Weekend of Fear

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The Weekend of Fear (WOF) is an international Independent - Film Festival , which each year since 1990 in the Greater Nuremberg takes place.

Idea and story

The Weekend of Fear was founded in 1988 by Sammy Balkas together with the film editors of the fanzine "Howl" - Eckhard Vollmar and Thomas Gaschler. In times of repressive censorship politics, the aim of the trio was to make selected films, which due to their drastic content (e.g. depictions of violence) could not be distributed, to a larger audience, uncut and accessible on the big screen. The festival took place in 1988 in the sold-out Rio-Palast in Munich, but was moved to the more centrally located Nuremberg (to the “Atrium” and the “Casablanca” cinemas) in 1990 at the suggestion of Mike Neun, due to the immense popularity of mostly foreign visitors. True to the motto “What is needed is shown” (Gaschler), the festival never saw itself as a pure horror festival. In 1991 and 1992, in addition to splatter and cannibal films, they not only opened up to the new Hong Kong cinema, but went one step further: in 1991, in addition to the Japanese techno shocker Tetsuo u. a. also played autopsy films from the morgue and “Army Medicine in Vietnam”, an “unintentionally subversive documentary that accidentally exposes the whole madness of military propaganda” (Vollmar).

The Weekend of Fear is a member of the GIFFF (German Independent Film Festival Federation). The number of visitors is between 400 and 700 spectators on a weekend. The films are shown in the original language, with English or German subtitles if necessary.

Further highlights in the history of the festival are the two Bullet in the Head performances (1991) organized by “Howl” and Braindead , which director Peter Jackson presented personally in Nuremberg in 1992 at the invitation of “Howl” editors Axel “Maerz” Estein and Thomas Gaschler . In 1993 Balkas, Gaschler, Estein and Vollmar went back to Munich, played another top-class program ( Bad Lieutenant , Hard Boiled ), after which it was over for a year. Mike Neun , co-organizer of the first Nuremberg WOFs, has maintained the tradition of the independent festival to this day. In the years after 1994 there were various special events ("SPLATTERNIGHTS") in the Nuremberg Meisengeige until the "Weekend of Fear" awakened again in the Metropolis cinemas in Nuremberg. The Weekend of Fear 2010 took place on April 30th and May 1st in the Erlangen Manhattan Cinema.

Prices

While the HOWL editors and Sammy Balkas used to bring whiskey bottles to the audience, the current festival awards the usual price categories to the makers. As an award, the winners receive the only edible film prize in the world, a gummy bear weighing 2.5 to 3 kg. In 2007 the following categories were assessed:

  • Best Film (Golden Glibb)
  • Audience Best Film (Goldener Glibb)
  • Best Actress (Green Glibb)
  • Best Actor (Green Glibb)
  • The movie that should have won (Silver Glibb)
  • Best Short Film (Little Glibb)
  • Best Short Film by Audience (Kleiner Glibb)

With the exception of the two audience prizes, the prizes are awarded by a jury. The prize for the “Best Short Film” will be awarded for the first time this year.

The jury was abolished in 2008. The "Glibb" lives on, however. Meanwhile, the "bear" is awarded directly by the audience.

Films played (excerpt)

Famous guests of the festival

Web links