Neill Blomkamp, the South African filmmaker behind District 9, Elysium, and Chappie, will be in Prague next week to introduce his latest film, Demonic, to audiences at the 2021 edition of the Future Gate Sci-fi Film Festival. Now in its eighth year, the Future Gate festival will take place at Prague’s Kino Lucerna from September 15-20.
In addition to Demonic, Blomkamp will also introduce screenings of District 9, Elysium, and a compilation of his short films during the festival. Each screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director.
Other guests attending this year’s Future Gate film festival will include Chino Moya, who will introduce his film Undergods, Marc Fehse, who will present his movie Sky Sharks, and Danielle Kummer, who will screen the documentary Alien on Stage.
The French sci-fi film The Last Journey, directed by Romain Quirot and starring Jean Reno, will open this year’s fest on September 15. Future Gate organizers received a record 500+ submissions for inclusion in the main festival competition. Of those, five selections including Blomkamp’s Demonic and Moya’s Undergods will compete for the festival’s top prize.
Blomkamp will present a screening of District 9 on September 15 at 21:00, Demonic on the 16th at 21:00, and a compilation of shorts on the 17th at 16:30 followed by a screening of Elysium at 21:00.
Blomkamp drew rave reviews for his debut film District 9, which even earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. The special effects in the movie drew comparisons to Avatar, released the same year, though they were accomplished at just a fraction of the budget of the James Cameron film.
Demonic represents Blomkamp’s first feature since 2015’s Chappie, though the director has been busy making short films for his independent production house Oats Studios over the past half-decade. Shot during the Covid-19 pandemic in Canada, Demonic follows a young woman who enters a virtual reality environment to save her mother from a possession.
Prague post-production studio Universal Production Partners (UPP) contributed to Demonic’s visual effects.
After premiering in Prague, the Future Gate festival will also screen its films across the Czech Republic in Brno, Plzeň, and Šumperk, as well as in Košice, Slovakia.
Tickets to see individual Future Gate films at Kino Lucerna in Prague run 120 crowns apiece. More information about this year’s Future Gate film fest can be found at the official festival website.
