PRIVATE AREA

FESTIVAL ARCHIVES

2006

Sitges - 39ed. Festival Internacional de Catalunya (6/10 - 15/10)
#39

List of winners

Oficial Fantàstic

JURY
Monte Hellman, Leticia Dolera, Carlos Losilla, Pilar Pedraza, Tom Schiller

Best Short Film
(Ex aequo)
A FOR(R)EST IN THE DES(S)ERT, de Luiso Berdejo
HANDYMAN, by Simon Rumley

Best Production Design
Are Sjaastad, for THE BOTHERSOME MAN

Best Make Up FX
Jang Jin, for TIME

Best Special Effects - Premio Infinia
Jang Heui-cheol, for THE HOST

Best Original Soundtrack
East, for TZAMETI (13)

Best Cinematography
Jonathan Sela, for GRIMM LOVE

Best Script
Sam Hamm, for HOMECOMING (Masters of Horror)

Best Actress
Sandra Hüller, for REQUIEM

Best Actor
(Ex aequo)
Thomas Krestchmann, for GRIMM LOVE
Thomas Huber, for GRIMM LOVE

Best Director
Martin Weisz, for GRIMM LOVE

Special Jury Award
HOMECOMING (Masters of Horror), by Joe Dante

Best Motion Picture
REQUIEM, by Hans-Christian Schmid.

Carnet Jove Jury
Gerard Casau Vaz, Blanca Esteva Ballús, Stefan Ivanic, Zouhair El Hairan, Beatriz Martínez Gómez

FANTÀSTIC
EXILED, by Johnnie To.

Special Mention to CIGARETTE BURNS (Masters of Horror), by John Carpenter.

MIDNIGHT X-TREME
WHAT IS IT?, by Crispin Glover

Special Mention to BEHIND THE MASK: THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON, Scott Glosserman’s feature film for his skills in showing how to create a “slasher” movie milestone.

Noves Visions
JURY
John Fallon, Carlos Martin Ferrera, Frédéric Temps

EDMOND, by Stuart Gordon

Special Mention to THE LIVING AND THE DEAD, by Simon Rumley.

NOVA AUTORIA ADWARD (Sponsored by l’SGAE)

Best direction
Jorge Tur Moltó (UAB), for DE FUNCIÓN

Best script
David Jiménez, Rubén Molina, Albert Solà and Joseph Lluïs Marín (EMAV), for BOWMAN

Best original music
Roger Padilla (ESCAC), for NO QUIERO LA NOCHE

Orient Express - Casa Àsia
JURY
Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Enrique Garcelán, Amaia Torrecilla

THE HOST by Bong Joon-ho

Animat - Premi Gertie
JURY
Juan Giménez, Ken Niimura, Sandra Salvador

Best Animated Film
THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME, by Mamoru Hosoda

Best Animated Short film
DREAMS AND DESIRES-FAMILY TIES, by Joanna Quinn

Special Mention to THE BOOK OF THE DEAD, of Kihachiro Kawamoto, for his excellent technique and his real skill in the difficult art of puppet animation.

Brigadoon
JURY
Jose Espinosa, Paul Naschy, Carles Muñoz Miralles

Best Short Film
TIGHT, by Sergio Vizcaíno

Méliès D’argent
JURY
Adrián Guerra, Antonio José Navarro, Mireia Ros

Silver Méliès for Best European Motion Picture
PRINCESS, by Anders Morgenthaler

Silver Méliès Award for Best Europea Short Film
DOODLE, by Sam Rogers

Others awards

Audience Award for Best Motion Picture (Sponsored by El Periódico)
LA CIENCIA DEL SUEÑO, by Michel Gondry

Jose Luis Guarner Critic Award
JURY
Marta Monedero, Desirée de Fez, Pedro Adrián Zuloaga

REQUIEM, by Hans-Christian Schmid

Citizen Kane Award to an up-and-coming director
Rian Johnson, for BRICK

Jury

Oficial Fantàstic Jury

Leticia Dolera - Actress
Tom Schiller - Film director
Carlos Losilla - Critical
Monte Hellman - Film director
Pilar Pedraza - Writer

Oficial Noves Visions

Fédéric Temps - Director of L’Etrange Festival
John Fallon - Journalist
Carlos Martín Ferrera - Film director

Oficial Orient Express - Casa Asia Jury

Jean Pierre Dionnet - Producer and Scriptwriter
Enrique Garcelán - Critical
Amaia Torrecilla - BAFF Codirector

Méliès d'Argent Jury

Adrián Guerra - Producer and Distributor
Antonio José Navarro - Journalist
Mireia Ros - Film director

Carnet Jove Jury

The Festival will once again have, for the second time since it was created, a youth jury, organized in collaboration with the Secretaria General de Joventut de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalonian government’s youth department). The Carnet Jove Jury, made up exclusively of film critics from 18 to 30 years of age, will be presenting the Carnet Jove Jury’s Award to the Best Motion Picture from among the feature films presented in the Festival’s Official Selection as well as the Midnight X-Treme Award to the best motion picture in this category. Finally the youth audience, this international competition’s most faithful audience, will have a chance to officially express its tastes and preferences in movies.

Blanca Esteva Ballús
Stefan Ivanic
Zouhair El Hairan
Beatriz Martínez Gómez
Gerard Casau Vaz

Gertie Anima't Jury

Juan Jiménez - Sketcher of Comics
Sandra Salvador - Director and Producer
J. M. Kem Niimura - Sketcher of Comics

José Luis Guarner Jury

Marta Monedero
Desirée de Fez
Pedro Adrián Zuloaga

Brigadoon Jury

Jose Espinosa - Audio-visual executive
Paul Naschy - Director and Actor
Carles Muñoz Miralles - Comic Publisher

Tributes

KIYOSHI KUROSAWA - Retrospective Màquina del Temps Award

Less is more is a coined phrase that in the case of this filmmaker, born in Kobe 51 years ago, becomes a splendid reality. An American genre film lover, at least of a few fetish filmmakers like Siegel, Peckimpah and the Hooper of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and creator of one of the most suggestive filmographies in contemporary Japanese film, Kiyoshi stopped being confused with the nonexistent relative of maestro Akira a long time ago now to claim his own space on the international scene and, without setting out to do so, move into the front line in the vanguard of this fantasy cinema that pays no attention to predetermined frontiers or conventionalisms. Starting as a short film maker, winning awards even at the PIA Film Festival, and hardened as an assistant director to Kazuhiko Hasegawa and Shinji Somai, Kurosawa’s alternative as a professional director was given to him by Takahashi Banmei when he handed him the direction of Kandagawa Wars (1983). His virginal foray into the boggy but liberalizing spheres of pinku-eiga (not foreign to many of the main local sharpshooters), had its continuation with another film, The Excitement of the Do-Re-Mi-Fa Girl (1985) to later go on to immerse himself in the horror genre with titles like Sweet Home (1989) or the yakuza-eiga with the Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself (1996-97) and Revenge (1997) series,  video and/or television productions where Kurosawa already began to show his skill and that in Cure (1997), the dark supernatural thriller that opened the doors for him to the West, he displayed completely with no intention of looking back. From then on, Kurosawa became a genre in himself and his style became remained marked by a distended tempo, a generous composition in sequence shots and restless framings and an elliptic narration that showed noticeable philosophical concerns steered toward that existential pessimism he slapped us in the face with in the icy and quasi-apocalyptic Pulse (2001), possibly his masterpiece. After becoming a regular at international festivals with pieces like Charisma (1999), Séance (2000) or the aforementioned award-winning Pulse, and bringing us closer to horror in its purest state, without gratuitous theatricality and defining styles, Kurosawa has had time to divide critics with the underrated Bright Future (2002), the inoffensive Doppelganger (2002) and very personal projects like the short film Soul Dancing (2004), a frugal attempt to return to the roots of the electric shadow before redirecting his steps towards  “horror his way” with three new projects: Loft, House of Bugs (both 2005) and the splendid Retribution (2006). It is still early to assess the scope that these new projects will have in his career as a whole but what seems certain is that this skilful manipulator of genres has already left an indelible and disquieting memory in our retinas.

TRIBUTE TO ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY - Retrospective Màquina del Temps Award

How to feel comfortable with a thorn in your side.

To speak about Alejandro Jodorowsky is to speak about a temperamental and symbolic fragment of contemporary film history. We can’t approach Jodorowsky –the person- or Jodorowsky –the filmmaker-, leaving to one side the rest of his artistic career and, of course, his continuous countercultural contribution in the middle of a social scene that is blocked by false perceptive stylistics, where contemporary man self-mutilates one of his most valuable gifts: the ability to communicate.
Breaking away from everything established and abolishing any rational thinking is an important part of the so-called panic movement that he himself created in 1962 along with Fernando Arrabal, and that they both tried out through the “Panic Acts”, which is what they called actions aimed at freeing the mind and the spirit.
Born in Chile, Jodorowsky spent a good part of his life in Mexico where he lived with others in villages where they practiced Santeria and healing through medicine men. From there he extracted a large part of the philosophy and knowledge that he explains in his work entitled Psychomagic, a therapy combining psychology and mysticism to treat concrete problems of each individual’s psyche. A Tarot lover, Jodorowsky boasts that he always carries a deck of these cards with him that he interprets openly for all those who ask him to do so. His famous weekly soirées at the popularized “Cabaret Místico” in Paris are deduced, partly, to be gatherings carrying the seed of panic, meetings through which Alejandro Jodorowsky offers invaluable psychomagic advice and some very valuable interpretations of mysteries before an unconditional audience.
But without a doubt, it is the moviemaker, the driving force behind midnight movies, the scriptwriter behind the comic books with the amazing (and hallucinatory) strokes by Moebius, the Alejandro Jodorowsky philosopher and deeply transgressor that interests us the most, that leaves us with our mouths gaping and our pupils lit up, that most marks our incurable cinephilia. Sitges 2006 pays tribute to the figure of movie director Alejandro Jodorowsky with a retrospective that not only reviews his filmography (The Gopher, Holy Blood, Fando and Lis and The Holy Mountain), but also presents the Spanish premiere of the short film La Cravate, his first work as a film director, missing for decades and that was believed to be lost forever, to be found this year in a forgotten attic in Germany.  
His peculiar extroversion and incisive analytical character make Jodorowsky a unique celebrity who is a part, now even more so if that’s possible, of the International Film Festival of Catalonia’s fantasy universe. Welcome to Sitges, maestro.

ALEJANDRO AMENÁBAR Màquina del Temps Award

Reconstructing the stages that fantasy film production has gone through in our country, it is obvious that there is a name that shines with a light of its own, playing an important part in the renovation and reformulation of this genre in Spain. Alejandro Amenábar is one of the national directors who has achieved international acknowledgement with film works that display a passion and voracity for telling stories, where the narrative flows influenced directly by sources of the great masters of thrillers and horror. From Thesis (Tesis, 1996) his first work, to The Others (Los Otros, 2001), Amenábar gauges the impact of the fears of our times, using personality crises and lack of communication as central themes over which he pendulates the magic that all of his stories exude. Sitges 2006 will present the La Màquina del Temps (Time Machine) Award to director and composer Alejandro Amenábar, one of the most talented persons in this country’s movie industry.

HOWARD BERGER Màquina del Temps Award

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Howard Berger developed an intense passion for film and special effects right from early childhood. After graduating and starting to work with two of his idols, Stan Winston and Rick Baker, Berger took a chance and founded his own studio with his colleagues Robert Kurtzman and Greg Nicotero. During the past eighteen years K.N.B. EFX Group has worked on innumerable Hollywood productions creating all kinds of special effects and prosthetic make-up until becoming one of the most important companies in the world. Berger recently won an Academy Award for his work on The Chronicles of Narnia, a just acknowlegement of the career of this surprising special effects artist to whom Sitges’06 will be presenting the Màquina del Temps Award this year.

LLUÍS DE VAL I LÓPEZ Maria Honorífica Award

Born in Barcelona in 1953 and with a degree in economics from Barcelona University, Lluis de Val’s career has been linked to the audiovisual sector since his participation in diverse industry companies starting in 1982. In 1993, he became president of Manga Films, S.L., a Catalan management, distribution and production company that revolutionized the Japanese animation market in Spain and that now has one of the most complete and  diversified catalogues in the audiovisual sector. Lluis de Val is also chairman of the DICA (Associated Independent Film Distributors), a founding member of Barcelona Audiovisual and a member of the Asociación Videográfica Española (Spanish Video Association) and the CAC (Catalonian Audiovisual Council).

TRIBUTE TO DAVID LYNCH - Retrospective

Probably no other filmmaker has expressed through his or her movies the pain and confusion involved in waking up to the reality of existence, and the violent process that the loss of innocence represents in itself, like David Lynch has. A mystery lover above all, Lynch has shrouded each and every one of his works in an atmospheric halo of indescribable beauty, represented by a blue velvet curtain, by the luxuriant forest of a town called Twin Peaks or by a deserted, one-way, nighttime highway to our deepest subconscious. The limits of form and content are vague in all of David Lynch’s movies, and that is precisely one of the most obvious qualities that can be drawn from reviewing his filmography.

Underlining the strange things in everyday life is one of the pillars his movies are built on, and one of the keys through which the special magnetism of the lyrical, magical science that is attributed to the narration of his stories flows. Educated in Fine Arts and with an extremely interesting background as a painter, sculptor and photographer, Lynch should be considered one of the most important and influential filmmakers in recent years. His use of film language is but a new sphere to refine and experiment with his attractive, disturbing and contradictory expressiveness. David Lynch is to film what Francis Bacon or Edward Hopper are to painting in an aesthetic and narrative sense. An intimist recreation of the loneliness of post-modern man and of the tragic feeling of his existence represented through nightclubs, roadside bars or motel rooms, in a chain of paradigms that work like true revelations and that, like in painter Francis Bacon’s work, are resolved in the reality itself of the artistic act.

Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the screening of his film Blue Velvet at Sitges, this year’s festival would like to pay tribute to the genius from Montana by screening some of his most emblematic works, for having shared the mysteries enclosed in his particular work with us and for bringing us closer to an organic universe full of the most suggestive textures that any lover of the fantasy genre now recognizes as characteristic.

RICHARD STANLEY - Retrospective

“Richard Stanley is the future of horror”. Legend has it that this is what Dario Argento said about the director of Hardware. As exaggerated as this assertion might sound, it appears the master of giallo was right when he enthroned the author of this tiny revolution that shook up the depressed British fantasy scene in the nineties. South African by birth, Stanley has become a living genre legend, a visionary that has achieved cult status with a short, atypical and problematic filmography made up of a handful of short films, three documentaries and two feature films where he combines mystical, arcane, poetic and mythological passions with a brilliant aesthetic sense bordering on music video and comic. Sitges Classics pays tribute to his presence at the Festival as co-screenwriter of The Abandoned (Nacho Cerdá, 2006) with the screening of his two feature films and, as a true exclusive, a surprise short film.

RICHARD FLEISCHER - Retrospective (1916-2006)

Equally revered and misunderstood, the son of Max Fleischer (animation pioneer and creator of the Betty Boop and Popeye characters) always felt a certain touch of dissatisfaction with the heavy machinery of Hollywood, the factory of dreams and nightmares with which he had to share the customary successes and failures in a career that included 47 movies in 45 years. A filmography that was as eclectic as it was extensive, realistic and visceral, that began with B-movies and reached all imaginable genres, from action to thriller, from comedy to musical, from sciences fiction to horror. Titles like 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), The Vikings (1958), Fantastic Voyage (1966), The Boston Strangler (1968), Soylent Green (1973) or Conan the Destroyer (1988), earned him a much-deserved, outstanding position in the universal entertainment industry and Sitges Classics pays tribute to his career in the fantasy genre with two unforgettable films: Fantastic Voyage and Soylent green.

Actes paral·lels

TONI GALINDO - FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY chronicles the career of graphic designer and artist Toni Galindo through an in-depth display of the more than sixty feature films which bear his prodigious signature. The exhibit also features the posters and campaigns he designed for prestigious film festivals and television platforms. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY brings together nearly fifty panels displaying the film-related work of graphic designer and cartoonist Toni Galindo. Such well-known films as The Others (2001), The Devil’s Backbone (2001), Mortadelo & Filemón: The Big Adventure (2003), The Sea Inside (2004), Airbag (1997) and The Biggest Robbery Never Told (2002) bear his signature, and filmmakers including Juanma Bajo Ulloa, Montxo Armendáriz, Javier Fesser, Alejandro Amenábar, Daniel Calparsoro and Fernando León de Aranoa have called on his services. The display also includes an interactive audiovisual section with projections of the young creative designer’s work and that of his company Art&Maña, and is set off with sound recordings. The exhibition will also feature a wide variety of publications, pressbooks and promotional materials designed by Galindo. Galindo left his mark on some of our most important film festivals, designing the official posters for the San Sebastian Film Festival in 1996 and 1999, both of which earned him a Key Art Award in Los Angeles (considered the Oscars of the film marketing community).

CALLE 13 Present GUILLERMO DEL TORO AL SITGES 2006

SITGES-International Film Festival of Catalonia will be holding an exhibition on director Guillermo del Toro sponsored by Calle 13. The show includes unreleased material from his filmography, from Mimic to Pan’s Labyrinth. The storyboards from Hellboy, the spectacular masks used in his latest production presented at this year’s Festival and, all in all, a collection of the props used in his movies, created by the prestigious DDT Special Effects crew, regular Del Toro collaborators in all his films since The Devil’s Backbone. The exhibition will also include a screening room where you can see unreleased material from Guillermo del Toro’s private collection on his shoots plus his movie making-ofs.

Publications

Universo Lynch (Lynch Universe)

Quim Casas
Antonio José Navarro
Ángel Sala
Iván Pintor Iranzo
Nuria Vidal
Juan Zapater

Published by the Sitges International Film Festival and Calamar Ediciones

Paperback, 13x19 cm. 176 Pages. Illustrated.
ISBN: 84-96235-16-5
PVP: 12 Euros.


Week after week, millions of people in countries all over the world devoutly followed Twin Peaks, a television series whose rhythm and aesthetics radically broke away from the established norms, and that was capable of capturing the attention of a devoted and, above all, perplexed audience.
But David Lynch is much more than Twin Peaks, although it, his encounter with the general public, already discloses many ideas on what his personal world is like and his original way of creating stories.
In Lynch’s work –as if it were an opera, a paradigm of “total art”– you can find a camera treatment that combines photography, music, painting... we could even see a sculpture form in Laura Palmer’s laminated body. This volume analyzes the “Lynch universe”, precisely from that polyhedral perspective that makes his movie making much more than cinema.
A work as original as the director it analyzes himself, that attempts, from an open, multidiscipline perspective, to contribute a new dimension to the particular universe of an exceptional filmmaker, and that assumes its nature as a Lynchian object, as a hard-to-classify UFO,  that maybe should be consumed, like Laura Palmer’s body, wrapped in plastic.




INDEX:
Plastic wrapping (by way of introduction) - Ángel Sala
Sinister Loci. El sexo, el horror y el mal en el cine de David Lynch (Sinister Loci. Sex, horror and evil in David Lynch’s cinema) – Antonio José Navarro
Diccionario musical lynchiano (Lynchian musical dictionary)- Quim Casas
David Lynch y Haruki Murakami, la llama en el umbral (David Lynch and Haruki Murakami, the flame at the threshold) - Iván Pintor Iranzo
Y el principio fue «The grandmother» (And the beginning was «The grandmother») - Juan Zapater
El invisible hilo azul de David Lynch (David Lynch’s invisible blue thread)- Nuria Vidal
David Lynch’s filmography

Organization

DIRECTOR
Ángel Sala

FINANCIAL DIRECTOR
Caroline Meyden

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Mike Hostench

PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Ángel Sala
Jordi Sánchez-Navarro
Mike Hostench
Pepa Cordero
Sònia Abella
Juanma Pastor
P.P.P.

FESTIVAL SECRETARY
Merche López

ANIMA’T
Director: Jordi Sánchez-Navarro
Deputy: Pepa Cordero

BRIGADOON AND PARALLEL ACTIVITIES
Juanma Pastor

CATALAN FOCUS
Director: Sònia Abella
Deputy: Raquel Aranda

FILM COORDINATION
Director: Pepa Cordero
Deputy: Lidia Gilabert

PRESS AND PUBLICITY
Director: Eva Herrero
Deputies: Maria Castells, Marina Queraltó
Assistants: Pau Teixidor, Marta Pujol
Interns: Anna Masides, Juan Pablo Oviedo
Translator coordinator: Mila Rodríguez
Translators: Enara Hurtado, Bruno Sempere, Esperanza Costa, Gorka Ortiz de Zarate

LOGISTICS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
Director: Sergi Orobitg
Logistics and Industry Deputy: Imma Serra
Logistics Deputy: Mireia Madroñero
P.R. Deputy: Laura Santiago
Guest Coordination: Alicia Reginato
Guest Deputy: Alex Fernández
Jury Secretary: Natalia Amat
Institutional Protocol: Esther Oriola
Guest Attention Services: Jane Mason, Marta Pérez, Marta Rodríguez, Montse Bartuí, Maria de Fátima López, Salvador Colom
Guest Reception: M. Lluïsa Olea, Judith Hernández, Ana Hernández, Yen Chang, James Begg
Guest Transportation Coordinator: Xavi Roig
Deputy: Daniel Arbonés
Volunteer Coordinator: Paula Carrillo
Invitations Manager: Arantza Begueria
Deputy: Eugenia Mumenthaler
Ceremonies Manager: Ricardo Gil
Audiovisual Montage: IMAGO

MARKETING
Director: Esther Torremorell
Deputy: Xavi Buxés

PRODUCTIONS AND INFRASTRUCTURES
Director: Josep “Gari” Gracia
Deputy: Pere Milán
Director of Maintenance: Joan Carles Alegre
Deputy: Axel Neuman
Warehouse Manager: Fric López
Warehouse Assistant & Driver: Alfonso Redondo
Drivers: Xavi Muntaner, Sergi Riba, Joan Marc Matas, Federico Peñalver, Ivór Grima, Manuel Navío, Nicolas Ribalta, Gonzalo Castan, Oscar de Llopart, Daniel Guerrero, Marc Barqué.

VENUE MANAGERS
Auditori: Ciscu Santgenis
El Prado: Arnau Orobitg
Deputy: Toni Tudela
El Retiro: Quique Romeu
Retiro Deputy: Imma Lanuza
Viewing Room: Susana Domenech
Brigadoon: Marta Rubio
Porters: I. Caro, Genís Hernández, Jasmina Miñana, Sofía Arnott.

PUBLICATIONS
Director: Ricardo Reparaz
Deputy: Miguel de la Fuente
Catalogue and Cover Graphic Design: Art&Maña
Special Graphic Design and Festival Newspaper : Estudio Fénix
Editors: Ricardo Reparaz, Miguel de la Fuente, Carlos G. Vela, Violeta Kovacsics, Jesús Palacios, Gonzalo de Lucas
Illustrators: Sandra Uve, Manuel Bartual
Photographers: Miguel Angel Chazo, Jesús Paris

BOX-OFFICES
Director: Natalia Rey-Joly
Deputy: Isabel Castells
Box-Office Clerks: Vicky Clusellas, Cèlia Rebull, Laura Galán, Marta Rubio, Laura Costa, Eva Noguer, Cristina Molina, Silvia Teixidor, Aitana Medinez

News

Awards 2006

OFICIAL FANTÀSTIC JURY: Monte Hellman, Leticia Dolera, Carlos Losilla, Pilar Pedraza, Tom Schiller Best Short Film (Ex aequo) A FOR(R)EST IN THE DES(S)ERT, by Luiso Berdejo HANDYMAN, by Simon Rumley Best Production Design Are Sjaastad, for THE BOTHERSOME MAN Best Make Up FX Jang Jin, for...

Sisters, with Douglas Buck

Douglas Buck brings us to the psychiatrist through a remake of Sisters, by Brian de Palma. The director is in Sitges to exhibit his film

Musical Sitges

The director Ho-sun Chan is in Sitges to exhibit Perhaps Love, a love story taking place in between the settings of a musical.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa wins the Màquina del Temps Award

Kiyoshi Kurosawa, main protagonist of a retrospective about Orient Express, is in Sitges to collect the Màquina del Temps award.

Wicker Man with the director Neil LaBute

Neil LaBute is in Sitges to exhibit Wicker Man, a film in which the mysterious disappearance of a young woman and the bizarre believes of the town where she lives are investigated.

Terry Gilliam exhibits Tideland

Terry Gilliam, former member of the Monty Python, exhibits his last film, Tideland. The film, based on the novel by March Cullin, tells us the story of a young girl that lives with her father in the middle of nowhere. By means of Gilliam's imagination, we become absorbed in a fascinating journey.

Màquina del Temps Award to Alejandro Amenábar

Alejandro Amenábar has been awarded with the Màquina del Temps Award for his contribution and diffusion of fantastic national cinema.

Anthony Wong exiled in Sitges

Anthony Wong brings to Sitges one of the films he is exhibiting this year, Johnnie To. Exiled, which belongs to the Official Fantastic Section. The film brings us to the world of gangsters with the very personal touch of this distinct director.

Abandoned Sitges

First long feature film by Nacho Cerdá, who is in Sitges together with Anastasia Hille, Karim Hussin and Richard Stanley (plot writers), in order to exhibit Los Abandonados, a thrillingly terrifying film.

Fido, not just zombies

The director Andrew Currie has presented his second long feature film, Fido. It is a story about tamed zombies in which they seem to be more alive rather than human beings.

Catalan production made in Hollywood

Wes Bentley is in Sitges to exhibit his new film, The Ungodly, a Catalan production made in Hollywood, in which the relationship between a film maker and a serial killer is reflected. In the press conference, apart from Bentley, took part in it the director of the film, Thomas C. Dunn, the actors Ma...

Learning with Jodorowsky

Alejandro Jodorowsky has been awarded with the Màquina del Temps prize, and offers us a Master Class in which nobody feels reluctant to explain their problems. The director and writer has talked about his 'Mystic Cabaret'

O'Brien exhibits his first feature film

Billy O'Brien visits Sitges to exhibit Isolation, his first feature film. Set in a farm in rural Ireland, this film warns us about the risks of animal experimentation.

Satoshi Kon?s new film

The director Satoshi Kon (Mousou dairinin, Tokyo Godfathers, Perfect Blue...) is in Sitges to exhibit Paprika, his last animation film.

Moscow Zero in Sitges

Moscow Zero has been exhibited by the directress, María Lindón, the actors Julio Perillán and Rade Serbedja, and the producers José Margán and Dolo Magan. This is the third film of Luna, who presented her first film, Náufragos, at Sitges 2002.

Back to the big screen

Six years after directing his last film, Requiem For a Dream, Darren Aronofsky hits the big screen again with The Fountain, a science-fiction story that covers Spanish history from the XVIth century to the XXVIth century.

Target: Reality

Considered as one of the masters of contemporary colour photography, William Eggleston lands in Sitges to exhibit an awesome double session that will show not only his meticulous way of working, but also his personality as an artist. On Wednesday 11th, Eggleston will attend to FNAC El Triangle, whe...

Supporting Catalan Cinema

The Catalan Focus section main objective is to exhibit the best unpublished documentaries that are produced by a sector of Catalan film makers that is living a buoyant moment, as well as the launch of a new generation of TV movies, which results in Catalonia as the main core of production and co-pro...

Black Book: Grand Honorary Prize to Paul Verhoeven

He could really boast about his successful films. Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct) gets back to the big screen by means of a war story set in Holland in 1944. Zwartboek (Black Book) is exhibited in the Première official section. Paul Verhoeven will receive the Grand Hon...

Brick: murder in Sitges

Rian Johnson, director and writer of Brick, exhibits his opera prima. After a desperate phone call, Brendan finds Emily, his former girlfriend, dead. He will have to tackle with weird characters in order to find out what happened to her.

The directors of Coisa Ruim exhibit their film

Tiago Guedes and Frederico Serra are in Sitges to exhibit Coisa Ruim, a film dealing with the struggle of mankind against the unknown.

Guillermo del Toro's Masterclass Saturday 7th at 12:45 PM at Retiro Cinemas Note: There is an exhibition of Guillermo del Toro's work at the Miramar.

Special Effects' Masterclass

Howard Berger and Grec Nicotero (KNB Special Effects) Masterclass. Sunday 8th at 12:45PM at Casino Prado.

Nosferatu Prize

The Nosferatu Prize goes to Victor Israel, as a recognition for his career.

Contrasted animation

After winning the best movie award in the Annecy Film Festival this year, Christian Volckman comes to Sitges to exhibit his last animation film, Renaissance, set in Paris in 2054 and shot in both hypercontrasted black and white.

New projection of the film Big Bang Love Juvenile A

The projection of the film Big Bang Love Juvenile A, which was scheduled for Sunday 8th, will finally be projected next THURSDAY 12th at 1'00 am in the Auditorium instead of the Surprise Session.

Time for cold

The director, Elio Quiroga, together with a good load of actors performing in the film, is in Sitges just to leave us frozen. In his second feature film, Quiroga presents La Hora Fría, in the Fantàstic official section. The actors accompanying him are Silke, Julio Perillán, Pep...

Shall we meet so you can kill me?

GRIMM LOVE STORY the movie about the Rothemburg cannival, forbiten in Germnay cause faints at Sitges. It was censured in Germany some days before the opening

Four (Captivity), locked up in a basement.

The director Roland Joffré, the screenwriter Larry Cohen and the producers Mark Damon and Leonid Minkovski are in Sitges to present us Four (Captivity), a film psychologically disquieting.

Entrega de la Màquina del Temps a Howard Berger

Agreeing with the screening of the TV show Masters of Horror (Homecoming, cigarret burns and Prolife), The big master of the FX Howard Berger, gets the award: La Màquina del Temps (The Time Machine).

Storm with taste of Matrix?

Storm arrives to Sitges, a film of the Swedish Màns Màrlind i Björn Stein who remain us the videogame world, a universe totally fantastic where gets difficult recognize the real moments with imaginaries

Horror in Sitges

The TV Show Masters of Horror, arrives to Sitges with the always constant with the fantastic genre Joe Dante, Larry Cohen, Howard Berger, Grec Nicotero, Brad Anderson, Laurenc Laurent and Mick Garris.

The actor Ian Somerhalder comes with Pulse to Sitges

The young actor Ian Somerhalder (Lost, CSI Miami, Fearless, Celebrity) has come to Sitges to present his last film, Pulse, a remake of the mythical Pulse of Kiyoshi Kurosawa. The film shows the dark side of the world wide web.

La Caja Kovak de Daniel Monzon

The actors Lucía Jiménez, David Kelly and the director Daniel Monzón, are in Sitges to present La Caja Kovak, a film full of mistery, that takes place in an idyllic Mediterranean island.

Bon Joon-ho is in Sitges to present the Host

The director Bon Joon-ho presents his last film at the Official Section, The Host, showing the hard fight of a family to beat a terrible monster loomed out from the river.

Broken: Actress and directors present the film

The directors Simon Boyes and Adam Manson, together with the actress and producer Nadja Brand Manson, presents Broken, a worrying and full of tension film.

Tzameti (13) comes to Sitges

Gela Babluani is at the Official Section of Sitges to be with us in a trip to the unknown and maybe, to the fortune.

The french film directors duet presents Ils at the festival

The young film directors David Moreau and Xavier Palaud come to Sitges to present his film Ils at the Oficial Fantàstic Section, an history of an intellectual couple that move to a house in the hear of the Romanian woods. An evil force lies in wait for them in the dark.

The crew of El Laberinto del Fauno at Sitges

The film director Guillermo del Toro presents with the actors Ariadna Gil, Sergi López and Ivana Vaquero his new film at the festival.

Sitges 2006 Opening Night

Guillermo del Toro and El Laberinto del Fauno arrive to Sitges to open this 39th Festival edition. Luis de Val, Manga Films' president, recieve the Maria Honorífica Award.

New screening for Interkosmos and First on the moon

A new screening of the Noves Visions films' Interkosmos and First on the moon. The screening will be the Saturday the 7th, at the Cinemas Prado at 4pm. Tickets are already on sale.

Time Machine Awards

This year the Máquina del Tiempo (Time Machine) Awards that SITGES ' International Film Festival of Catalonia presents to outstanding figures in fantasy film, will go to Alejandro Amenábar, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Howard Berger. Howard Berger (2006 Academy Award for...

David Lynch, the tribute goes on

Deluxe DVD editions of 'Twin Peaks, Fire walk with me' and 'Lost Highway'. Cameo, within the tribute activities that the Festival will do to David Lynch, will launch the DVD edition about the only two director's movies unpublished in Spain. 'Twin Peaks, Fire walk with me' and 'Lost Highway'. The...

Sitges' Anima't

Like every year, Anima't, the SITGES International Film Festival of Catalonia's animation category, will be paying special attention to the latest and most outstanding in Japanese animated film. Among the feature films to be screened in Anima't are productions from important studios like Gonzo, Mad...

Aronofsky to present The Fountain

The director of Pi and Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky, will be attending the Sitges ' International Film Festival of Catalonia on October 11th to present his latest work, The Fountain, in the Fantàstic Première Official Category. Starring Rachel Weisz and Hugh Jackman, The Foun...

El Laberinto del Fauno, by Guillermo del Toro, to open Sitges 06

The International Film Festival of Catalonia will be kicking off its 39th edition with the premiere of El Laberinto del Fauno, by Guillermo del Toro. In addition, this Mexican director will be the protagonist of a Special Focus on his filmography. Sitges 06 will be celebrating the 20th anniversary...

First Board meeting of the private Foundation SITGES International Film Festival of Catalonia

This week was the first meeting with all the members that make up the Board of the private Foundation SITGES International Film Festival of Catalonia. This Foundation, set up last December, renewed Ángel Sala as director for two more years. This way, Sala will be the director during the festi...

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