05/07/2011

The Sitges International Fantasy Film Festival has revealed some of the line-up for its forthcoming 44th edition, which will run from October 6-16 in the Catalonian coastal town and focus on the concept of artificial intelligence. A major highlight is the opening film, Kike Mailló’s hotly anticipated science fiction title Eva, which will also be the first Catalan-language film to have the honour of opening the event.

Eva is Maíllo’s debut feature (see news) and is part of the Ópera Prima (“Debut Work”) series by production company Escándalo Films, in partnership with ESCAC Film School. According to festival organisers, the film “explores science fiction with an approach that is very much in tune with this edition’s central theme and is another endorsement of new talents, along the lines of the festival’s recent editions (J.A. Bayona, Guillem Morales...)”.

In recent years, Sitges has become an excellent platform for launching some of Spain’s most ambitious film productions with a view to their local releases, which tend to be concentrated in the latter months of the year. While the San Sebastian Festival, which will be held a month before, is known for hosting auteur films and dramatic productions, Sitges has established itself as a perfect place to present genre films which have garnered immense success both in Spain and abroad.

Other Spanish productions to be screened at Sitges include Jaume Balagueró’s Sleep Tight; Adán Aliaga’s documentary El Eternauta’s Wife, which looks at the comic as an allegory of Argentinean society under Videla; Alejandro Brugués’s Spanish/Cuban film Juan of the Dead; and Carles Torrens’s Emergo, produced by Rodrigo Cortés for Versus Entertainment.

(Translated from Spanish)