The winners of Trieste Science+Fiction Festival 2019

Asteroide Award
The Award is given to the best science fiction, horror or fantasy film by emerging directors in the Neon | Competition section. The prize is awarded by an international jury composed of cinema professionals and experts of the fantastic cinema. Members of the 2019 Asteroide award jury were producer and director Brian Yuzna, journalist and creative director of the Fantastic Fest (Austin, Texas) Evrim Ersoy, and documentary film director Alexandre O. Philippe.

TS+FF 19 Asteroide Award winner
“Aniara” by Pella Kågerman, Hugo Lilja (Sweden, 2018)

Motivation
It’s a true science+fiction film with a strong environmental and existential message.
The Jury particularly liked the character of Mima (watch the film and you will understand!).

Synopsis
Our planet is done for: we have to move to Mars, and we have to do it quickly. Aniara, one of the ships carrying Earth passengers to their new home, hits space debris and ends up off-course. Soon its destiny is clear: drifting in space forever in an empty and cold universe.

Méliès d’argent Award – Feature Films
The competition, which is organized in collaboration with the Méliès International Festivals Federation (MIFF), awards the best European fantastic feature film. The prize is awarded by an international jury composed of cinema professional and also counts as a nomination to take part in the annual competition for the Méliès d’or Award. Members of the 2019 Méliès d’argent jury were composer and orchestra leader Fabio Frizzi, the CEO of CG Entertainment Lorenzo Ferrari Ardicini, and journalist and president of the Bruges Razor Reel Flanders Film Festival Thierry Phlips,

TS+FF 19 Méliès d’argent Award winner – Feature Films
“Extra Ordinary” by Mike Ahern, Enda Loughman (Ireland, Belgium, 2019)

Motivation
A delicious ghost story that owes a lot to a great cast, the script, and the direction. A universal story that remains grounded in European and Irish culture and folklore. In the end, it’s a classic story reinvented with modern rhythm and style.

Synopsis
What a palaver having superpowers. People ask you to exorcise the bewitched toaster or free them from the ghosts hidden under the carpet. But Rose is docile and patient and ready to help everyone. If there’s something more serious to face, like a possessed girl because of a pact with the devil by a rock singer, then she really cannot pull out. With stars like Will Forte and Maeve Higgins, the festival’s comic relief is guaranteed.

Special Mention
A special mention to Marta Król, the leading actress of “I am REN”, for her outstanding talent to create empathy with the audience since the very beginning of the film, conveying great strength to the film message.

Synopsis
What if one day you discover your wife is an android? And not working properly, either. You may lose everything you’ve got, everything you know.

Méliès d’argent Award – Short Films
The competition, which is organized in collaboration with the Méliès International Festivals Federation (MIFF), awards the best European fantastic short film. The prize is awarded to the film that gets the most votes from the audience and also counts as a nomination to take part in the annual competition for the Méliès d’or Award.

TS+FF 19 Méliès d’argent Award winner – Short Films
“This Time Away” by Magali Barbé (UK, 2019)

Synopsis
Nigel is an elderly man living as a recluse, haunted by his past and by the memory of the family he once had… until an unexpected visitor arrives and disrupts his lonely routine.

Rai 4 Award
The prize is awarded by the Rai 4 channel of Italian television, media partner of the 2019 Trieste Science+Fiction Festival, to one of the films of the Neon section.

TS+FF 19 Rai 4 Award winner
“After Midnight” by Jeremy Gardner, Christian Stella (USA, 2019)

Motivation
An ironic and intelligent metaphor of the sentimental crisis of a young couple, in which the refined narrative plot leads the male protagonist into the labyrinth of an anguished loneliness, and the experience of fear becomes monstrous and unsettling.

Synopsis
Hank and Abby are in love. BUT: one day she disappears in the air. And: there is a monstrous creature creeping out of the woods at night. The premises for a great science fiction story we will hear about for a long time are all there.

Stars’ War – Web Critics Award
The prize is awarded to the best debut film by nine web magazines: BadTaste, Blow Out, Cineblog, CineClandestino, CineLapsus, Cinematographe, Quinlan, Sentieri Selvaggi, and Taxi Drivers.

TS+FF 19 Stars’ War Award winner
“Extra Ordinary” by Mike Ahern, Enda Loughman (Ireland, Belgium, 2019)

Nocturno Nuove Visioni Award
The prize is awarded to the most innovative genre film by Nocturno, the main Italian magazine in the genre movies field.

TS+FF 19 Nocturno Nuove Visioni Award winner
“Extra Ordinary” by Mike Ahern, Enda Loughman (Ireland, Belgium, 2019)

Motivation
A breath of fresh air in a genre often victim of repetitions and clichés. An almost miraculous balance between moments of great supernatural tension and loud laughter, Nocturno prize speaks Irish!

CineLab Award
The prize, in cooperation with DAMS (Arts, Music and Entertainment Disciplines), an intra-university degree by the University of Udine and the University of Trieste, is awarded to the best Italian short in the Spazio Italia | Spazio Corto section by a jury composed of students.

TS+FF 19 CineLab Award winner
“N” by Iacopo Di Girolamo (Italy, UK, 2019)

Motivation
“N” succeeds in applying the philosophy of Stanislaw Lem to an expressionist form, not entering into contradiction with it, nor obtaining a parodic result, but maintaining themes and style, while creating an original work. The construction of the soundtrack according to the assembly is truly remarkable.

Synopsis
An expressionist nightmare in which an inventor and his colleague test the Automaton, a machine able to create things from nothing. The machine works perfectly as long as the items it’s asked to create start with the letter N… in German. The results of the test will be predictably catastrophic.

Audience Award
The prize is awarded by the theatre audience to one of the fiction films in any programme, except for the Classix.

TS+FF 19 Audience Award winner
“Extra Ordinary” by Mike Ahern, Enda Loughman (Ireland, Belgium, 2019)