Section: Retrospective

THE HOWLING

The young and talented television journalist Karen gets the opportunity of a lifetime in her career. She is being called by a certain Eddie who claims to be responsible for a series of gruesome murders that happened the last three days in Los Angeles. He proposes an exclusive interview. They agree to meet each other… Continue reading THE HOWLING

PIRANHAS

Two young campers, exhausted after a long walk through the wild forests of Texas, stumble over the fence of a seemingly abandoned military camp. Looking for shelter, they go in and discover a swimming pool inside one of the buildings. The young couple, thrilled, decides to go for a swim. After a few minutes of… Continue reading PIRANHAS

THE COMPANY OF WOLVES

Rosaleen has a lovely grandmother. It’s only natural since Grandma is old-fashioned: she gives tons of well-meaning advice to her granddaughter (don’t stray away from the busy paths, don’t talk to men whose eyebrows are growing too close…) and tells her crazy stories starring werewolves, at night by the fireside. All of these stories are… Continue reading THE COMPANY OF WOLVES

Retrospective Unreleased

Special Midnight Screenings Nova has, since its conception, a certain reputation to defend regarding the screening of midnight movies. This good tradition will be continued during the Festival, where first Godzilla and his mates will be our guests with two films by Inoshiro Honda, “Mothra vs Godzilla” & “The War of the Monsters”, and another… Continue reading Retrospective Unreleased

Splatter-Movies Retrospective

During the Festival several midnight screenings, so-called Gore or Splatter films will try to disrupt your peace of mind. One of the genre’s most infamous figureheads, Jörg Buttgereit, will personally present the infamous Nekromantik 1 (1987). A title that leaves little to one’s imagination, Nekromantik I is a piece of exploitation that requires an iron-lined… Continue reading Splatter-Movies Retrospective

Retrospective Edgar Allen Poe

At the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the death of Edgar Allan Poe, the Media Library of the French Community proposes – every day at 16h00 in the Festival Bar – a series of films based on the works of this pioneer of fantasy litterature. This tribute consists of two visions on Poe’s work… Continue reading Retrospective Edgar Allen Poe

Retrospective Shinya Tsukamoto

Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto has unequivocally built one of the most consistent and traumatizing body of works ever seen in modern cinema. Way beyond any easy comparison with Cronenberg, Tsukamoto’s enduring obsessions, the uncertain relationship between man and technology and the way in which pain and mutation can betray the body, has given birth to… Continue reading Retrospective Shinya Tsukamoto

Retro Time machine

The Media Library steps into the Time Machine Although some can hardly wait to enter the new millenium, the Media Library proposes to go back (and forward) in time with a program dedicated to “time travel in the movies, from 1950 till the present”. Time machines and temporal paradoxes, supernatural phenomena and more or less… Continue reading Retro Time machine

The Tromarathon

Tromarathon at the Actor’s Studio: 25 years of “authentic independent cinema” in thirteen movies For 25 years now, a small New York film company courageously battles to let its radical vision on cinema prevail. Film after film, with their cameras as instruments, the Troma team composes a symphony of bad taste, an epic poem in… Continue reading The Tromarathon

Retro Long Live the Dead

Long live the dead! Since 28 Days Later, the dead seem to be more alive then ever! Time, we thought, to take the undead as our main theme in this year’s retrospective at Cinema Nova. Generally called zombie, this fringe figure within the horror genre became a world wide plague as the result of the… Continue reading Retro Long Live the Dead

Polish & Czech Fantastic Films

This year, Cinema Nova sets the spotlights on the East. The focus of the retrospective is the fantastic film production of two countries behind the former Iron Curtain (Poland and Czechoslovakia), nowadays three new members of the European Union. When we talk about Eastern European cinema, we do not immediately say genre movies. But fantastic… Continue reading Polish & Czech Fantastic Films

Religion & Satanic Cult Films

AT MIDNIGHT I WILL TAKE YOUR SOULJosé Mojica Marins, Brazil, 1963, vo/ov eng st.,35mm, 92’The film debut of Coffin Joe was also the first true horror film made in Brazil. Shot in only 13 days, on a shoestring budget with a cast of non-professional actors, the result is astonishing. Marins both directs and stars in… Continue reading Religion & Satanic Cult Films

Harry Kümel & the Fantastic

Although the fantastic can bow on a rich tradition in literature and painting, there aren’t too many examples of Belgian fantastic films. The exceptions are two original and remarkable genre entries that Harry Kümel, one of Belgium’s greatest directors, made at the beginning of the seventies: Malpertuis, the brilliant adaptation of Jean Ray’s novel, starring… Continue reading Harry Kümel & the Fantastic

Nunsploitation

THE SEX DEMONSJess Franco, France/Portugal, 1972, eng. version,35mm, 114’Director Jess Franco’s X-rated rip-off of Ken Russell’sThe Devils blends torture with full-frontal nudity as the daughters of a condemned witch, burned at the stake before the Inquisition, infest the local nunnery with blasphemous sexual and satanic acts. One of the sisters even shows a talent for… Continue reading Nunsploitation

An American Trinity

BEGOTTENThe acclaimed and controversial debut by the director of Shadow of The Vampire is a visual poem, filmed in a grainy chiaroscuro black and white. God disembowels himself with a straight razor. Mother Earth gives birth to a quivering messiah thing. Then the local villager’s creatures ravage and bury it. It is as if a… Continue reading An American Trinity

Vegetable Night

What happens when vegetables take over the earth? Come and find out … 2 films, 1 concert and a horrific dose of vitamins.

Grindhouse Double Bill

A really mean and scary Friday the 13th indeed! Come and spend the worst evening of your life with this special double bill.

Evil Childs

The 7th Orbit section proposes a series of films that evoke intensely troubled and violent childhoods, focusing on children that are balancing between innocence and pure evil.

The Classic Monsters from Universal

The CINEMATEK (The Belgian Royal Film Archive), a true treasure trove for any self respecting movie buff, takes advantage of its newest BIFFF neighbor to launch two retrospectives during the months of March and April. The « Classic Monsters » from Universal Phantom of the Opera by James whale (1925) Frankenstein by James Whale (1931) Dracula by… Continue reading The Classic Monsters from Universal

Retrospective Neil Jordan

The CINEMATEK (The Belgian Royal Film Archive), a true treasure trove for any self respecting movie buff, takes advantage of its newest BIFFF neighbor to launch two retrospectives during the months of March and April. Angel (1982) The compagny of Wolves (1984) Mona Lisa (1986) The Crying Game (1992) Interview With A Vampire (1994) Michael… Continue reading Retrospective Neil Jordan

Retrospective Hammer

This legendary company, founded in 1934 by jeweler and amateur vaudeville actor William Hinds ( better known by his stage name Will Hammer ), breaks through in the fifties when they start to churn out one horror film after another. Terence Fisher, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Val Guest and many other mythical names will contribute… Continue reading Retrospective Hammer

Hommage Caroline Munro

Caroline Munro met James Bond twice (Casino Royale and The Spy Who Loved Me), played Vincent Price’s dead wife in The Abominable Dr. Phibes, was the muse of the Hammer Studios in Dracula A.D. 1972 and Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter. Caroline Munro seems to have had a ringside seat to all the cult genre films.… Continue reading Hommage Caroline Munro

Hong Kong Kung Fu

Hong Kong and its kung fu movies, it’s like Belgium and mashed potatoes with carrots: one’s not possible without the other! They became popular in the seventies, thanks to heroes of the tatami like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan or Sammo Hung, and got an upgrade through Tsui Hark’s beloved wu xia pan. The genre now… Continue reading Hong Kong Kung Fu

I am a Seoul Man

Few people knew about Korean cinema until the eighties, when it soon caught up and made its mark on the international stage thanks to a new wave of talented directors, led by the golden trio Chan-wook Park, Ki-duk Kim and Joon-ho Bong. This made Korea one of the few countries in the world where local… Continue reading I am a Seoul Man

50 years of Belgian Cinema

Friday 13 april at 18:00 =>  Snipers in sight, run for cover! On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of French-speaking Belgian cinema and the second edition of the Boulevard du Polar festival, we wanted to choose a film. But a classic by André Delvaux or an intimate portrait by Chantal Ackerman didn’t exactly seem… Continue reading 50 years of Belgian Cinema

Nanarland

Do you already smell the sweet perfume of cult cinema? Are you sick and tired of cinematic perfection at twenty-four frames per second? Do you prefer actors with the charisma of a roasted potato, fighting scenes choreographed by a paralyzed otter, and budgets even a freshman film student would refuse? Welcome to Nanarland, or (in… Continue reading Nanarland

THE ADDAMS FAMILY

Who doesn’t know this cult movie? This unique and morbidly funny family that have pledged an alliance to the dark forces? Morticia, Gomez and their offspring, Wednesday and Puglsey, are quietly living in their macabre mansion when Ully Aldford and Abigael Craven send her adopted son to their home, posing as Uncle Fester, Gomez’s older… Continue reading THE ADDAMS FAMILY

British Directors & Actors

But where did the English fantastic film go? Wasn’t it till recently a synonym for horror and the supernatural? We think about the production organizations like Hammer and Amicus, important directors like Terence Fisher, Freddie Francis, Val Guest, Hitchcock, Don Sharp, John Gilling, Roy Ward Baker, Jack Clayton, James Whale,… (and then famous actors like… Continue reading British Directors & Actors

PREDATOR

A commando of mercenaries is sent on a mission in a Central American jungle. Once there, they discover that their target is none other than an alien vacationing on our planet for some exotic hunting. Y’know, just for the joy of killing inferior creatures. But whaddayaknow, Mayor “Dutch” Schaefer loves the same outdoor sport! An… Continue reading PREDATOR

A MONSTER CALLS

Twelve-year-old Conor has a lot on his plate. Sickly and dreamy, he’s the school’s favorite whipping boy. And he can’t find a sympathetic ear in his family. His father? Gone to live a new life in the United States. His mother? His mum… Conor loves her deeply, but he doesn’t want to add to her… Continue reading A MONSTER CALLS