Final Girls Berlin Film Festival announces 2019 films

The Final Girls Berlin Film Festival returns Jan 31st – Feb 3rd for its 4th season of celebrating the work of women in the genre from around the world.

The Final Girls Berlin Film Festival showcases horror cinema directed, written, or produced by women. The festival is committed to creating space for female voices and visions, whether monstrous or heroic, in the horror genre. Lashing against the victimization of women as objects and victims of crime, the festival celebrates those working towards the primacy of women as subjects in horror. (The festival notes that their definition of women includes anyone with female experience — past or present — and is trans-inclusive.)

The 4th edition of Final Girls Berlin Film Festival will take place in Berlin, Germany from January 31st to February 3rd 2019. This year the program consists of seven feature films and eight curated short blocks. This edition’s shorts will also highlight Vera Miao’s “Two Sentence Horror Stories”. Inspired by the viral fan fiction of two sentence horror stories, the anthology series features disturbing updated tales of horror and haunting for the digital age.

In addition to the visual smorgasbord, Final Girls Film Festival v4.0 will 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. To round out this year’s offering the fest will also host a Pretty Deadly self-defense workshop.

Festival Co-Director Elinor Lewy says, “We’ve got a jam-packed and highly international program which expands and challenges definitions of the horror genre.” Fellow director Sara Neidorf adds, “Final Girls is bringing you a whole different spin on the genre — exploring different fears and fantasies, with more diversity behind and in front of the camera, and a critical gaze on the structures and systems plaguing society.”

I’m so excited for the impressive Final Girls 2019 line-up, which includes the cyber thriller viral hit Cam, the nightmarishly brutal Hounds of Love, the award-winning Mexican film Tigers Are Not Afraid, the traumatic alter-ego trip Felt, the unsettling identity crisis thriller Nancy, the queer werewolf coming-of-age story Good Manners, the retrospective gem Messiah of Evil, as well as eight short film programs.

Special Programming

Final Girls also offers some of the most insightful, enlightening, and thought provoking talks and workshops you’ll find anywhere. Mary Wild will be leading a talk that focuses on cinematic representations of demonic possession as a manifestation of unresolved unconscious conflict.

Writer and editor Alison Lang will be leading two amazing talks. Her first will compare modern horror films to slasher films of the 80s and discuss the progressive trend towards increased diversity and a more accurate representation of American society. Her second talk will look at the way women and trans bodies have been used in horror films as sites of terror and metaphors for the monstrosities of psychological/sexual trauma in film.

Author and associate professor Alanna Thain will lead a graphically illustrated tour through the mutant offspring, weaponized tools and evolutionary agendas of feminist reproductive horror films that explore brave new worlds of reproductive technologies.

Finally, attendees will have a chance to participate in the Pretty Deadly Self Defense Workshop. This innovative and entertaining self defense class uses classic horror scenes to show how the victim could have used self defense techniques to turn the scene around on the bad guy.

Pretty Deadly Self Defense is a self-trust building, self-empowering, self-defense program based in Berlin. Find out more info on their website at http://prettydeadly.org.

Short Film Programs

In addition to its carefully curated feature programming, Final Girls is known for its diverse and exceptional short film programming in eight unique blocks.

It’s a tremendous impressive representation of the many talented women working in the genre across the world, and we are honored to have been granted remote press access to help cover this extraordinary festival for Women in Horror Month. Stay tuned for full coverage of many of these remarkable films and filmmakers.

Tainted Love

Pages, Dir. Shaan Couture

• 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

42 Counts, Director Jill Gevargizian

• 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

Catcalls, Director Kate Dolan

• 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)

A Real Scream

All Men Must Die, Director Kate Beacom

• 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

Entropia, Director Marinah Janello

• I Am Albert (Dir. Aurélia Raoull, France, 2018)
• Entropia (Dir. Marinah Janello, USA, 2018, German Premiere)
• The Old Woman 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, Directors Celine Held and Logan George

• 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)

Midnight Movies

Hair Wolf, Director Mariama Diallo

• I Am Albert (Dir. Aurélia Raoull, France, 2018)
• Friendsgiving (Dir. Samantha Kolesnik, US, 2018)
• Nepenthes (Dir. Ariel Hansen, Canada, 2018, German Premiere)
• EAT ME (Dir. Helena Aguilera, Mexico, 2018)
• Road Trash (Dir. Natasha Pascetta, USA, 2018, German Premiere)
• Nightmommy (Dir. Maïra Rachmadiev, The Netherlands, 2018)
• Call Girl (Dir. Jill Gevargizian, USA, 2014)
• Hair Wolf (Dir. Mariama Diallo, USA, 2018)
• Donor (Dirs. Lori Alex & Aria Sini, Canada, 2018, German Premiere)
• Eternity (Dir. Pina Brutal, Germany, 2018)
• Feast (Dir. Melissa Kunnap, USA, 2018, European Premiere)
• The Stare (Dir. Louisa Weichmann, Australia, 2018)
• The Body Corporate (Dir. Stepanka Cervinkova, Australia, 2018, International Premiere)

Flesh and Blood

9 Steps, Directors Marisa Crespo and Moises Romera

• 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)

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