Sitges FanLab Unveils the WomanInFan, Sitges FanPitch, and Coming Soon Sections
The kick-off of the 58th SITGES – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia is fast approaching. In addition to all the films that we have been announcing up to now, there are also new developments presented by the Industry Department, which once again this year is committed to promoting genre films through initiatives such as WomanInFan, Sitges FanPitch, and Coming Soon.
We begin this set of announcements with the winners of the two WomanInFan calls for entries. The winner of the Girls Just Wanna Have FAN: IV WomanInFan Short Teaser Creation Contest – Sitges Fanlab was American director Leah Shore for Corpse, a horror story where an influencer goes viral after making herself up with metalcore-style makeup, but with a slight twist: she uses some ancient Egyptian paints that she won't be able to remove. It’s at this point that a downward spiral into madness begins, one that she will end up dragging all her followers into as well. With this award, the Sitges Film Festival will offer the winner a 10,000 euro budget to make a short film-teaser, as well as support in the project's production and its participation in Sitges FanPitch2025.
Meanwhile, the 3rd WomanInFan – Sitges Fanlab Fantastic Residency Call for Entries has announced its winners, which this year will be four (4 projects by 5 female directors): Giulia Mucci, Louise Brix Andersen, Ana De Nevado, Sofia Esteve, and Isa Luengo (who are presenting a joint project). The first of them, Italian director Giulia Mucci, has been selected for her project The Dissertation, a film about a psychology student obsessed with writing a groundbreaking thesis who decides to start experimenting on the baby she's caring for. Danish director Louise Brix Andersen arrives with Sisterhood, a blend of mystery and horror where a woman, after being released from jail, will try to rescue her sister from a sorority that harbors some very sinister secrets. The third of the selected directors is Spain's Ana De Nevado for El fin de la abundancia, a psychological drama with hints of horror and science fiction that takes us to the near future, where humanity is confronted with La Calima, a mysterious cloud of dust that erases memories and reduces those affected to a primitive state. Spanish directors Sofia Esteve and Isa Luengo complete the list of participants with La forma animal, a story of lycanthropy, sexuality, and spirits during the years of Franco's dictatorship. The winners will receive accommodation, travel expenses, and per diems throughout the entire Festival, as well as access to all Industry activities, intensive counseling from experts, and personalized mentoring to continue progressing with their projects.
In addition to the four winning projects, there are nine finalists who will receive free Industry accreditation: Julieta Quiroga from Argentina, Iris Jacobs and Nina Noël Raaijmakers from the Netherlands, Sofia Garza-Barba from Mexico, María José Fuentes, Itziar Lamarka, and Ane Álvarez from Spain (the latter two presented a joint project), Mai Nakanishi from Japan, Gabriela Amaral Almeida from Brazil, and Michele Kaye from Canada.
Sitges FanPitch Presents a World-Class Lineup
For the eleventh consecutive year, the Sitges – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia is organizing Sitges FanPitch, its feature film and series production project pitch competition. For this year's edition, seven feature films and five series have been selected, which will also be joined by the project selected at Sitges FanPitch Catalunya Imaginària and those coming from Sitges FanPitch's collaborating audiovisual markets.
In the feature film format, we will have Neo Forest by Japanese director Keishi Kondo, a horror film that draws inspiration from movies such as Saint Maud, Ring, and Possessor, starring the iconic Eihi Shiina; Black Samphire by British director Catherine Joy White, an example of contemporary folk horror with an all-female leading cast; The Still Man by British director Emily Greenwood, who was among the finalists of the II WomanInFan Fantastic Residency and who presents a supernatural thriller with echoes of It Follows; 10 Mickeys by Miguel Llansó, a tragicomedy that combines 2D animation, live-action, stock footage, and found footage; Umbra by William Miller, a classic horror film shot in Catalonia that borrows from the archaeological and mythological history of its locations; Grandmonster by Norwegian director Vegard Dahle, a horror comedy about dignity and the inconvenient reality of being eaten by your grandmother; The Escape by Paul Urkijo Alijo, a visceral story about survival in its most extreme sense, and La forma animal by Spanish directors Sofia Esteve and Isa Luengo (also selected to participate in the III WomanInFan Fantastic Residency), an approach to historical memory from the fantastic genre that has been selected as the standard-bearer for the Catalunya Imaginària label.
Among the honorable mentions in the feature film format were: Starfish by Canadian director Éric Falardeau, Sun Offspring by Romanian director Octavian Saramet, Moonfish, an American project by Daniel Zvereff, Tina by Spanish director Joseph Díaz, Salvaje by Spanish director Manuel Carballo, and Child Uninvited by Japanese director Mai Nakanishi. Under the “Catalunya Imaginària” label, the honorable mentions were El gran casino by Daniel Noblom, Intrusa by Damià Serra, and Collaret de perles by Inés Acuña de Piero and Júlia Puig.
In the series category, the selected entries are Asakku by Spanish director Alberto Heredia, a horror series loaded with dark humor about a heavy metal band that makes a pact with the devil; La Ruleta by Spanish directors Fernando Osuna, Marta Barrios, and Esaú Dharma, an anthology that blends all kinds of genres in 15-minute episodes that promise all sorts of twists and surprises; Dolls by French director Joachim Hérissé, a stop-motion animated series with stand-alone, independent 15-minute episodes, each in the style of Tales from the Crypt or Twilight Zone; House of Synths, a North American project by director Han Tang, a dystopian science fiction series where teenage girls are turned into cyborgs for the purpose of normalizing the integration between humans and machines; and Awakened by Spanish director Oscar López, a science fiction thriller about how the conscious and unconscious choices we make affect our future.
As for the honorable mentions, these went to Carn d’Olla by Spanish director Victor Català and As Meigas by Spanish director Alberto Tejero Caballo.
Thanks to our collaboration with other international film markets such as NAFF – BIFAN (South Korea), FRONTIÈRES MARKET – Fantasia (Canada), VENTANA SUR–FANTASTIC! (Argentina), BIF MARKET – BIFFF (Belgium), and FANTASOLAB (Colombia), as well as residencies like Feratum - Feratum FF (Mexico), SITGES FANPITCH is part of an international network for the circulation of proposals, thanks to which the selected projects are presented at different film markets. While some projects will begin their international journey in Sitges, other proposals come to us directly from other film competitions.
In this regard, the selected proposals were The 30-Day Farewell by Taiwanese directors Yunxi Chang and Chih-Sen Huang, at NAFF – BIFAN; Holi Womb by Canadian director Anouk Whissell, selected at Frontières Market – Fantasia; The Advent by Portuguese director Gonçalo Almeida, selected at the BIF Market; from Ventana Sur – FANTASTIC!, Lux Noctis by Mexican director Damiana Acuña was the chosen project, while at the FERATUM Fantastic Film Festival in Mexico, we selected Solo los monstruos by Mónica Mateo as its representative, and finally, Los Eastman by Colombian director Mauricio Leiva-Cock arrives via the Encuentro Internacional de Productores (International Producers' Meeting) in Bogotá. Added to all these projects is the presence of the documentary Mother of All Evil by American director Heidi Honeycutt, which arrives as a guest project by WomanInFan.
The Selected Films for COMING SOON
We close this set of announcements with the projects selected to participate in SITGES COMING SOON, the section dedicated to the presentation of horror, science fiction, and fantastic genre films. This event is aimed at both projects in their final stages of development and completed films seeking support in areas such as financing, distribution, or promotion.
The films selected to participate in this year's edition are: The Nest by Hugo Stuven, a thriller about a mother obsessed with protecting her family from the outside world, La quietud de la luz by Fernando Frater, the story of a stranded astronaut who must face the disturbing ravages of isolation; La mala madre by Alicia Albares, a story about a woman who has lost her memory and must recover it to save her life; Agua negra by Santiago Ventura, a piece where a swimmer pushes her body to the limit in the context of a turbulent relationship with her coach; Keelhaul by Edgar Cortés Campoy, which narrates the descent into madness of a crew who believe they have fallen victim to a mythological curse; Here Be Dragons by Iria Gómez Concheiro, which tells the story of an 18-year-old girl searching for her lost brother in the midst of a coup d'état; Sierra: el álbum mortuorio by Carlos Ortiz Alarcón, and Little Lying Wild by Belizean Samantha Aldana, a blend of fantasy, horror, and magical realism shrouded in an absorbing mystery. It should be noted that this project won the second edition of Girls Just Wanna Have FAN: IV WomanInFan Short Teaser Creation Contest – Sitges Fanlab.
