Fantastic literature and film join forces at Sitges 2020

'Frontera oscura' (‘Dark Frontier'), the 2020 Minotaur Award winning novel and the pieces selected for the Sitges Taboo'ks pitch section capture all the attention in Sitges

Ryan Kruger presented his debut feature, Fried Barry, where an alien comes into contact with the strange world of humanity, in Sitges. The Silencing, Wendy, Archive, Beauty Water and Impetigore, were among today's featured film premieres. And the entrepreneurs from the audiovisual industry met in Producers Meet Producers to create a network with emerging talent

Today, Wednesday, the Festival's seventh day, Sabino Cabeza's Frontera oscura (Dark Frontier), the 15th novel to win the Minotaur Award, was presented at a press conference. This literary award presented by Editorial Minotauro, the Festival's official publishing house, to the best previously unreleased science fiction, horror or fantasy novel, received 449 manuscripts from different countries this year, demonstrating this genre's excellent state of health and reputation of the award, which was presented for the fifth year at the Festival. Written in the best space adventure story tradition, with a strong emphasis on women's empowerment and emphasizing collaboration as an alternative to confrontation, the piece explores the secrets of the universe and the inexhaustible curiosity of human beings to discover them. In front of the accredited media outlets, in addition to the Sevillian writer, Sabino Cabeza, two members of the Award Jury, Laura Fernández and Sofía Rhei and the Editor-in-Chief of Editorial Minotauro, Vicky Hidalgo, accompanied at the table by the Festival Director, Ángel Sala, also addressed the attendees. Speaking about the publication, Laura Fernández said: "Behold the first national hard (philosophical) science fiction classic of the 21st century. Ships that rescue other ships so that the enemy isn't another, but the unknown" while Sofia Rhei described it as "a story that turns the epic into human and narrates space-time through details and emotions". According to the author, the black hole concept is to set the stage but the story revolves around its characters: "The dark frontier is the horizon of the events. We human beings are drawn to the impossible and the idea of the black hole is the new infinite, an insurmountable frontier, with no turning back".

The 4th edition of Sitges Taboo'ks was also held yesterday morning with the round table discussion "Film and Literature: Evaluating the Potential of Adaptations" and the pitch session to present four selected works to promote their adaptation to film: La Isla de los Conejos (Rabbit Island), by Elvira Navarro (Random House Literature); Días de Euforia (Days of Euphoria), by Pilar Fraile (Alianza Editorial); Nuestra Piel Muerta (Our Dead Skin), by Natalia Garcia Freire (La Navaja Suiza Editores) and Satèl·lits (Satellites), by Elisenda Solsona (Editorial Males Herbes).

Meanwhile regarding film, in the official in competition selection was the premiere of Robin Pront’s The Silencing, a revenge film starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Annabelle Wallis. Another of the most eagerly awaited films of the day was Wendy directed by Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild) and the debut feature by illustrator and comic artist Gavin Rothery - creator of the design for Duncan Jones' Moon, among others - who takes the big leap as a director with Archive, a project based on artificial intelligence with surprising special effects.  Today in the Anima't section was the presentation of Beauty Water, directed by Cho Kyung-Hun, who debuts in feature length after directing several short format animations with a film about the nightmares of trying to achieve the desired ideal of beauty. And in Panorama Fantàstic, the return of one of the renovators of Indonesian filmmaking, Joko Anwar, who after remarkable genre revolutions with Kala (2007), The Forbidden Door (2009) and Satan’s Slaves (2017) presented Impetigore at Sitges 2020.

As part of the Sitges Film Hub, the Producers Meet Producers (PMP) was also held this morning in the Garbí Room. This is a meeting between emerging and senior production companies that brings together audiovisual entrepreneurs who are starting out in the industry and professionals with long-standing experience in creation. The program, organized by the PAC (Productors Audiovisuals de Catalunya/Audiovisual Producers of Catalonia) and the Sitges Town Council (Economic Promotion), in collaboration with the Sitges Film Hub, aims to showcase and give visibility to the role of audiovisual producers, both within and outside the sector, generate industry and build a network with emerging talent.