Nosferatu
Actor Suso Silva, dressed as Nosferatu the vampire, performs during the dress rehearsal of "Psicosis" by the "Circo de la Horrores" (Horror Circus) company, in Madrid April 17, 2009. Reuters/Sergio Perez

The popular 1922 movie “Nosferatu” has won the award for best vampire movie at the International Vampire Film and Arts Festival. The movie is an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” and was initially banned for not having the relevant rights. The movie later went on to be released and instantly became a huge hit.

There were three categories of the Golden Stake Award at the International Vampire Film and Arts Festival that was held in Sighisoara, Transylvania. Feature films, short films and films made with smart phones were recognized, Punctul reports.

“Blood of Aaron,” directed by Tommy Stovall, won the best feature film award. Multiple movies were recognized in the short film category with the Silver award and they were “Black Widow” (Germany), “Dare Side of the Moon” (Romania) “Drakula” (Iceland) “Fish Out of Water” (Canada), “Hada” (Spain), “How to Rob House” (USA), “Mr Dentonn” (Spain), “Sand” (Belgium), “self” (UK), “Sigillum” (Italy), “Something Slender” (Netherlands) “Tooth Fairy” (Wales) and “The Lurhmanns” (USA). “Exposure” (Spain) was given the Golden award in this category.

“Nosferatu” won the award for being the best vampire movie of all time. “The Disturbers” (Belgium) won the best movie in the smart phone category. The Silver award in smart phone category was awarded to “I am Here” (Spain), “Lick” (Spain), “News Interrupted” (Germany) and “Red Chains” (Russia).

“Why a festival of vampire movies? Because there is one. If we think how popular these movies and if we think that we have vampire books, video games vampire, vampire TV series, it is incredible that there is a film festival and art focused on vampires. This is the thing that amazed us,” the organiser of the event Peter Philips said.

Perhaps the organisers choose Transylvania as the location for the event because of its association with the vampire stories. People from as far away as the US and Iceland travelled to the location. The popularity of “Nosferatu” has prompted Studio 8 to remake the 1922 movie and details about the production are expected to be released soon.

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