Asteroide Award
The Award is given to the best science fiction, horror or fantasy film by emerging directors in the Neon | Competition section. The winner of the competition has been chosen by an international jury of world renowned film professionals and experts of the fantastic genre. Members of the Asteroide Award Jury 2020 were cartoonist and writer Bepi Vigna, scriptwriter and writer Javier S. Donate, and producer and screenwriter Brendan McCarthy.
Asteroide Award winner – TS+FF2020
SPUTNIK by Egor Abramenko (Russia)
Motivation
A debut film which deftly observes the oppressive self-absorbed Soviet bureaucracy of the 1980s as it fails to recognize the danger of a newly arrived extraterrestrial creature. The director has created a clever, terrifying, and truly remarkable film.
Asteroide Award Special Mention – TS+FF2020
COME TRUE by Anthony Scott Burns (Canada)
For the careful and precise expressive choices which are meant to represent the loss of control of the protagonist, floating between dream and reality, and which in some scenes create moments of strong emotional impact.
Méliès d’argent Award – Feature film
The competition is organized in collaboration with the Méliès International Festivals Federation (MIFF) and the award goes to the best European feature-length film of the fantastic genre. The winner of the competition has been chosen by an international jury of world renowned film professionals and experts of the fantastic genre. Members of the Méliès d’argent Jury 2020 were composer Pino Donaggio</b, director of the Far East Film Festival Sabrina Baracetti, and film director Martin Turk.
Méliès d’argent Award winner – Feature film TS+FF2020
THE TROUBLE WITH BEING BORN by Sandra Wollner (Austria, Germany)
Motivation
A poetic and controversial movie, taking the cue from a science fiction theme which soon oversteps the boundaries of the genre to decisively land in the territory of auteur cinema. A complex, evocative work, raising questions about loneliness and, more than anything, love in all its aspects (even the more twisted), creating a simultaneously spellbinding and disturbing rhythm and atmosphere.
The Jury, having thoroughly enjoyed all the movies in competition, have decided to award the Méliès d’Argent to Sandra Wollner’s “The Trouble With Being Born”.
Méliès d’argent Award Special Mention – TS+FF2020
POST MORTEM by Péter Bergendy (Hungary)
A bleak, brilliantly staged horror movie with a beautiful historical setting. After the first World War and during the Spanish Flu pandemic, terror ensues among the farmers of a country village. The stark realism of their features, the gruesome, icy presence of the dead among the living sends chills down our spines, the corpses being the real protagonists. The jury’s special mention goes to a film that perfectly embodies the concept of genre, “Post Mortem” by Péter Bergendy.
Méliès d’argent Award – Short film
The competition is organized in collaboration with the Méliès International Festivals Federation (MIFF) and the award goes to the best European short film of the fantastic genre. The winner of the competition has been chosen by the online audience. The winner will run for the Méliès d’or annual competition.
Méliès d’argent Award winner – Short Film TS+FF2020
THE RECYCLING MAN by Carlo Ballauri (Italy)
Rai 4 Award
The award is given by the Rai 4 channel of Italian television, media partner of the 2020 Trieste Science+Fiction Festival, to the best movie of the Neon selection.
Rai 4 Award winner – TS+FF2020
POST MORTEM by Péter Bergendy (Hungary)
Motivation
The impeccable historical reconstruction of the times of the Spanish Flu pandemic, which swept the world away in 1919, is all the more powerful and shocking in the light of the current global situation. The main theme combines folklore with the superstition of the farming community, the universe of magic and religion with the technological and scientific advances of the beginning of the nineteen hundreds in the fields of photography and phonography, and produces a horror of excellent quality, between realism and the echoes of expressionist cinema. On these assumptions, and for knowingly updating the classic ghost movie genre, the RAI4 award goes to “Post Mortem” by Péter Bergendy.
Rai4 Award Special Mention – TS+FF2020
MORTAL by André Øvredal (Norway, USA, UK)
Motivation
In a wonderful Scandinavian landscape, mystery and the supernatural slowly emerge, triggering an inner journey and the escape of a very unusual couple from the threats of the narrow-minded foreigners chasing them. Norway smartly reclaims its own myths with no inferiority complex, and the result is a surprising vision ripping the glossy cape off the domineering imagery of the North American fantasy universe of superheroes.
With this motivation, in the hope that the director will resist the sirens of Marvel and DC, the RAI4 special mention goes to “Mortal” by André Øvredal.
Nocturno Nuove Visioni Award
The award is given to the most innovative genre film by Nocturno, the main Italian magazine devoted to genre films.
Nocturno Nuove Visioni Award winner – TS+FF2020
MEANDER by Mathieu Turi (France)
Motivation
There are movies that win you over by making you sink in a deep, claustrophobic tension, others you immediately love because of the beauty of their monsters, others which play with your expectations and transport you from a nightmare into a dream… and then, there is a movie where all of this comes together: the Nocturno Nuove Visioni Award 2020 goes to “Meander” by Mathieu Turi!
CineLab Spazio Corto Award
The award is organized in collaboration with DAMS (Arts, music and entertainment department) of the Universities of Udine and Trieste. The award is given by a jury of students to the best Italian short film in the Spazio Italia | Spazio Corto selection. The 2020 jury members were Davide Beraldo, Mattia Cantarutti, and Alessandro Dambrosi.
CineLab Spazio Corto Award – TS+FF2020
GUINEA PIG by Giulia Grandinetti and Andrea Benjamin Manenti
Motivation
After a long discussion and analysis of all the short films presented, it was decided to award “Guinea Pig” by Giulia Grandinetti and Andrea Benjamin Manenti.
According to the jury, the short film stands out for its greater entirety with an excellent photography, a truly excellent soundtrack and audio design, and remarkable interpretations. The jury underlines the appreciation for the idea, perfectly in line with the science fiction spirit of the Festival, and for the artistic spirit.
