Over The Top Fest 2008

Hey everyone!

So we didn't do much in the way of blogging during the festival in May, but we're going to be more on top of stuff from here on out. So add the blog to your bookmarks, RSS feed (I'm going to figure that out shortly), etc. because we're going to be posting a fair bit throughout the year.

Before catching up, I have to thank everyone who came out and made the 2008 edition of Over the Top Fest its most successful year yet. We're already working on 2009's festival and there's some really exciting stuff in store.

A lot's happened since the end of the festival, so let's catch up a bit.

We've started an Over the Top Fest monthly concert series, and have presented some one-off film screenings. We'll be updating the blog with information on upcoming events in the future.

Our 2008 opening night film, I THINK WE'RE ALONE NOW was picked up for Canadian distribution, and has gone on to play at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal (where it won the festival's award for best documentary), Fantastic Fest in Austin, Melbourne International Film Festival in... Melbourne, and most recently played at the IDFA International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam. It will be screening for two nights only at the Bloor Cinema starting tomorrow night (December 1st).

Ronald Bronstein's FROWNLAND toured Canada as part of We Like Films' Generation D.I.Y. series of thirteen "mumblecore" films, which included THE GUATAMALEN HANDSHAKE, which we presented in 2007. And just this week, FROWNLAND received Hammer to Nail's Best Film of 2008 award, beating out an impressive field of independent films that included BAGHEAD (one of my favourites of the year) and WENDY AND LUCY. Ronald Bronstein is currently working on his follow-up film, and part of me wants to just fast foward life to the point where it's finished and I can see it. He recently talked to Spout about what he's been up to.

The biggest hit of 2008's fest was probably Noboru Iguchi's THE MACHINE GIRL, which is now available on DVD pretty much everywhere you could buy a DVD, from Tokyo Shock.

POP SKULL director, Adam Wingard is working on a project with ex-Lion's Gate bigwig Peter Block's new production company, A Bigger Boat. Also, his debut feature, HOME SICK was recently released on DVD by the fantastic Synapse Films, who have also released a bunch of great Japanese films including Katsuhito Ishii's PARTY 7, Teruro Ishii's HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN, and Tetsuro Takeuchi's WILD ZERO.

I'm going to close this post off and will post again later with more news.

'Til then...