NIFFF Celebrates Asia Argento as Guest of Honor

variety.com:

Ben Croll Actor and filmmaker Asia Argento will be guest of honor at this year’s Neuchatel Int’l Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF), a choice the NIFFF director sees as emblematic of the festival’s own self-image. “Asia is an icon,” says NIFFF chief Pierre-Yves Walder. “She’s someone we ourselves have grown up with, and whom we watched grow up.

She’s established herself as artist who makes few concessions, who practices her profession with absolute freedom and who is always ready to take big risks.

She has a punk side and never hesitates, and because of her career – which stretches back to the foundational horror films of her father [Dario Argento] towards something more contemporary – she also bridges versions of NIFFF past and present.” “She also helped spearhead the MeToo movement,” Walder continues, “which led to some very difficult moments.

She has had some shadows on her journey, and those are important as well. She’s somebody that might have suffered a great deal, leaving her with an acute sensitivity and giving her the kind of raw, flayed and vivid nature this festival very much appreciates.” As guest of honor, Argento was offered a carte blanche and invited to program her own section however she saw fit.