Clearly there was no World Cup animosity. German film Getting My Brother Laid (aka Mein Bruder Der Vampir) was the big winner at the 6th edition of the Pucheon International Festival of Fantastic Film (PiFan) in South Korea.

The film, which won Sven Taddicken the best new director prize at the Hof Film Days and which took a FIPRESCI award at Rotterdam, is the story of a 14 year old girl and her handicapped brother and the girlfriend of their older brother.

In the short film section Salad Days, a romance between a fish and a mixed salad, took both the grand prize and the Citizen's Choice award. It was directed by Spain's Gustavo Salmeron. The jury prize went to The Pitch, a film about a desperate film-maker directed by Australia's Nash Edgerton.

The festival, which mixes up classic fantasy films, the horror genre and more commercial pictures which use unusual aesthetic values, was deemed a roaring success by festival director Kim Jong-Hoon. Speaking after the closing ceremony, but before the additional days set aside for audiences to catch up on missed screenings, Kim said that total spectator numbers would probably increase by 25% compared with last year. "The World Cup atmosphere of euphoria contributed to the festival. Young people wanted more. There was more audience participation and greater audience numbers."

Kim also noted that the festival is becoming increasingly local. "Our audience survey results have yet to be completed. But it seems clear that whereas in the early years of PiFan film buffs from all over the country came, Bucheon itself is providing greater audience numbers. We can see this from the help we have had in advance from the local citizens' support bodies."