Fantaspoa 2023: Official Recap, Audience Numbers, and Award Winners

2023 marked another memorable year for Fantaspoa, South America's largest international fantastic film festival. The nineteenth edition of the celebrated event happened over a whopping 18 days inside four different cinemas in Porto Alegre, Brazil, reaching an impressive 12,000 in-person attendees through festival screenings, workshops, and parties.

The festival lineup was composed of 172 features and shorts, carefully selected from over 850 entries. Says Fantaspoa co-directors João Fleck and Nicolas Tonsho, "This has been our largest, most exciting edition yet and, along with Fantaspoa being selected as the only Latin American event in Moviemaker Magazine's '50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee', we're all eagerly anticipating our 20th anniversary, with dates already set for April 11 to 28, 2024.

Once again, the festival ran as a hybrid format, with an online program of 68 films made available during ten days on Brazil's popular Darkflix+ streaming platform, with these online screenings reaching an astounding 148,000 total views. Fantaspoa 2023 also had 39 in-person Q&As with over 60 filmmakers in attendance, eight live music screenings, and seven workshops hosted by film professionals. Combined, the festival activities reached over 160,000 people. Fantaspoa 2023 was presented by the Ministry of Culture, Fantaspoa Produções, and the Ling Institute, and was sponsored by Fitesa.

Headlining the event's award winners was Michael Lukk Litwak's SXSW hit Molli and Max in the Future, which celebrated its International Premiere at Fantasia. The science fiction rom-com starring Girls' Zosia Mamet and SNL alumni Aristotle Athari took home the festival's Best Film Award, with Nuno Beato's My Grandfather's Demons taking home Best Ibero-American Film, and Luciana Mazeto and Vinícius Lopes's Ana's Farewell being crowned Best Brazilian Film. Winners were awarded at a live ceremony that closed out the festival on the evening of Sunday, April 30.

A montage video highlighting some of Fantaspoa 2023's more memorable moments can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhQCuAx_w-g 

The full list of Award Winners from Fantaspoa 2023 are as follows:

Short Film Competition - Film Critics of Rio Grande do Sul Association Awards (Jurors: Carla Oliveira, Carlos Redel, and Robson Nunes)

Best Brazilian Short: The Shooting Star (d. Gio Vieira)

Best International Short Film (Animated): The Smile (d. Erik van Schaaik)

Best International Short Film (Live Action): La Luz (d. Iago de Soto)

Brazilian Competition (Jurors: Caye Casas, Paul Urkijo Alijo, and Pedro Rivero)

Best Film: Ana's Farewell (d. Luciana Mazeto and Vinícius Lopes)

Low Budgets, Great Films Competition (Jurors: JJ Weber, Kapel Furman, and Nicanor Loreti)

Honorable Mention: Give Me An A, for bravest approach to the timeliest topic

Honorable Mention: Mother Superior, for technical achievements

Best Film: Kick Me (d. Gary Huggins)

Ibero-American Competition (Jurors: Anami Tara Shucart, Korhan Ugur, and Serpil Altin)

Honorable Mention: Vírus-32, for best innovative zombie chase

Best Actress: Andrea Trepat (The Antares Paradox)

Best Actor: David Pareja (The Coffee Table)

Best Screenplay: Cristina Borobia and Caye Casas (The Coffee Table)

Best Director: Paul Urkijo Alijo (Irati)

Best Film: My Grandfather's Demons (d. Nuno Beato)

International Competition (Jurors: Dane Taranha, Diego Faraone, and Fernando Sanches)

Honorable Mentions:

Best Couple: Molli and Max in the Future, by Michael Lukk Litwak

Best Villain: Immersion, by Takashi Shimizu

Best Relative: The Uncle, by David Kapac and Andrija Mardešić

Official Awards:

Best Special Effects: Mike Cheslik (Hundreds of Beavers)

Best Art Direction: Ryan Stevens Harris (Moon Garden)

Best Photography: Peter Bencsik (The Ballad of Piargy)

Best Screenplay: David Kapac and Andrija Mardešić (The Uncle)

Best Actor: Mohsen Tanabandeh (World War III)

Best Actress: Tatum Matthews (The Artifice Girl)

Best Director: Beth de Araújo (Soft & Quiet)

Best Film: Molli and Max in the Future (d. Michael Lukk Litwak)