Thea Hvistendahl’s atmospheric slow-burn “Handling the Undead” took top honors at this year’s Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF), claiming the festival’s H.R. Giger “Narcisse” prize alongside the Silver Méliès for best fantastic European feature.
Toplined by “The Worst Person in the World” stars Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie, director Thea Hvistendahl’s feature debut repurposes walking-dead tropes, reimagining the traditional zombie movie as a more ambient reflection on family grief.
“Full of frail, mortal feeling and overcast last-days imagery, ‘Handling the Undead’ lingers coolly in the bones longer than many zombie films that offer more immediate, grisly gratification,” PvNew’s Guy Lodge wrote out of Sundance. “It’s a living-dead nightmare with a brain and a heart, and, most importantly and indelibly, a soul.”
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This year’s international jury – made up of sci-fi author Saul Pandelakis, filmmakers Ishan Shukla and João Pedro Rodrigues, festival programmer Annick Mahnert, and photographer Kourtney Roy – also gave a special mention to Tilman Singer’s gonzo, Hunter Schafer-led freak-out “Cuckoo” and awarded Jane Schoenbrun’s “I Saw the TV Glow” the Imaging the Future prize best production design.
That all three films arrived with laurels from Sundance and Berlin – and, perhaps more importantly, with both Swiss and U.S. distribution secured – reflects the growing pride of place for elevated genre fare in festival selections and in the marketplace. That rising tide has lifted NIFFF as well, with this 23rd edition breaking attendance records, seeing 35,000 admissions over the course of 124 screenings and nine jam-packed days.
Rounding out the prizes, this year’s international critics jury took a shine to Shalini Ushadevi’s sci-fi-twisted romantic drama “Ennennum,” while a jury of local high-schoolers gave their prize to Ulaa Salim’s “Eternal” and the Neuchatel crowd spoke up to celebrate Damian McCarthy’s “Oddity” and Soi Cheang’s “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In” with respective audience awards.
The accolades for filmmakers Thea Hvistendahl and Shalini Ushadevi capped an edition rich with feminist perspectives and a selection that shone the spotlight on a significant proportion of female and non-binary directors, and that celebrated actor and director Asia Argento as guest of honor.
“We weren’t trying to impose a message,” says NIFFF chief Pierre-Yves Walder. “And we didn’t go out looking for any particular type of film. Only, over the many months we spent programming, we came across so many powerful stories told be strong, feminist voices. And because genre cinema has traditionally been quite masculine, we found it important to underline this new generation of female talent.”
