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 festival's 40th anniversary in 2007. In addition, at this meeting it was agreed that the Foundation's management would be assumed from the ICIC by Aurora Moreno, director of the of the Audiovisual Projects unit.

On the other hand, the festival's philosophy and regulations were approved at the meeting. The objectives pursued by the SITGES International Film Festival of Catalonia are to maintain its worldwide leadership in the field of specialization in fantasy cinema creating the model of a festival open to all audiences; to be the Catalan audiovisual industry's standard-bearer in the eyes of the rest of the county and abroad; to make the festival a point of reference for audiences, critics and the industry; to be a point of reference in new audiovisual tendencies, with special attention to Europe and to prove that the fantasy label is not restrictive but progressive.

The Foundation Board is made up of the Sitges Town Council, the Catalan Institute of Cultural Industries (ICIC); The Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA); The Periódico de Catalunya newspaper; the Sitges Hotel & Catering Trade; Sol Meliá; the Entity for the Management of Audiovisual Producers' Rights (EGEDA); the Catalan Association of Film Critics and Writers; a representative from the associations from Catalonia's audiovisual production sector; Televisió de Catalunya (TVC); the General Society of Authors & Editors (SGAE) and the Catalonian Directors' Association.