Sitges Vindicates Mary Lambert on a Big Day for Spanish Film

We've reached the end of the first weekend of the SITGES - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, marked by our tribute to one of the great female genre directors in film history: Mary Lambert, who received the first Time Machine Award at this 56th edition of the Festival. Cinematically speaking, the day was unsurpassable, with the presentations of eagerly awaited films like Daniel Benmayor's 'AWARENESS' or Pablo Berger's 'ROBOT DREAMS', as well as candidates for surprise of the year like 'RIVER' or 'VINCENT MUST DIE'.  

Today the Sitges Film Festival paid tribute to one of the great benchmarks in genre filmmaking. Today, Mary Lambert, director of 'SIESTA' and 'PET SEMATARY' (both films could be seen during the Festival), received this year's first Time Machine Award at the 56th edition of the SITGES - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia. The vindication of Mary Lambert arrives in the context of initiatives like WomanInFan that aim to promote and make visible fantastic genre films made by women.  Another great female figure to be honored has been Barbara Bouchet, one of the great actresses of the golden period of Italian erotic comedy. The ceremony was held just before the screening of 'LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL' tonight in the Auditorium.

An anthological afternoon/evening for Spanish cinema at the Auditori. In the early afternoon, Daniel Benmayor presented 'AWARENESS', a spectacular science fiction thriller produced by Prime Video. It's the story of a young man with mental powers who finds himself being pursued by two criminal organizations. The Spanish filmmaker, one of today's most international directors, participated in a press conference along with producer Juan Solá and actors Pedro Alonso and Carlos Scholz, who debuts as lead actor. In this regard, Daniel Benmayor explained that "what attracted me most to Carlos was the truthfulness and empathy that radiate from his eyes. The casting was very extensive and he more than earned it." Meanwhile, Carlos Scholz highlights the depth of his character, Ian, and the opportunity that this role has meant for him: "I felt that I was finally given the opportunity I was waiting for, with one of those characters that every actor wants to play." 'AWARENESS' will arrive on Prime Video in just 3 days, on October 11th.  

Around 6:00 pm, the turn went to 'ROBOT DREAMS', the latest film by Pablo Berger, one of the most highly award-winning Spanish directors in recent years (highlighting, of course, the 10 Goya Awards he won for 'Snow White'). On this occasion, Pablo Berger ventures into the territory of animation, delivering a fantastic love story between a robot and a dog, with no dialogue, and collaborating for the third time with Alfonso de Vilallonga for an unforgettable soundtrack. This morning, Pablo Berger, Sara Varon, creator of the original comic, José Luis Ágreda, art director, Sandra Tapia, producer, and Yuko Harami, music editor, answered questions from journalists at a press conference. The director spoke about the soundtrack, confirming that it will be released and commenting that in the film "the music is the characters' voice" and that for them it was "important for the soundtrack to perfectly represent the city of New York." He also remarked that what attracted him most about Sara Varon's book was "how much it moved me" and he promised the graphic novel author that he would "respect the spirit and soul of the original work," something Sara Varon agrees with, going so far as to say that "the film is funnier."  

In the evening, the quality of the screenings at the Auditori continued at a consistently high level. 'VINCENT MUST DIE' was the following film, the story of a man who one day has to face the fact that everyone has an irrepressible desire to kill him. Directed by French filmmaker Stéphan Castang. The night ended with one of the biggest sensations (it was already a huge sensation at last year's SXSW) so far at the Festival: 'LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL' by brothers Colin and Cameron Cairnes; the story of a late-night talk show host, capable of doing anything to regain his lost audience, including a terrifying Halloween special.  

The Official In-Competition Selection was also represented at the Retiro theater with a matinee screening of 'THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE BARN', a hilarious film by Norwegian director Magnus Martens about a family that will have to survive a very nasty goblin that lives in their barn. Another SOFC (Official In-Competition Selection) film that was screened, in this case at the Prado theater, is 'OMEN' by Congolese-born director Baloji, a surrealist drama about a man who has to face the superstitions of both his family and his native village in the Congo after returning, 15 years later, with a white partner.  

The parallel sections also had an impressive day. At the Prado, two fascinating films from Noves Visions were presented today: 'RIVER', the latest madness from the creators of 'Beyond the Infinite 2 Minutes', one of the big surprises at Sitges2021 and 'MOON GARDEN', a beautiful film shot in 35 mm with amazing artisanal special effects. The Panorama section didn't fall short, starting in the morning with the screening of 'THE SACRIFICE GAME', a survival movie set in the dormitories of an elite school, and finishing off mid-afternoon with 'BROOKLYN 45', an excellent example of classic horror directed by American director Ted Geoghegan. 

Sitges Industry was defined today by two activities related to pitching. The first of them was the Fanpitch Live Session, a live pitching session held in the Noray Marquee where the shortlisted feature films presented their pitch in a hybrid on-site and online session before a jury formed by Javier Fernández, director of Blood Window, Annick Manhert, programming director at the Fantastic Fest in Austin and Jongsuk Thomas Nam, Managing Director of NAFF at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN). Afterwards, the selected projects had the opportunity to meet with each of the participating production companies. In the afternoon, Coming Soon took place, reserved for projects in their early stages. At noon, Carles Porta, who is presenting 'LUZ EN LA OSCURIDAD', was in the Garbí 2 room where he spoke about the true crime genre in a meeting entitled 'Analyzing True Crime with Carles Porta'. Carlos Torres, content director and Santi Baró, director of the series, also participated in the session. 

Today at MEETING, the "Sitges Fanzine & Comic II" was held, a meeting of independent publishers from the Spanish national scene. In addition, there was a tribute to Francisco Ibáñez, creator of Mortadelo and Filemón, in the form of a talk where the book "Ibáñez: el maestro de la cómieta" (Ibáñez: The Master of Comic Strips) was presented and Jordi Canyissà, author of the book, and David Muñoz, author, screenwriter and director, participated. Also at MEETING, illustrator Shaun Elay was doing live drawing in her particular style of painting in negative without using any references.