'Sightseers' and 'On The Job' Win Big At PiFan
Ben Wheatley's film takes Best of Puchon and Best Actress awards while Erik Matti's dark hitman drama grabs Best Actor and Jury's Choice prizes.
BUCHEON, South Korea – This year's Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival closed on Friday with serial-killer movie Sightseers and Philippine mob thriller On the Job each winning two major awards.
Ben Wheatley's Sightseers, which revolves around a murderous couple running amok in the British countryside, won Best of Puchon and a best actress award for Alice Lowe's performance.
Erik Matti's dark hitman drama On the Job, meanwhile, snagged a best actor prize for its star Joel Torre and grabbed the Jury's Choice prize. India's Anurag Kashyap was named best director for his latest film, Ugly.
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The NH Nonghyup Citizen's Choice award, voted on by a mostly local audience, went to South Korean director Jang Cheol-soo's Secretly Greatly, which stars Kim Soo-hyun, the festival's spokesman this year.
Sightseers, On the Job and Ugly were all entries in Cannes' Director's Fortnight program. Jang's first feature, Bedevilled, bowed at Cannes' Critics' Week sidebar.
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The jury for the PiFan competition -- officially called Puchon Choice: Feature -- includes Singapore director Eric Khoo, Japanese filmmaker Shinji Higuchi, Director's Fortnight programmer Benjamin Illos, South Korean producer Choi Yong-hae and Paris-based actor Brontis Jodorowsky, the son of director Alejandro Jodorowsky, who was honored at Bucheon this year with a retrospective.
The awards ceremony was followed by a screening of the South Korean thriller The Terror Live, which stars Ha Jung-woo (Yellow Sea) as a news anchor struggling with a man who calls into his program to reveal his plans to blow up bridges and buildings in Seoul.
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