Blood in the Snow: Horror in Toronto
This weekend saw the third annual Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival take over two screens at Toronto’s Carleton Theatre. The three day event had, appropriately, 13 screenings with eight Canadian features and two screenings of the BitS Short Film Showcase. The festival also pairs a thematically matched short with each features, thus creating a venue for new directors to see their work on the big screen.
This year the festival also had a vendor’s village with a blend of cinematic items represented by Suspect Video, Black Fawn Distribution, and 13 Flames, as well as Fangoria’s magazines, and Gothic hand crafted items by RoadkillJill Creations , Gloommatter, and Binary Soul Designs. Plus Zombie Jesus was there all weekend, with his comics.
One of the friendly Horror Vendors
With both an opening and a closing night party, many of the teams behind the movies joined their fans over a beer. On Sunday they also announced the “Bloodies” awards.
There were nine awards given out that night:
The Best Music Score went to Chris Alexander for Queen of Blood.
The Best Cinematography went to Cameron Tremblay for Black Mountain Side.
The Best Director Award was won by Ejecta’s two directors Matt Wiele and Chad Archibald.
The Best Actor Award went to Ejecta’s Julian Richings, for a role that let him look more than sinister.
The Best Actress Award went to Alysa King for Berkshire County. As she accepted she said that last year she attended the festival as a fan, and this year she won an award. She thanked the festival for creating a space for Canadian horror.
The Best Poster went to the short Massacre at Femur Creek by Kyle Hytonen.
The Best Short Award went to Greater Than (Producers Adam Buller, Marc-Andre Miron, Darryl Shaw and Steve Walsh, Director Darryl Shaw).
The grand winner of the festival with three awards, including Best Screenplay (Matt O’Mahoney), Best FX, and Best Feature (Daniel Domachowski, Christena Zatylny, Producers; Matt O’Mahoney Director), was Vancouver’s Bloody Knuckles.
Another great year for another great festival!
