The autumn 2021 edition of Night Visions International Film Festival, nearly 16 months in the making thanks to covid restrictions applied by the Finnish government on the cinema exhibitor industry, wrapped up under lucky stars on the evening of Sunday, December 5, 2021.
The most popular film of the Official Selection of the festival turned out to be Julia Ducournau’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner TITANE (France 2021). Out of the classic features in the selection, the biggest hit was the Finnish premiere of the 4K restoration of AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (UK/USA 2021), screened in the presence of the festival’s headliner filmmaker guest and Holywood icon John Landis.
The Audience Award vote turned out to be extremely tight race between two features. Quentin Dupieux’s sensational Coenesque comedy MANDIBLES (France/Belgium 2021) ended up as the first runner up, by a margin exceptionally small. The feature that ended up winning the 2021 Night Visions Audience Award is Junta Yamaguchi’s exceptional sci-fi comedy BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES (Japan 2020).
Other titles having come close to the top spot in the Audience Award race include TITANE, the festival’s Finnish-US horror sensation SOUND OF VIOLENCE (2021) by Alex Noyer, and Chris Atkins’ fantastic documentary WHO KILLED THE KLF? (UK 2021).
Night Visions will be arranging repeat screenings of MANDIBLES and BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES at WHS Teatteri Union in Helsinki this Saturday, December 11, 2021 (both screening with English subtitles). Tickets (10,00 per piece, 16,00 e for a combo of both screenings) are available through the venue’s own webstore: https://teatteriunion.fi/elokuva/nv-uusinnat/
Night Visions will be returning to the screens of Helsinki on full scale next spring. The dates set for the Back to Basics 2022 edition of the festival are from April 20 to April 24, 2022.