Final Girls Berlin: Women in horror film festival, coming soon!

Final Girls Berlin Film Festival returns for its 4th year on January 31st!

Final Girls Berlin Film Festival returns for its 4th year. The festival starts on Jan. 31 and runs until Feb. 3.  FGBFF “showcases horror films that were directed, written, and/or produced by women and non-binary filmmakers from across the globe,” according to festival publicist, Kaila Heir.

7 feature films and 8 curated blocks of awesome spine-tingling shorts will be screened. The festival will also be presenting four filmmaker panels “that will be dissecting some of horror’s more nuanced topics ranging from intersectionality in slasher flicks to an analysis of gender and body horror.” Not to mention there will be a “Pretty Deadly” self-defense workshop, which sounds amazing!

Films that will be featured at FGBFF v 4.0

CAM

Final Girls Berlin- Cam, Directed by Daniel Goldhaber, written by Issa Mazzei. Image courtesy of D. Goldhaber and Kaila Hier

Cam was one of the most inventive films, regardless of genre, that I had the pleasure of seeing in 2018. A thrilling reinvention of the “twin movie” and the erotic thriller, it focuses on “cam girl” Alice and what happens when her desire for more followers turns her into somebody different, but also not…

Hounds of Love

Final Girls Berlin- Hounds of Love (Australia, 2016) Directed by Ben Young. Image courtesy of filmmaker.

Hounds of Love is the story of a couple who kidnaps a young woman and how she must attempt to separate them to survive. The film is set in mid 80’s Australia. I’ve been looking forward to seeing this for a long time!

Tigers Are Not Afraid

Final Girls Berlin -Tigers Are Not Afraid (Mexico, 2017) Directed by Issa Lopez. Image courtesy of Kaila Hier.

A tale of a five-kid “gang” surviving the violence of the drug cartels and the ghosts created by the Mexican drug war. The film went over like gangbusters at numerous film festivals over the past year or so and has been compared to Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth.

Felt

Final Girls Berlin -Felt (USA, 2014) Directed by Jason Baker. Image courtesy of Kaila Hier.

A young San Francisco woman named Amy is facing the after math of a devastating trauma which almost caused her to have a total breakdown. She copes with this by creating an alter ego through her art.

Nancy 

Final Girls Berlin -Nancy (USA, 2018) Written and Directed by Christina Choe. Image courtesy of Kaila Hier.

Starring the wonderful Andrea Riseborough, who starred as the titular character in 2018’s breakaway horror hit, Mandy, in addition to the wonderful Steve Buscemi and Anne Dowd, Nancy is the FGBFF film I am most excited to see. A psychological thriller about an emotionally damaged woman named Nancy (Riseborough) who finds her real parents (Buscemi and Dowd), but does she really?

Good Manners

Final Girls Berlin -Good Manners (Brazil/France, 2017) Directed by Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra. Image courtesy of Kaila Hier.

A lonely nurse named Clara becomes a nurse for wealthy São Paulo woman Ana and her unborn child…until on the night of a full moon, their plans are changed. A werewolf movie with a social conscience? Yes, please!

Messiah of Evil

Final Girls Berlin – Messiah of Evil (USA, 1973) Directed by Willard Huck and Gloria Katz. Image courtesy of Kaila Hier.

I’m disappointed with myself that I have not seen this film already. Not only does it have the most metal title of all time, but 70’s cult horror is kind of in my wheelhouse. The audience at FGBFF 4.0 will be very lucky to see this cult classic gem on the big screen.

Short Film Blocks for Final Girls Berlin Film Festival

Tainted Love

Final Girls Berlin -Image from Puppetmaster which is part of the Tainted Love Shorts Block at the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival. Image courtesy of Kaila Hier

• My Monster  (Dir. Izzy Lee, USA, 2018, German Premiere)
• Instinct (Dir. Maria Alice Arida, USA, 2017, German Premiere)
• Sell Your Body  (Dir. Jannelle Yee, USA, 2017)
• Pages (Dir. Shaan Couture, France/USA, 2018, European Premiere)
• Supine (Dir. Nicole Goode, Czech Republic/Canada, 2018, German Premiere)
• Puppet Master (Dir. Hanna Bergholm, Finland, German Premiere)

Obsessions

• Two Sentence Horror Stories: Singularity (Dir. Vera Miao, USA, 2017, European Premiere)
• Real Artists (Dir. Cameo Wood, USA, 2017)
• Just After Midnight  (Dirs. Anne-Marie Puga & Jean-Raymond Garcia, France, 2017)
• Enid (Dir. Brad Netherclift, Australia, 2016)
• 42 Counts (Dir. Jill Gevargizian, USA, 2018, German Premiere)
• Dreams From the Ocean (Dir. Carolina Sandvik, USA, 2018, German Premiere)
• Asian Girls (Dir. Hyun Lee, Australia, 2017)

Social Horror

• Devil Woman (Dir. Heidi Douglas, Australia, 2018, German Premiere)
• Knock Knock (Dir. Kennekki Jones-Jones, USA, 2018, European Premiere)
• Dulce Hogar (Dir. Giovana Olmos, Mexico/Canada, 2018)
• My Final Girl: Black Women in American Horror (Dir. Laura Spark, UK, 2017)
• 11 Minutes (Dir. Hilda Lopes Pontes, Brazil, 2018, German Premiere)
• Catcalls (Dir. Kate Dolan, Ireland, 2017)
• Baptism (Dir. Mackenzie Bartlett, USA, 2017)

Social Horror (pt 2)

• All Men Must Die (Dir. Kate Beacom, USA, 2018, European Premiere)
• Allen Anders-Live at the Comedy Castle (Dir. Laura Moss, USA, 2018, German Premiere)
• Control (Dir. Kimmy Gatewood, USA, 2018, European Premiere)
• Panic Attack (Dir. Eileen O’Meara, USA, 2018)
• Pink Trailer (Dir. Macey Isaacs, USA, 2018, German Premiere)
• Cherry  (Dir. Paul Holbrook, UK, 2018)
• Polyfilia (Dir. Scarlett Anderson, UK, 2018, European Premiere)
• Evströnger (Dir. Silvia Conesa, Spain, 2017)
• The Party (Dir. Mackenzie Bartlett, USA, 2018)
• The Only Thing I Love More Than You is Ranch Dressing (Dir. Sydney Clara Brafman USA, 2018, German Premiere)
• Mouse (Dir. Celine Held & Logan George, USA, 2017)

Long In The Tooth

• I Am Albert (Dir. Aurélia Raoull, France, 2018)
• Entropia  (Dir. Marinah Janello, USA, 2018, German Premiere)
• The Old Women Who Hid Her Fear Under The Stairs Dir. Faye Jackson, UK, 2017, German Premiere)
• Shell Phone (Dir. Miren Mujika, Spain, 2018, German Premiere)
• Grammy (Dir. Jill Gevargizian, USA, 2015, German Premiere)
• Centrifugado (Dir. Mireia Noguera, Spain, 2017, German Premiere)
• La Proeza (Isaac Berrocal, Spain, 2018, German Premiere)
• Two Sentence Horror Stories: Second Skin (Dir. Ryan Spindell, USA, 2017, European Premiere)

Growing Pains

• Caroline (Dir. Celine Held & Logan George, USA, 2018)
• Little (Dir. Brittany Brock, USA, 2018, German Premiere)
• TiCK (Dir. Ashlea Wessel, Canada, 2018, German Premiere)
• ¿Quieres que hoy te bese? [Do You Want Me to Kiss You This Time?] (Dir. Miriam Ortega Domínguez, Spain, 2018, German Premiere)
• A Death Story Called Girl (Dir. Nathalia Beahand, USA, 2018)
• SIlhouettes (Dir. Sarah Brill, USA, 2018, International Premiere)
• Lucy’s Tale (Chelsea Lupkin, USA, 2018, European Premiere)

Flesh And Blood

Final Girls Berlin -Still from “Nose, Nose, Nose, Eyes” a brutal short which will screen as part of the “Flesh and Blood” block at FGBFF. Image courtesy of Kaila Hier.

• Blood Runs Down (Dir. Zandashé Brown, USA, 2018)
• Hana (Dir. Mai Nakanishi, Japan, 2018, Berlin Premiere)
• Colony (Dir. Catherine Bonny, Australia, 2018, European Premiere)
• Ma (Dir. Vera Miao, USA, 2017, European Premiere)
• The Pig Child (Dir. Lucy Campbell, UK, 2014)
• 9 Steps (Dir. Marisa Crespo & Moises Romera, Spain, 2018, Berlin)
• Nose Nose Nose EYES (Jiwon Moon, Korea, 2018, German Premiere)

Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2019. Image courtesy of Kaila Hier.

To Find out more about Final Girls Berlin Film Festival, You can visit these social sites:

Twitter: @finalgirlsfest

Instagram: @finalgirlsfilmfest

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/finalgirlsberlin/

What do you think of the film festival’s selections?  Let us know what you think in the section below.