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FESTIVALS Spain

Sitges reinforces its audience’s devotion to fantastic films

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- I Origins, a US film by Mike Cahill, has been crowned Best Film at an awards ceremony that sang the praises of genre films in a programme that was as exhaustive as it was fresh and outstanding

Sitges reinforces its audience’s devotion to fantastic films
Cub by Jonas Govaerts

Mike Cahill was triumphant at the 47th edition of the Sitges Film Festival with his I Origins (USA), winning the Best Film Award in the Official Section. The Australian psychological horror film The Babadook, the feature debut by Jennifer Kent, snagged the Special Jury Prize, while Best Director went to Belgium’s Jonas Govaerts for his second movie, Cub [+see also:
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. The screenplay for Young Ones, the cinematography for Jamie Marks Is Dead and the special effects of The Signal – all US films – also earned awards.

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Special Mentions went to Pos eso, by Sam (Spain); What We Do in the Shadows (New Zealand/USA), which also swiped the Grand Audience Award; A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (USA); and the Italian-American production Spring. Nathan Phillips garnered the Best Actor Award for These Final Hours (Australia), as did Koji Yakusho for the Japanese film The World of Kanako, while the Best Actress Awards went to Essie Davis for The Babadook and Julianne Moore for Maps to the Stars [+see also:
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. The Best Short Film Award was won by Óscar desafinado, by Spanish director Mikel Alvariño.

In the Fantàstic Órbita section, the Best Film Award was bestowed upon the British production Hyena [+see also:
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by Gerard Johnson, Best Director went to Jim Mickle for Cold in July [+see also:
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(USA-France), and Yann Demange’s ’71 [+see also:
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(UK) received a Special Mention. The Fantàstic Panorama category awarded Belgian thriller The Treatment [+see also:
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Best Film, while the Special Mention went to Creep. The Méliès d’Argent Awards were handed to the feature Goodnight Mommy [+see also:
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(Austria) and the Norwegian short Autumm Harvest, while the critics appreciated Quentin Dupieux’s Reality [+see also:
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(France/Belgium) and gave their Special Mention to Goodnight Mommy.

Festival director Ángel Sala highlighted the impressive attendance levels this year, which, thanks to various social networks, was a testament to the high quality of Sitges 2014: “This goes to show what a great time it is for genre films, low-budget science fiction and ground-breaking horror: fantastic films are starting to tackle what is happening to human relations in a technology-rich world,” he declared.

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(Translated from Spanish)

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