Goodbye to Jess Franco, Time Machine Award Winner in Sitges

A master has left us. The prolific film director Jesús Franco –also known as Jess Franco– died today in Malaga at the age of 82. Fate would have it that the filmmaker from Madrid has passed on just a few days after the premiere of his last movie, Al Pereira vs. The Alligator Ladies, that we had a chance to see in the Noves Visions section at the last Sitges – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia. Actually, Franco’s filmography has always been present, one way or another, in the Festival’s different sections. And in addition in 2007, he was honored with the Time Machine Award. That same year, Sitges premiered the documentary Jesús Franco. Manera (de vivir).

But the most important prize in his film career was the Goya of Honor in 2009, an award for a singular filmography of almost 200 movies in which he combined eroticism and horror. Some of his most famous films are The Awful Dr. Orlof, The Castle of Fu-Manchu, Venus in Furs, 99 Women, Diabolical Dr. Z, Vampyros lesbos, Faceless or Succubus. A legacy that makes up the career of one of the most atypical figures in Spanish cinema and a model for horror lovers.