3 min readManchester-based horror and cult film festival GRIMMFEST has announced the introduction of a new award category for the upcoming 11th edition of the festival which is due to take place in October 2019: the WORK-IN-PROGRESS AWARD.
Grimmfest launched its very first festival awards in 2018, a year which also marked the 10th anniversary of the festival itself, which took place at the ODEON Manchester Great Northern. Last year saw the jury grant a total of 12 prizes, which included the award of BEST FEATURE FILM for Issa López’s TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID, whilst high school zombie musical ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE bagged the prize of BEST DIRECTOR for John McPhail.
HAUNT Manchester’s J.J. Wray enjoyed a number of film features last year (read the overview here), and also interviewed some of the people behind AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS, as well as the short film SYBIL.
The WORK-IN-PROGRESS AWARD is therefore set to be an exciting new addition, forged by Grimmfest partnering up with film producer and financier Michael Laundon as well as London-based international film sales agency Film Seekers.
The award itself offers a unique opportunity of support during the film-making process, open to genre feature films in production or post-production that are not yet completed. Whichever film is deemed to be the best or most promising work-in-progress will in turn be awarded post-production services worth £20,000 and will also receive an offer for international sales representation by Film Seekers.
The award is also supported by Screen International, who will provide subscription to Screen International magazine for a year to the winning filmmaker. Another exciting highlight is that the film receiving the award will be screened at a future edition of Grimmfest, once it is completed.
Grimmfest’s continued partnership with Michael Laundon also follows on from 2018, when he teamed up with the festival to offer the winners of the BEST FEATURE FILM and BEST DIRECTOR categories £40,000 worth of post-production services each to use against a future film production. This will continue for 2019, and according to Michael himself:
"After the success of last year's Grimmfest where there were so many fantastic films on display, I'm delighted to increase my support for 2019 and I am especially delighted to be working with the Grimmfest team to develop this new Work-in-Progress award."
Submissions for the WORK-IN-PROGRESS award will be accepted via the festival’s FilmFreeway platform, with filmmakers required to submit a 10-15 min proof of concept teaser from the project in order to be considered.
Grimmfest will also be partnering with HORROR CHANNEL again on the presentation of the LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD which will honour a very special guest for their body of work within genre film. In 2018, this prestigious prize was awarded to actor and producer Barbara Crampton (pictured above), who will be heading up the Grimmfest awards jury in 2019.
2019 also sees some new festival award sponsors for Grimmfest, which now include horror movie streaming service SHUDDER, magazines FANGORIA and RUE MORGUE, and screenwriting software provider FINAL DRAFT.
The 11th edition of Grimmfest will take place from 3rd – 6th October 2019 at the ODEON Manchester Great Northern. Submissions for works in progress and completed films are now open via FilmFreeway.
Photo credit: with thanks to Kenneth James
