This Thursday marks the start of the 55th edition of the Sitges-International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, which began as the International Week of Fantastic and Horror Film in 1968 and which, in all these years, has not only held the status of dean event in this type of cinematography, but it has established itself as the most important event in the world in a category of films that go beyond the adjectives that define the festival. In addition to delving into the wildest horror or science fiction, they fall into a wide spectrum that includes mystery thrillers, crime, and what we could call “fantastic” in general, that is, a category that relates a diversity of fictional worlds on the border between the possible or the imaginable.
The Sitges Festival reaches the 2022 edition after two difficult years, with the restrictions that we all know and the need to adapt to the measures imposed by the covid-19 pandemic. During this period, he knew how to reinvent himself through online projections (a circumstance that is also minimally maintained now) but with the desire to show that the festival is basically characterized by a face-to-face which now recovers its normal pulse with the aim of approaching or exceeding the excellent pre-pandemic figures. There will be time to take stock, but the program points to optimism. The large presence of women and local creators, as well as the combination of the classic offer with more innovative creations They are examples of adaptation to new demands from the public, which is at the base of the permanence of a festival as veteran as this one.
Throughout 11 intense days and in seven equipped rooms, 283 productions are presented at the 55th edition, which include 81 shorts and four series, ten of which are firsts. It opens with a Spanish production, as has been the tradition for many years, the ‘Venus’ by renowned Jaume Balagueró, a supernatural ‘thriller’ in which the presence of Ester Expósito stands out, and closes with ‘Hasta los Huesos: Bones and All’, a film in which a couple of cannibals travel through America. Between these two viewings, a marathon of films that compete in the official section or that are grouped into other selections, such as animated feature films, experimentation, or new languages and creators. Sitges stands out in this edition for the huge presence of filmmakers (40 female directors in total), a full-fledged bet in a universe traditionally taken over by men, and also stands out for the large number of Spanish productions, up to 74.
The festival also recovers the most playful and festive part, closely linked to its history, such as the Zombie Walk, the walk of the undead through the streets of Sitges, and of course, it pays tribute to great names of the genre. The musician Claudio Simonetti will receive the Méliès d’Or, while the legendary Darío Argento will be the first to win the Golden Honorary Award, an award that is added to the Special Grand Prize that this time goes to Colin Arthur, creator of the special effects of ‘Conan, the Barbarian’ or ‘The Neverending Story’. The presence of stars like Robert Englund, Lee Jung-Jae, famous for ‘The Squid Game’, who leads a notable participation of oriental cinema, Eva Green or Edgar Wright and Masaaki Yuasa, honorees and with recent premieres, culminate a festival with history, tradition and a hopeful future.