Fantastic Fest News:CONFETTI OF THE MIND: THE SHORT FILMS OF NACHO VIGALONDO

DRAFTHOUSE FILM CELEBRATES THE ACQUISITION AND RELEASE OF NACHO VIGALONDO’S DEFINITIVE SHORT FILM WORK AT FANTASTIC FEST

Austin, TX – Friday, September 12, 2014 – Drafthouse Films is pleased to announce the acquisition and digital release of CONFETTI OF THE MIND: THE SHORT FILMS OF NACHO VIGALONDO, the definitive compilation of Nacho’s most brilliant and unforgettable shorts. Collected for the first time and personally curated by Vigalondo himself and his longtime partner-in-crime , Nahikari Ipiña, CONFETTI features such favorites as CHOQUE, SUNDAY, MARISA, and CARLOTA, as well as a fresh introduction and thoughts by the man himself. 

“If I ever have a child he will have to compete against this for my total love,” said an excited, and child-free, Nacho Vigalondo. James Emanuel Shapiro, COO of Drafthouse Films shared Vigalondo’s enthusiasm, “It’s been a dream of ours to work formally with our friend Nacho and its perfect that we get to show his remarkable evolution as a filmmaker through this feature length compilation of his short films.”

Alamo Drafthouse’s favorite son and the unofficial mascot of Fantastic Fest, Nacho Vigalondo blew the indie world away in 2008 with his astonishing debut feature TIMECRIMES before following up with EXTRATERRESTRIAL (2011) and OPEN WINDOWS (2014). But the startling originality in these films didn’t come from nowhere; Nacho had already written, directed, produced and acted in a robust body of short films, including 2003’s Academy Award®-nominated short film, 7:35 IN THE MORNING.

To celebrate the release of CONFETTI OF THE MIND, Drafthouse Films will premiere the program theatrically at Fantastic Fest on Sunday, September 21st where it will be accompanied by the aptly-named dining experience, ‘Nacho’s Nacho’s.’ The compilation will also be made available that same day via digital platforms including VHX, Vimeo and more. Confetti is not optional.

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Author (House of Psychotic Women), film producer (Eurocrime!), and the Alamo Drafthouse’s original lead film programmer Kier-la Janisse has curated a massively compelling, distressing, amusing and entertaining selection of short films from around the universe. You’ll thrill, laugh, gasp, cry, and probably vomit. Prepare to be transported into dozens of different worlds, if only for a moment each, but long enough to transform you forever.

In the true tradition of the European ‘fantastique,’ this collection of shorts interweaves the diverse strands of science fiction, fantasy, horror and surrealism to explore themes of parenthood, ritual and religious iconography, all culminating in a show-stopping short from that cosmic brain-trust known as the Jodorowsky family.    http://fantasticfest.com/programs/fantastic-shorts-2014

A young man realizes that he’s literally killing his feathery father every time he masturbates. Can a pubescent boy withstand the temptations that surround him without sending his dad to an early grave?

Abdullah is a lonely London cab driver who goes through the motions of his day while clearly disconnected from his environment. When he is invited to interact with a client, Abdullah chooses a frightening form of contact.

Winner of the Stranger with My Face Horror Film Festival’s annual scriptwriting contest, writer/director/producer Heidi Lee Douglas’ gothic period piece is set in the wilds of 19th century Van Diemen’s Land, where the inhabitants of a brutal women’s prison are occasionally plucked from the system by a mysterious benefactor who allegedly engages them as servants. Anxious to get out of jail, a feisty young prisoner volunteers herself as his next employee, not realizing that her new master has a dark secret.

A man dumps his girlfriend when she expresses an urge to have children, only to suddenly become pregnant himself. A simple story that allows for a smorgasbord of brilliant comedic moments.

When his glasses break, a man must leave his son alone in their hermetically-sealed apartment as he goes out to get them fixed. Ignoring his father’s instructions, the little boy follows him and learns the horrible truth about the outside world. Based on the award-winning short story by Daniel H. Wilson, THE NOSTALGIST is a stunning example of dystopian sci-fi whose ambitious production design is matched by its poignancy and emotional depth.

Two teens deal with their departed father’s estate. Lamenting his lifelong paranoia, they start dismantling the contraptions he obsessively affixed to the house to ward off a supernatural threat. A solidly acted and tightly directed exercise in mounting dread.

Asia Argento stars as a flamboyant opera singer who loses her voice in a row with her husband (Cristobal Jodorowsky aka Axel Jodorowsky, SANTA SANGRE), prompting him to trawl the back alleys of late-night Miami looking for a worthy voice to steal. His sinister adventures lead him to a dwarf prostitute, a transvestite and a garbage heap goddess, who each aid him in his climactic transfiguration. A lush film based on a story by Alejandro Jodorowsky and fueled by the same iconoclastic vision, with music by ROB (MANIAC).

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From blood-spattered spectacles to challenging explorations of trauma, this year’s program of grotesque, garish and gory short films is an infernal thrill ride through the international landscape of envelope-pushing genre talents.  http://fantasticfest.com/programs/short-fuse-2014

This subversive twist on the romantic comedy from Fantastic Fest alum James Moran (SEVERANCE) stars Arthur Darvill (TV’s Doctor Who) as a serial killer who falls in love at first sight with a quirky shopgirl. Can he keep his nocturnal proclivities from his new beau, or is his romance doomed?

A young woman participates in her humorless girlfriend’s black magic ritual in a bid to win her affection, but realizes she’s got tough competition in the form of a terrifying she-demon. An immensely satisfying Satanic short filled with all the boobs, blood and black metal you expect from the genre.

A woman savagely brutalizes two men in the woods. What would drive a woman to commit such atrocities? A frank and disturbing film about vengeance.

An exquisite short from relative newcomer Ben Aston, about a man who removes his skin at his girlfriend’s whim, only to realize that his increasing vulnerability is unattractive to her. A poignant, yet guignol-esque analogy for what many go through as their relationships decline.

Fredrik S. HanaFantastic Fest is proud to unleash the latest short from Fredrik Hana, who won last year’s Short Fuse competition with his film ANGST, PISS AND DRID. This time around, Hana fashions a Lovecraftian tale of a reclusive fisherman in service to an entity that inhabits the rolling mists of the sea.

Ryan CoonanMove over, Skippy! There’s a new ‘roo in town and he’s undead and pissed off. An environmental worker sent to investigate a report of dodgy water in rural Australia has his hands full when the local wildlife turns deadly.

A Thanksgiving home invasion does not turn out as planned.

Frank is a bedridden man in a squalid London house who is able to communicate with the dead in a most unusual fashion. With his health failing, he opts to do one last job before quitting the spirit medium business for good. But some local gangsters have other plans…

This outrageously gory Austin-based crime comedy follows a struggling hitman whose upward mobility lands him at the dreaded position of Bad Guy #2-a prominent but ultimately expendable character in the bad guy pantheon-leaving him no choice but to up his game or die violently at the hands of his emotionally erratic boss. Full of over-the-top practical FX and dazzling comedic performances.

A sordid, politically incorrect twist on Carlo Collodi’s classic 19th century children’s story, where our “Gepetto” is a portly pedophile and his wooden boy is in fact a disguised junkie dwarf out to find the pervert’s hidden stash of cash. So wrong in every way.

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 DRAWN & QUARTERED – ANIMATED SHORTS

Drawn & Quartered 2014 presents a truly psychedelic topography of animated experiments, with selections from Taiwan, Canada, Spain, the UK, France and the US, all illustrating a weird sense of global lysergic synergy. Something is definitely in the air… (or in the water, since our program begins and ends with the sea). From folktales to weird science, from slow motion dreamscapes to non-stop 2D assaults, I dare say this is Fantastic Fest’s most mind-blowing program of animated shorts yet.

Based on the same ancient folktale that inspired Kihachiro Kawamoto’s DOJOJI TEMPLE (1976), Joe Hsieh’s unsettling film (realized in a striking black/white/red color scheme) tells of a married travelling salesman who stops at a seaside inn for the night, only to have the landlord’s strange daughter fall in love with him instantly. But when he rejects her, she vows revenge.

Luca TothLuca Toth’s Royal College of Art graduation film is a tactile, subversively sensual coming of age film that explores the rituals of puberty and the mysteries that lay beneath manes of flowing hair.

A festival favorite since its premiere at Fant Bilbao last year, Alberto Vasquez’ follow up to his award-winning BIRDBOY (2011) is a plushy pastel tale of two teddy bears on the hunt for unicorn blood, a rare blueberry-flavored treat and the secret to eternal cuteness.

A woman discovers her animal nature when a wolf grows out of her own body and ravages her. A beautifully choreographed erotic tale that recalls Walerian Borowczyk’s film of the same name.

DIY collage-animating legend Martha Colburn turns her talents to three-dimensional stop motion and found footage in this transformative experimental nightmare originally commissioned by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.

The latest maniacal exercise from the BAFTA-winning Brothers McLeod is a schizophrenic overload of id-beasts and hilarious non-sequiturs, assembled from 365 one-second animations they made each day over the course of a year.

One of the wildest, most richly perverse animators of recent years, UK-based filmmaker Stephen Irwin (MOXIE; THE BLACK DOG’S PROGRESS) returns with this controversial tale of a chain-smoking toddler whose stuffed rabbit helps her get her dead parents’ dismembered limbs into heaven.

This funky animated/stop-motion/documentary hybrid utilizes over 10,000 crayon drawings to recount the true story of a heroic 1970s high school teacher who takes on an army of bikers single-handedly when they crash the school dance.

Video and sound artist Davide Di Saro’s incredibly ambitious animated music video for Toronto band Ronley Teper and the Lipliners has a roster of weirdo characters and infernal landscapes to rival a 1930s Fleischer Brothers cartoon.

As a storm brews outside, two scientists on the verge of a major discovery get embroiled in a scheme of industrial espionage and an unexpected menage-a-trois. A delightful sci-fi comedy and a testament to the beautiful, bewildering chaos of nature.

RITUAL OF CATHODE RAY TUBE began its life as a multi-screen gallery installation, in which a series of monochrome drawings interact with each other like a live news feed recording of a black magic happening. Hypnotic and awesome.

We return to the whipping waves of the sea for our program’s closing film, a lighthouse terror tale performed by marionettes and infused with that wistful melancholia that only the Old Ones and ancient mariners understand.

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A distinguished Chef stows himself away in the privacy of his own home to explore his dark culinary desires.

An old recluse, neglected by his 20-something party-girl caretaker, experiments with recording in his decrepit rural mansion, which is suffused with sinister sounds that are slowly encroaching upon him. A stylish and strange horror/crime hybrid steeped in Eastern Bloc cool.

This apocalyptic short about the evolution of the Panda Bear from prehistory to the dystopian future is oozing with the psychedelic vitality of the “lowbrow” underground art style associated with Robert Williams and Gilbert Shelton.

A tense, DePalma-esque dance of death in an underground parking garage, from first time directors Federico and Sebastian Rotstein.

Arthur Dale (star of last year’s S/ASH) is an alienated teen whose gnarly choppers earn him both an uncomplimentary nickname as well as frequent beatings at the hands of the school bully. When his father realizes the kid’s lack of confidence is hereditary, he unwittingly orchestrates a surprising act of aggression.

Our most highly anticipated addition to that time-honored tradition known as the weirdo Christmas special, this latest stop motion short from Stephane Aubier and Vincent Patar reunites their beloved plastic heroes Cowboy, Indian and Horse for a raucous, forehead-slapping adventure to the North Pole and back again. When Cowboy and Indian ruin Horse’s beautiful yule log, Horse convinces Santa to hold back their presents until they can redeem themselves. But why do that when they can just steal Farmer Steven’s yule log?

Dripping with crass humor and Quebecois colloquialisms, this hilarious short is about a neglected, angry white trash kid with a mullet who rechristens himself “The Hurricane” and sets about terrorizing the neighborhood.

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