Events have returned to Sitges, which is getting ready for its annual meeting with fantastic and horror film fans, the industry and the sector’s press at an exceptional edition that will be using a hybrid format combining on-site and virtual. When? The 53rd edition of the International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia will take place from October 8th to 18th, further consolidating its commitment to the sector and the destination.
The Festival will combine the best cinema in its genre with premieres, retrospectives and tributes. Films directed by women, as well as national productions, will be the main attractions. 120 selected films, 70 of which can also be seen online through the Shift72 platform, which also hosted the 2020 editions of international festivals such as Austin’s South by Southwest and the Cannes Marché du Film.
The Festival is continuing to count on Meliá Sitges, Cine Prado and Cine Retiro as its theaters, reducing seating capacity to 70% and adapting them to all the security measures established by the health authorities: obligatory use of masks in theaters and all indoor and outdoor areas, social distancing in lines, entry and exit protocols, clean stations with hand sanitizer, numbered seats ( with no changes or moving around), 1 hour between screenings for ventilation and cleaning of theaters by certified companies, air monitoring and carbon dioxide measurement, etc.
This year there will be no social events, but there will be opening and closing gala ceremonies with presentations of awards and a special tribute to David Lynch, an inimitable personality in the history of fantastic film, who will receive the Festival’s Grand Honorary Award virtually due to the current circumstances. This year’s marathons will be replaced by double screenings for the convenience of audiences.
The section dedicated to industry returns with renewed energy this year. The Sitges Film Hub will be joining in this hybrid format and will be offering accredited guests a professional platform, the Sitges Industry Hub – by Catalan Films&TV, where they will be able to set up meetings, consult the guide of the professionals attending the Festival and access all the section’s content. In addition, following last year’s model, in-person activities geared towards the industry will be offered at the Industry Hub Talks – by Catalan Films&TV in the Llevant rooms at the Meliá Sitges.
For the sixth year in a row, the Festival and the Filmarket Hub platform are joining forces to organize the Sitges Pitchbox, an international pitching event targeting genre projects in development. This year’s edition will be held virtually and, new for this occasion, it will also include a pitching session for European TV series. We will see celebrities walking the red carpet and media interviews, with all the security measures in place, but this year it will be without an audience.
The adapted Festival is also reinventing itself in its line-up of parallel activities. The outdoor short film screenings at Plaza Cataluña and animated shorts at Hort de Can Falç, will be a strong point thanks to their suitability for Covid requirements, incorporating new features such as Vermuth sessions with DJ’s, all with monitored free admission. There will be fewer exhibitions, but they can be seen at the Miramar CC. Also live Street Art in the area of Plaza Vidal Quadras. Thematic book presentations have also been planned. Children will continue to enjoy their adapted activities and although the workshops will be virtual, other activities will also be added, such as the Puck Cinema, a trailer where films will be shown with a seating capacity of 8 people. Storytelling and readings of fantastic and horror films at the Santiago Rusiñol Library and animated films at the Miramar CC complete the program.
Sitges mutates during the 11 days of the Festival, and stores with terrifying shop windows will be giving away samples of the thematic collection of masks that the Sitges Town Council’s Economic Promotion Department has commissioned from two Sitges companies, there will be food trucks on dark roads and specialized merchandise to satisfy the tastes of all types of fantastic freaks. The Festival is once again showing its solidarity with the RSC initiative that, with the slogan “We need blood reserves for our vampires, food for the invisible man and help for all kinds of creatures”, supports the Blood Bank by offering a free space for blood donations and food donations for at-risk groups. Although screenings will end earlier this year, the Fantastic Train will still be running until 1:30 am connecting Sitges with Barcelona.
With this Festival, Sitges demonstrates that events are also possible in times of COVID-19, constantly working to rigorously comply with all sanitary measures and protocols, and to be a flexible, safe and adaptable destination.
