GEN SLASH 2023

To many, adolescence is or was a veritable horror movie. Which is why it is hardly surprising that the bleak and bizarre faces of Fantastic Film often hit a nerve, particularly with teenagers. Not only are the protagonists frequently also of a young age, but experiencing scary, eccentric and transgressive stories in the dark of a movie theater also renders possible a risk-free playing-through of one’s own worlds of fear, including the social ones.

It is for this reason that for the first time this year, a jury made up of youths and young adults aged between 16 and 19 and accompanied by media education experts, our first GEN SLASH!, will dive deep into the furthest corners of the film program and, following intense discussions, select the winner of the first GEN SLASH Award. Besides watching movies, the jurors will also have the opportunity to engage in a dialog with directors, talk with the festival makers, produce their own SLASH zine, as well as design the trophy themselves that they will give out.

This project initiated together with the Austrian Film Academy hopes to not only give young cinephiles the vibrant feeling of attending SLASH but, apart from that, to excite them for Fantastic Film’s manifold art disciplines.

This year’s GEN SLASH competition films are:

The Animal Kingdom (Thomas Cailley)
Hundreds of Beavers (Mike Cheslik)
Moon Garden (Ryan Stevens Harris)
Riddle of Fire (Weston Razooli)
Tiger Stripes (Amanda Nell Eu)
Vermin (Sébastien Vaniček)