'Possessor Uncut' conquers Sitges 2020 and Paco Plaza recieves the Career Méliès Award

Brandon Cronenberg, who picked up the award for Best New Director at Sitges 2012 with 'Antiviral', receives the award for Best Feature Film and Best Director at the 53rd edition

The special jury award goes to Just Philippot's 'The Swarm', which also wins the award for best actress for Suliane Brahim, while Grégoire Ludig & David Marsais share the award for best actor for 'Mandibules'

The Méliès gala ceremony pays tribute to Paco Plaza and announces the 2020 Méliès d'or and Méliès d'argent awards for European genre films

The awards for the 53rd edition of Sitges - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia were highly spread around at this very special edition. Possessor Uncut won the awards for best feature film and best director in the Official Fantàstic Selection, while Lluís Danés' The Barcelona Vampiress won the Audience Appreciation Award. Just Philippot's feature debut, The Swarm, impressed the SOFC jury, which presented him with the award for best feature. Márk Bodzsár, Juli Jakab and István Tasnádi won the award for Best Screenplay with Comrade Drakulich, while Tsai Yi-fen's The Luggage won the award for Best Short Film. The José Luis Garner Critics Award went to Teddy, and the Citizen Kane Award for Best New Director went to Jonathan Cuartas (My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To).

For the third consecutive year, the International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia in Sitges hosted the Méliès d'or award ceremony at the Melià Sitges Auditori, before the screening of Kandisha, directed by Julien Maury and ALexandre Bustillo. These awards are presented by the Méliès International Festivals Federation network, to the best European fantastic feature and short films. Pelican Blood by German filmmaker Katrin Gebbe was the winner in the feature film category. It previously won the Méliès d'argent at the Motel X Lisbon International Horror Film Festival. In the short film category, the award went to Best Friend, directed by David Feliu, Juliana de Lucca, Nicholas Olivieri, Varun Nair and Yi Shen. It was the winner of the Méliès d'argent at Fancine in Malaga. The annual Career Méliès was presented to Spanish director Paco Plaza, for his outstanding contribution to the fantastic genre, and who received a standing ovation from the theater’s audience. The gala also revealed this year's Méliès d'Argent awards, which went to The Last Journey of Paul W.R., by Romain Quirot, for best feature film, and Dar-dar, by Paul Urkijo, in the category of best short film.

The Méliès d'or and Méliès d'argent awards are presented every year to the best European fantastic feature and short films. These awards acknowledge both quality and creativity, and generate a unique visibility for films and their directors. The awards are presented by the Méliès International Festivals Federation. a network of 25 film festivals in 19 different countries, with a global attendance of more than 800,000 visitors, making it a vital economic and cultural force in the fantastic film scene.

Consult the list of award winners.