by The third edition of Final Girls Berlin Film Festival will take place in Berlin, Germany, from February 1 to 3, 2018, with a program consisting of five feature films, six curated short blocks, a horror storyboarding workshop, a talk on vampires and women, and a filmmaker panel. Final Girls Berlin Film Fest showcases horror films that were directed, written, and/or produced by women and non-binary filmmakers.
Festival Co-Director Eli Lewy says, “this year we have selected a range of unnerving feature films — most of which are also exclusive German premieres!” Fellow Co-Director Sara Neidorf adds, “we’re excited for another three days of communal fear and challenging discussions with filmmakers and spectators. Underground horror cinema is alive and well with the works of women who are steadily reshaping the landscape of the genre.”
See the list of announced films and other attractions below!
The Book of Birdie
The opening night feature is Anami Tara Shucart and Elizabeth E. Schuch’s offering, The Book of Birdie. When a fragile, imaginative teenager is placed in a remote convent, will her unusual obsessions and hallucinations become a mark of sainthood or dark heresy? Reserved teen Birdie is sequestered to a life of religious servitude by her grandmother, in the hope that it will suppress the young girl‘s dark thoughts. Now far from home, her interests remain far from pious, as she develops a fascination with blood and sparks a romance with the groundskeeper’s daughter. This haunting and aesthetically arresting directorial debut of Elizabeth E. Schuch features an all-woman cast.
Country: UK
Dir. Elizabeth E. Schuch (2017, German Premiere)
Lyle
A mother’s grief turns to paranoia when she begins to suspect her eccentric neighbors are involved in a satanic pact. Starring Gaby Hoffmann (Transparent, Girls) and Ingrid Jungermann (Women Who Kill), and paying homage to Rosemary’s Baby, this queer psychological horror brings the viewer through a nightmarish journey of gaslighting, loss, loneliness, and mistrust.
Country: USA
Dir. Stewart Thorndike (2014, Berlin Premiere)
Pin Cushion
Iona and her mother are new in town and excited about starting a new chapter in their lives, but things don’t go as they hoped in this off-kilter, heart-wrenching film about two generations of outcasts. This “social horror” film world premiered at the 2017 Venice Film Festival.
Country: UK
Dir. Deborah Haywood (2017, German Premiere)
Prevenge
A pitch black, wryly British comedy, Prevenge follows Ruth, a pregnant woman on a killing spree that’s as funny as it is vicious. It’s her misanthropic unborn baby dictating Ruth’s actions, holding society responsible for the absence of a father. The child speaks to Ruth from the womb, coaching her to lure and ultimately kill her unsuspecting victims. Struggling with her conscience, loneliness, and a strange strain of prepartum madness, Ruth must ultimately choose between redemption and destruction at the moment of motherhood.
Country: UK
Dir. Alice Lowe (2016)
Most Beautiful Island
Most Beautiful Island is a psychological thriller set in the world of undocumented female immigrants hoping to make a life in New York City. Shot on Super 16 mm with an intimate, voyeuristic sensibility, Most Beautiful Island chronicles one harrowing day in the life of Luciana, a young woman struggling to make ends meet while striving to escape her past. As Luciana’s day unfolds, she is whisked, physically and emotionally, through a series of troublesome and unforeseeable extremes.
Country: USA
Dir. Ana Asensio (2017, German Premiere)
The short film program and more is after the jump…
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