On October 5, the Sitges Festival will open its 56th edition with Hermana muerte, by Paco Plaza. And until Saturday the 15th, the contest directed by Ángel Sala will be nourished by a powerful program with the best and newest of current fantasy cinema, such as Poor Creatures, by the Greek Yorgos Lanthimos, recently awarded the Golden Lion. This gothic fable by female empowerment with Emma Stone in the skin of a young Frankenstein eager for knowledge and sex will be in the official out-of-competition section.
During the press conference held this afternoon at Casa Seat, Sala announced the various titles that will be part of this year’s various sections. “It will be a great tribute to cinema in theaters,” he said, accompanied by Mónica Garcia, general director of the Sitges Foundation. The closing film has yet to be revealed.
Among the films that will be part of an official section characterized by a great connection with current issues there are several Spanish productions. After Advantages of Traveling by Train, Aritz Moreno will return with Moscas, an intense thriller that begins with the discovery of a disfigured corpse tied in the trunk of the protagonist’s car. Pablo Berger will bring the animated Robot dreams, which caused a great sensation at the Cannes festival. And F. Javier Gutierrez will compete with The Wait.
The Pakistani film In Flames tells a disturbing story of oppression; Tiger Stripes puts the spotlight on bullying; Salem illustrates the situation in the French banlieus; Also from the neighboring country comes Vermin, directed by Sébastien Vanicek and starring poisonous spiders. There will be big names like veteran Takeshi Kitano with KUBI, a samurai film set in the 16th century that is “very gory and violent.” The Austrian Jessica Hausner will come with her food dystopia Club Zero and from the United States you can see Divinity, “a black and white nightmare in stop motion.”
Already out of competition, The Boy and the Heron, Hayao Miyazaki’s new and long-awaited gem, will be available; Awareness, by Daniel Benmayor; Blood by Brad Anderson, by Brad Anderson; or The Bullet of God, by Nick Cassavetes. Among the winners are Juan Antonio Bayona, who will present his latest film The Snow Society and will receive the Time Machine award, an award that will also go to director and animator Lee Unkrich, Oscar winner for Toy Story 3 and Coco and who He will also offer his research on The Shining, and the Japanese director Hideo Nakata, author of the cult film The Ring.
On the other hand, the Honorary Awards will go to Phil Tippet, master of stop motion and winner of two Oscars as special effects supervisor for Return of the Jedi and Jurassic Park, and Jan Harlan, executive producer of Stanley Kubrick’s films.
