4bia wins Bronze Award at Fantasia

The four-segment horror anthology 4bia won the third-place bronze award in the Public’s Prizes voting for Best Asian Film at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal.

The gold prize went to Tokyo Gore Police by Yoshiro Nishimura while Takashi Miike's Sukiyaki Western Django took the silver -- interesting company for the often-subtle portmanteau horror-thriller from Thailand.

Veteran director Yongyooth Thongkongtoon led the other three directors -- Banjong Pisanthanakul, Parkpoom Wongpoom and Paween Puritpanya -- to Montreal for the screenings. He is quoted in today's Daily Xpress:

I'm very glad and felt relief when the audience applauded and greeted us when the film finished," he said. "They were eager to ask questions about the film."

I know when I spoke to Yongyooth last week at The Dark Knight IMAX premiere in Bangkok, he was so jazzed that 4bia was in the festival.

Fantasia began on July 3 and wrapped up on Monday. In all, five Thai films were selected for the annual genre fest, which is North America's largest. Along with 4Bia, Banjong's and Parkpoom's Alone was showing, as was one more from Grammy Tai Hub: Handle Me With Care. Two other films were from Five Star Production: Art of the Devil 3 and Muay Thai Chaiya.

(Info via Twitch and festival website; photo by Daily Xpress/Penprapar Rodklai; from left: Yongyooth, Parkpoom, Paween and Banjong)