The Festival’s image paid tribute to the 25th anniversary of Blade Runner, and replicant Rutger Hauer came to Sitges to present the Final Cut of Ridley Scott’s masterpiece and receive his Time Machine Award. George A. Romero visited the Festival and received the Grand Honorary Award. The Orphanage opened the Festival, signaling an excellent crop of homegrown fantastic productions: Timecrimes, The King of the Mountain, and The Appeared—all directed by filmmakers who would become Sitges regulars. A gem of animation was also screened: Nocturna. With actresses Zoë Bell (also a jury member) and Sidney T. Poitier as ambassadors, Sitges hosted a one-of-a-kind screening of Grindhouse as originally conceived by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino: a double feature with the shortened versions of Planet Terror and Death Proof, accompanied by fake trailers directed by Rob Zombie, Eli Roth, Edgar Wright, and Rodriguez himself.
