada (where it had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in July).
First up will be a UK premiere at Grimmfest in Manchester (October 4-7), where I’ve been invited to take part in a question-and-answer session following the film’s screening at the Odeon Theatre on October 6. There’s a chance that an additional guest could be joining me on stage to help celebrate the connection that “This Way to Egress” has to the Manchester-Sheffield area. More information coming soon, as I plan to blog about that connection soon and speak about it at the screening. Please stand by!
Beginning the same week as Grimmfest, the Stiges Film Festival (October 5-14) — regarded by many as the world’s foremost film festival specializing in fantasy, horror and science fiction — will host Nightmare Cinema‘s Spanish premiere on Thursday, October 13.
Other Stiges highlights will include the Festival’s Grand Honorary Award (going to M. Night Shyamalan) and a special screening of the new 4k restoration of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Running concurrently with Stiges, the 13th Annual Toronto After Dark Film Festival (October 11-19) will mark Nightmare Cinema’s return to Canada, where the film had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on July 12.
It’s busy line-up indeed, and one that will enable more viewers to discover what capacity crowds in Montreal and Mexico City have already seen firsthand.
The Nightmare Cinema project has come a long way since producers, writers, and directors gathered at Xiomara on Melrose in December 2016 to celebrate the green-lighting of the film. And the excitement’s still just beginning.
Stop back soon for more updates … and for a special Grimmfest preview in which we’ll consider how the UK screening will be a homecoming of sorts for “This Way to Egress.”
Until then … scop on!
Images:
- Above: Promotional graphics from Festival européen du film fantastique, the Japanese premiere of Ryûhei Kitamura’s Downrange, Grimmfest Film Festival, The Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, and the Toronto After Dark Film Festival.
- At right: Nightmare Cinema directors and writers gather at Xiomara on Melrose Avenue, L.A, on December 8, 2016. Pictured from left to right, front to back, are Alejandro Brugués, Ryûhei Kitamura, R.C. Matheson’s hands. Sandra Becerril, Lawrence Connolly, Mick Garris, Joe Dante.
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