Helsinki Mansplaining Massacre awarded in Spain

With the Méliès d'Argent Prize Ilja Rautsi's horror comedy got today on Friday at the San Sebastian Horror and Fantasy Film Festival, the film will also compete in the short film series for prestigious Méliès d'Or, the best European fantasy film prize.

Ilja Rauts’s (born 1979) debut film has been successful during its extensive international festival tour. Rautsi was recently awarded the Best Director in Brooklyn Horror Film Festival short film competition in the United States. In summer, the film won the main prize in short films at Asia's biggest genre film festival, Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in South Korea..

Next, the film goes to France to Brest European Short Film Festival, the second largest European short film event in Europe. The film will also travel to festivals in Copenhagen, St. Petersburg, Melbourne and London in the coming months.

Mansplaining spreads horror

Helsinki Mansplaining Massacre is a film manuscripted and directed by Rautsi. It is a horror comedy about one woman's desperate struggle to survive a pack of men who just want to explain everything to her. The film is Rautsi’s Master's Thesis for Aalto University's Department of Film, TV and Scenography.

"I feel baffled, great and strange at the same time. The best thing is that the severity of the subject and the rough handling have given people a response", says the director.

Currently, Rautsi is in Mannheim in the EU funded eQuinoxe scriptwriting workshop, where he is working on a film adaptation of author Emmi Itäranta's science fiction book Teemestarin kirja (Memory of Water). It will be directed by Saara Saarela and produced by the production company Bufo. Rautsi has also written a long horror drama film Pahanhautoja, which will be directed by Hanna Bergholm and produced by Silva Mysterium. Both filmings are planned for 2019, provided the funding is assured.

"Success has given a good feeling that maybe I have succeeded in communicating something meaningful in my own style - which the others in the working group and actors have brought to a much higher level. Hopefully, success will also make it easier to get horror and other fantasy-driven stories done in the future", tells Rautsi.

The film will be presented tomorrow on Saturday November 3, 2018 at the IIK! Film Festival in Ii, near Oulu, where it will compete for the best short film award. In addition, the film is presented together with Metatitanic directed by Hannaleena Hauru, among others in Korjaamo Kino and theater Riviera in Helsinki and theater Niagara in Tampere. This week, the movie was also seen at Finnkino's eleven theaters prior to horror movies across Finland.

The film is distributed internationally by German Magnetfilm.

More information:

Festival Coordinator Saara Toivanen, Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture,
tel. +358-(0)50-331 7754, saara.toivanen@aalto.fi

Méliès prizes: melies.org

San Sebastian Horror & Fantasy Film Festival