44th International Fantastic Film Sitges Festival of Catalonia

In a not-too-distant future humans are living side by side with mechanical creatures. A cyber engineer who is given the task of creating a robot child returns to his native city to be reunited with his family. He finds their relationships have changed beyond all recognition.

EVA robot

This is the premise for EVA, the opening film of the International Festival of Fantastic Cinema of Catalonia – Sitges 2011, which will take place between 6 and 16 October. This is Kiko Maíllo‘s first incursion into feature films and a new opera prima project for the Catalan film school ESCAC.

It is the first film in Catalan to open the festival and the cast includes Daniel Brühl, Marta Etura, Alberto Amman, Lluís Homar and Claudia Vega.

Sitges Fantastic Film Festival

If EVA deals with the relationship between humans and machines this is no coincidence, since this year’s festival is inspired by artificial intelligence and intends to pay tribute to the Steven Spielberg film of the same title, ten years old this year.

This year also sees a reaffirmation of the festival’s commitment to home-made cinema. Another good example will come with the screening of Mientras duermes, the latest film by Jaume Balagueró, who will receive the Time Machine Award.

Other films from the Catalan or Spanish contingent are Emergo, directed by Carles Torrents and produced by Rodrigo Cortés, and the Spanish-Cuban coproduction Juan de los Muertos, an ironic take on Cuban reality and a highlight of Zombie Walk day, which is back for another year.

International films include The Yellow Sea, by Korean director Na Hong-jin, Grave Encounters, directed by The Vicious Brothers, Burke and Hare, by John Landis and Les contes de la nuit, an animated film in 3D by Michel Ocelot.

In fact 3D will again play a big part in the festival, with a presence in various sections, like “Midnight X-Treme“, with Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy.

:: Sitges Festival website ::

43th Sitges Film Festival – Catalonia

This year’s disturbing programme pays tribute to The Shining by Stanley Kubrick, “an undeniably great film in this genre that has outshone the book it is based on”, according to the festival director. Film fans will have the chance to see the full-length original American version in digital format, plus an extra thirty minutes.

43th Sitges Film Festival

This is not the only tribute paid to great fantasy classics at the 2010 festival. Two films which could not be ignored are Back to the Future, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and Psycho, which celebrates its 50th.

Nor could one of the festival’s icons be overlooked, who passed away recently. A posthumous tribute will be paid to Paul Naschy with a screening of the documentary The Man Who Saw Frankenstein Cry.

The opening film will once again be a Catalan production, Julia’s Eyes, by Guillem Morales, starring Belén Rueda and Lluís Homar.

For fans of Takeshi Kitano, the Oficial Fantàstic section will see the return of the yakuza and gangster movie director with the “extremely violent” Outrage. There is also room for comedy with A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop, the Cohen brothers’ remake of  Blood Simple, and Kaboom, which mixes a gay ambience with witches and teenagers.

For those of you with strong stomachs, take note of this. The festival shocker is going to be A Serbian Film, an extreme, polemical film about pornography in Serbia. One of the crazy films, meanwhile, will be Rubber, the story of an abandoned killer tyre with telekinetic powers.

The festival’s regular film sections Anima’t, Noves Visions, Seven Chances, Midnight X-treme and Brigadoon, are the regular festival sections that “give it its prestige” according to Sala, that will continue to satisfy the tastes of any film buff.

Finally, this year will also see Zombie Walk!!!