Sitges2024 Kicks Off the Week Paying Tribute to Heather Langenkamp

Today, the 57th edition of the SITGES - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia celebrated the career of actress Heather Langenkamp, an essential figure in modern American genre moviemaking, by presenting her with the Honorary Time Machine Award. Amy Adams got the Auditori barking with Nightbitch and Sebastian Stan left it speechless with A Different Man.

What better way to start off Monday than having a cup of coffee with Dario Argento? An experience very similar to this could be enjoyed this morning at the Escorxador during the screening of Deep Argento, the documentary directed by Giancarlo Rolandi and Steve Della Casa. This previously unreleased portrait of the filmmaker explores the figure of this giallo rock star who has always been very protective of his private life (or at least until now). On the other side of the coin, the theater was teleported to the COVID pandemic by welcoming the projection of a gameplay on the big screen. This is the case of Grand Theft Hamlet, a film by Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane that adapts Shakespeare's classic within the cult video game Grand Theft Auto V. At the same time that the game console was switched on in the Escorxador, the Auditori saw the team from El mal invisible, a series produced by The Mediapro Studio in collaboration with 3Cat where David Verdaguer and Ángela Cervantes will have to search for a serial killer in the streets of Barcelona, on parade. Based on real events that occurred during the confinement, the new project by Lluís Arcarazo was presented to the press.  

The Official Fantàstic In Competition Selection once again opens the doors to the best domestic fantastic genre productions with the international premiere of Still Life with Ghosts, a delightful black ensemble comedy rooted in the “esperpento” and “picaresque” styles where the belief in the paranormal is totally accepted. Filmmaker Enrique Buleo -promising voice in absurdist comedy endorsed by Juan Cavestany-and the rest of the team attended a press conference this morning. “I didn't want it to be a caricature of my hometown, but a love letter; I didn't want to be the typical snob who laughs at the people who believe,” said the director. Eduardo Antuña, one of the actors in the film, speaks emotionally about his participation in it: “Playing an atheist character is always a gift, especially if he's a priest”. The filmmaker presents the film as a portrait of a society desensitized by horror: “We have to hear news of infanticides every day, some of the ones that appear are as Dantesque as they are real”. Regarding the film's atypical sense of humor, Buleo says he enjoys choreographing unintentional humor with a certain seriousness: “I always move between two poles: Tarkovsky and Los Morancos”.

The sun goes down and with the night, A Different Man arrives at the Auditori, a dark satire with echoes of Charlie Kaufman's films, with which Sebastian Stan won the Award for Best Actor at the Berlin Film Festival. The new film by Aaron Schimberg, director of Chained for Life, tells the story of a would-be actor with no professional or romantic success who undergoes an operation to change his appearance and features actor Adam Pearson, known for his role in Under the Skin. Today the Auditori welcomed an intensive Official Fantàstic In Competition Selection, as it was also possible to enjoy Continent by Davi Pretto -the director of the acclaimed Castanha and Rifle, bringing the supernatural into dialogue with the western- and Basileia by Isabella Torre -the Italian filmmaker's feature-length debut in a mysterious archeological expedition with Lovecraftian echoes.

Impossible to forget the eagerly awaited screening of Nightbitch, the new film by Marielle Heller, director of The Diary of a Teenage Girl and An Extraordinary Friend. Amy Adams stars in this wild allegory about female liberation from oppressive gender roles that explores Kafkaesque metamorphosis to the rhythm of barking. The vibrant screening of the film at the Auditori was preceded by the presentation of the Honorary Time Machine Award to American actress Heather Langenkamp, honored at the Festival for her undisputed contribution to horror movies from the eighties and nineties. The actress has participated in such iconic works as the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and Wes Craven 's Shocker and more recently in Mike Flanagan's The Midnight Club .  

Let's not forget about the rest of the screenings. The Official Sitges Collection Section was particularly outstanding for its tense screening at the Prado of Arcadian by Benjamin Brewer, director and visual effects designer who, after working with Justin Bieber on an MTV VMA award-winning music video, teams up with Nicolas Cage in this family survival horror movie (but not for the whole family). In Noves Visions we were able to immerse ourselves in Mexican folklore with Edgar Nito's A Fishermen's Tale, the world premiere of the new film by the director of The Gasoline Thieves, and in the atypical romantic comedy proposed by Caroline Lindy's Your Monster, a film that continues to consolidate Melissa Barrera as an icon of horror movies. The Auditori also welcomed the Òrbita section during the screening of Julien Colonna's The Kingdom, an impossible cross between The Godfather and Aftersun.