"My final dispatch from the annual genre fest known as Fantastic Fest highlights three young filmmakers, a reminder of how much this event seeks to amplify new talent. It's also a remarkable showcase for inclusivity, as the programming team seeks out and elevates the kind of voices that the Hollywood system often ignores, including LGTBQ filmmakers and artists from regions of the world that don't get highlighted enough on the culture-shaping streaming services."
"The best of the three is Avalon Fast's "Camp," which also won the Next Wave Award, a juried prize, at this year's event, making its filmmaker one of the youngest such recipients of that prize at just 25. Fast is an undeniable talent, a filmmaker who knows how to tap into repressed emotions and how to reflect the simmering impact of trauma cinematically."
Fantastic Fest highlights three young filmmakers and prioritizes amplifying new, often overlooked voices, including LGTBQ creators and artists from underrepresented regions. Programming emphasizes inclusivity by elevating voices that mainstream Hollywood and major streaming services rarely feature. The three showcased films vary in quality, yet each displays notable courage and passion. Avalon Fast's Camp won the juried Next Wave Award and marks Fast, at 25, as one of the youngest recipients; the film taps repressed emotions and reflects trauma's simmering impact. Camp focuses on emotional truth, portraying grief, self-forgiveness, and a vulnerable lead performance by Zola Grimmer. Grimmer's character Emily suffers a tragedy when a friend overdoses, then becomes a counselor at a religious summer camp and discovers a group of female counselors carving their own way through life and faith and becoming attuned to the natural world.
Read at Roger Ebert
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