Fantastic Fest announces AMD and Dell “Next Wave” filmmaker spotilight by Matthew Odam

In addition to all the gore and guffaws, this year’s Fantastic Fest will also see one up-and-coming filmmaker awarded with a $1,000 cash prize and AMD and Dell editing hardware in the “Next Wave” filmmaker contest.

Eight films from nine burgeoning filmmakers will be judged, with the winner receiving a Dell Studio XPS 7100 Desktop featuring AMD Phenomâ„¢ II 6-Core Processor and ATI Radeonâ„¢ HD 5000 Series Graphics. The runner-up will receive the Dell Inspiron M501R 15.6” Notebook featuring AMD Phenomâ„¢ II Quad-Core Processor and ATI Mobility Radeonâ„¢ HD5000M Series Graphics. Both competition winners will also receive an ATI Radeonâ„¢ HD 5870 Graphics Card, the world’s first DirectX® 11 Graphics Card.

In the statement from Fantastic Fest, AMD Director of Digital Media and Entertainment Charlie Boswell said, “For the past ten years, AMD has collaborated closely with artists including Austin’s own Robert Rodriguez to help bring their artistic expressions to vivid life through the power of AMD technology.”

Below are the nine finalists with short bios provided by the fest:

Jang Cheol-So (director of “Bedevilled”)
Born in 1974, JANG studied Visual Design at Hongik University in Seoul, Korea. He worked as an assistant director to KIM Ki-duk and HUH In-moo. His short film “Escalator To Heaven” was shown and acclaimed at numerous film festivals. “Bedevilled” premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and recently won the grand prize at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival. “Bedevilled” is Jang Cheol-So’s debut feature.

Thomas Cappelen Malling (director of “Norwegian Ninja”)
Publisher/director Thomas Cappelen Malling was born in 1970 in Kongsvinger, Norway. In 2006, Malling published the book “Ninjateknikk II Usynlighet i strid 1978 (“Ninja Technique II: Invisibility in Battle 1978”),” a military manual originally written in 1978 by Arne Treholt. Trehold was convicted in 1985 of high treason and espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union and Iraq. In December 2008, Malling received funding from the Norwegian Film Institute to make Norwegian Ninja, based on this book. Treholt himself has given his consent to both the book and the movie. Norwegian Ninja is Thomas Cappelen Malling’s debut feature.

Josh Reed (director of “Primal”)
Reed comes from a TV background where he was a segment producer on the award winning comedy The Chaser’s War on Everything and an animator on Mondo Thingo. In 2008 he series produced the Saturday morning music and assorted nonsense show Triple J TV With The Doctor and continued to do freelance animation and motion graphic work for MTV and Channel V. Primal is Josh Reed’s debut feature.

Marvin Kren (director of “Rammbock”)
Born 1980 in Vienna, Austria. Kren worked as assistant director, cinematographer and producer since 2000. He studied European Economy and Business Management at the UAS Vienna until 2005, and later attended the Hamburg Media School postgraduate program in Directing from 2006 to 2008. His graduate thesis film “Schautag” was written by Benjamin Hessler, who also wrote “Rammbock.” “Rammbock” is Marvin Kren’s debut feature film.

Jalmari Helander (director of “Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale”)
Jalmari Helander was born in Helsinki and has enjoyed a successful career as an award-winning director of television commercials. He has made the short films “Iceman” (1999), “Maximillian Tarzan” (1999), “Ukkonen” (2001), “Rare Exports, Inc.” (2003), “Rare Exports Inc. Safety Instructions” (2005) and “The Fakir” (2006). “Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale” is Jalmari Helander’s first feature film.

Johan Lundborg & Johan Storm (directors of “Corridor”)
Johan Lundborg created antisocial antihero medical-student character Frank in 2003 as the subject of his final-year short film at the Gothenburg University film program. With “Corridor,” Lundborg teamed up with another Gothenburg graduate Johan Storm to flesh out this character into the feature length thriller “Corridor.” “Corridor” debuted at the 2010 Brussels Fantastic Film Festival in April where it won the Cineuropa Jury Award. “Corridor” is Johan Lundborg and Johan Storm’s debut feature.

Jorge Michel Grau (director of “Somos Lo Que Hay (We Are What We Are)”
Born in Mexico City in 1973, Grau graduated with honors from the Centro de Capacitacion Cinématografica and studied Communication in the UNAM (Mexican National Autonomous University). He won the award for Best Mexican Short film documentary in 2006 for “Kaliman” and won the award for Best Short Film in Marseille for “Prettier than You” in 2008. He teaches film direction at the KMZ School. “Somos Lo Que Hay” is Jorge Michel Grau’s first feature film.

Chris Peckover (director of “Undocumented”)
In 2002 Peckover made the momentous switch from pre-med to film studies in his sophomore year at Yale University, and then capped things off with an MFA from the prestigious Peter Stark Producing Program at USC where he continues now as a guest professor. His dark comedic short “Alive and Well,” starring Neil Flynn of “Scrubs” notoriety, held its world premiere at the 2007 South by Southwest Film Festival, and went on to receive international acclaim and awards. “Undocumented” is Chris Peckover’s first feature.