Mr. K and Dominique Pinon, the Highlights of the Méliès d'Or Awards Gala

For the eighth consecutive year, the SITGES – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia hosted the ceremony for the Méliès d'Or Awards, presented annually by the Méliès International Festivals Federation in recognition of the best European feature film and short film of the past year.

This year, the jury, made up of Daniela Urzola, Josep Maria Bunyol, and Antonio Weinrichter, presented the award to Mr. K, a Kafkaesque tale about the absurdity of life, directed by Norwegian director Tallulah Hazekamp Schwab and starring the virtuoso Crispin Glover. Afterwards, the award for best short film went to Don't Be Afraid, directed by Mats Udd, an original ghost story about a depressed photographer who tries to make a comeback with new photos taken in the same place where his son disappeared years ago.

During the gala, the Sitges Film Festival honored Dominique Pinon's career with the Méliès Career Award. The Meliá Auditorium gave the French actor a heartfelt welcome. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet's filmography wouldn't be the same without the magic that Pinon has unleashed on screen, adapting to different registers in films including Amélie and the gruesome Alien: Resurrection.

However, the presence of this giant performing arts beast can be found in a number of auteur filmographies. From Claude Lelouch (Roman de gare) and Roman Polanski (Frantic) to acclaimed Spanish filmmakers such as Álex de la Iglesia (The Oxford Murders), Javier Fesser ( Mortadelo and Filemón: The Big Perfect Adventure) and Kike Maíllo (A Perfect Enemy).

With the Méliès Award in hand, the veteran actor recalled emotional moments from his childhood, some of them in Blanes, Tordera, and Lloret de Mar, including the day the first man landed on the Moon, that beloved celestial body where Georges Méliès crashed a spaceship in 1902.

The Méliès d'Or gala awards are presented by the Méliès International Festivals Federation, a network of 29 film festivals from 21 different countries with a global audience of over 900,000 visitors, which is why it is a major economic and cultural force on the contemporary fantastic genre film scene. This helps to promote European film productions on a global scale, improving their visibility and positioning among audiences and within the industry, while also encouraging their distribution.

Monday's award ceremony took place before the screening of Balearic, a genuine underground thriller directed by Ion de Sosa, one of the most charismatic voices in Spanish film, the person behind the highly personal Mamántula, and who now transports us to a decadent Mallorca in summer, where four young people suffer the harassment of several dogs in the swimming pool of a huge mansion whose owners are away. The cast includes Christina Rosenvinge, Luka Peros, emerging talent Elías Hwidar, and two of the film's co-writers, Julián Génisson and Lorena Iglesias.