Sitges FanPitch Announces the Selected Projects for its Eleventh Edition
This 58th edition of the Sitges — International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia held its traditional Sitges FanPitch, a gathering that has been building bridges between creators of horror, science fiction, and/or fantasy audiovisual projects, and figures from the film and television industry for over a decade. This eleventh FanPitch selected projects including Grandmonster (Vegard Dahle), La forma animal (Sofia Esteve and Isa Luengo), La huida (Paul Urkijo), Umbra (William Miller) and Holi Womb (Anouk Whissell), as well as the stop motion serial Dolls (Joachim Hérissé, David Súkup, Von Dubravaya and Patrick Pass).
The event featured a welcome from director Joe Dante (Gremlins, Piranha, The 'Burbs), godfather of this year's "Risas y Escalofríos" theme and the Festival's Honorary Grand Prize winner. "I got into film a long time ago, and the business itself has changed a lot, but what has remained the same is that it's still an art, and it's still expressive," Dante noted. The director emphasized the importance of creative passion and shared his perspective on how to pitch a project with the FanPitch participants: "The best thing you have to sell is yourself and your trust in what you do."
The FanPitch, which included Spanish, Portuguese, British, American, Japanese, Mexican, and Colombian projects, created a meeting space for emerging projects, industry-leading companies, and creative figures. In the presentation sessions, representatives of the different projects were able to present their core ideas, as well as teasers, mood boards and reels, references, and already secured talent. Following the pitches, a gathering session was held in which, in a speed-date format, participants had a few minutes to meet with participating companies interested in their projects.
The winning feature film projects will receive travel grants to access international markets. To this end, the Sitges Film Festival maintains agreements with the NAFF-Bucheon Fantastic International Film Festival (South Korea), Frontières - Fantasia Film Festival (Canada), Ventana Sur (Argentina), and the Brussels Genre Film Market (Belgium). They will also be able to participate in the Feratum Residency at the Feratum International Fantastic Film Festival (Mexico) and the FantasoLab Award from the Ibero-American Fantastic Film Project LAB. The winning series will receive a cash prize of 2.500 euros for the development of the project and will be able to participate in the Showrunners LAB seminar, a seminar dedicated to the figure of the showrunner. They will also receive individual mentoring from showrunners attending the event.
Among the projects presented were also Corpse, by Leah Shore, winner of the Girls just wanna have FAN: WomanInFan Short Teaser Creation Contest – Sitges Fanlab; Neo Forest by Keishi Kondo, which already features the iconic Eihi Shiina (Audition) in its cast; Mother of All Evil, a documentary invited by WomanInFan and focusing on female horror icons, directed by Heidi Honeycutt; Black Samphire, by British filmmaker Catherine Joy White; and The Still Man by Emily Greenwood, one of the finalists of the 2nd WomanInFan Fantastic Residency, among others.
In addition to the series winner, Dolls, the series presented were Asakku, by Alberto Heredia, a darkly humorous horror series with a heavy metal band at its center; La Ruleta, an anthology that mixes genres and styles; House of Synths, by Han Tang, a dystopian sci-fi series with a talent show at its core; and Awakened, by Oscar López, a procedural thriller about ethical dilemmas and the threat of social collapse.
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Grandmonster
Directed by Vegard Dahle
An aimless young woman teams up with a wellmeaning but clueless nurse and a disgraced neurologist to cure her grandmother's dementia, only to trigger a jellyfish fulled zombie outbreak at a remote and understaffed Norwegian nursing home.
La huida
Directed by Paul Urkijo
An inmate and prison guard rob a bank, each planning to betray the other before the job even begins. In their fight to keep the loot, they end up badly wounded and stranded in a remote mountain cabin inhabited by two sisters with no fondness for men.
Umbra
Directed by William Miller
When an ancient curse is unleashed, a forgotten tragedy resurfaces. A family finds themselves haunted by the echoes of a past they never lived. To survive, they must uncover the truth before it consumes them completely.
La forma animal
Directed by Sofia Esteve and Isa Luengo
Mid-1950s. Years of dictatorship, persecution of dissidence and wolf hunting. While her brothers try to kill the wolf that threatens the village's flocks, Valentina begins to experience strange impulses towards the fresh blood and meat of the cattle.
Holi Womb
Directed by Anouk Whissell
Faced with an unplanned pregnancy that shatters her career ambitions, a distressed Grace travels to Poland to an exclusive retreat for expectant women and ends up battling for her own survial as she uncovers the spa's horrifying secrets.
Dolls
Directed by Joachim Hérissé, David Súkup, Von Dubravaya, and Patrick Pass
This stop-motion anthology series presents a series of deformed or mutilated cloth dolls that speak about our own concerns and our connections to others. United by a common aesthetic, the series works with sensorial and textural aspects, turning to a highly distinctive type of body horror. In the vein of one of other classic anthology series, each episode of Dolls will feature a live-action introduction by a master of ceremonies.
