WINNERS OF THE 54. SITGES FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA FANTÀSTIC DE CATALUNYA

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The Sitges Film Festival 2021 welcomes more than 100,000 moviegoers at its 54th edition. Sitges was once again the great fantastic film fiesta. The progressive return to normality following the 2020 pandemic edition has resulted in highly successful figures for this year’s Festival, which closed its doors this past Sunday, October 17th.

All of the Sitges – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia’s venues, the movie theaters (Auditori, Prado, Retiro, Tramuntana and Brigadoon), the industry meetings and press conferences (Garbí and Llevant) and parallel activities for a broad family audience (Mercat Vell) registered a high level of participation from audiences and accredited professionals. All in all, a total of 103,038 viewers confirmed the enthusiasm for fantastic genres, the experience of seeing films in theaters and the industry’s excellent health. This figure far exceeds last year’s attendance, with 59,315 viewers, and is on course for the pre-pandemic numbers of 2019, a year when 130,206 moviegoers were counted.

For Ángel Sala, the Festival’s Director, „the 54th edition’s line-up has had an excellent reception by audiences and critics in all its sections, highlighting the diversity of fantastic genre themes, the opening up of new paths in genre as well as the notable participation of Catalan and Spanish productions, the commitment to animated films and the recovery of an important focus on Asian filmmaking. All of this seconded by an important presence of national and international talents from Europe, the United States or Japan who, beyond the honored auteurs and actors, were here to support their projects at the Festival.”

The Director of the Sitges Foundation, Mònica Garcia Massagué emphasizes that „spaces have been multiplied to reinforce the experience of both moviegoers and Festival visitors, who participate through the Festival’s parallel activities. In addition, strategic proposals like the WomanInFan program for the promotion of women filmmakers in fantastic film or Sitges Cocoon, focused on innovation and audiovisuals, have achieved an excellent reception both nationally and internationally, which confirms Sitges‘ prescriptive power.” 

Awards 54 Sitges – Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya

OFFICIAL FANTASTIC SECTION IN COMPETITION

Best Feature Lenght Film
Lamb (Valdimar Johánnsson)

Special Jury Prize
After Blue (Bertrand Mandico)

Best Direction
(sponsored by Moritz)
Justin Kurzel (Nitram)

Mention to Feature Lenght
The Innocents (Eskil Vogt)

Mention to
Ex-aequo:
The Blazing World (Carlson Young)
The Execution (Lado Kvataniya)

Best Actor
(sponsored by Vilamòbil)
Ex-aequo:
Caleb Landry Jones (Nitram)
Franz Rogowski (Luzifer)

Best Actress
(sponsored by So de Tardor)
Ex-aequo:
Noomi Rapace (Lamb)
Susanne Jensen (Luzifer)

Best Screenplay
Silent Night (Camille Griffin)

Best Special Effects
(sponsored by Kelonik & Antaviana)
Mad God (Phil Tippett)

Best Photography
(sponsored by Lavazza)
Limbo (Cheng Siu Keung)

Best Music
(sponsored by Primavera Sound)
Daniele Luppi (Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon)

NOVES VISIONS

Best Feature Film
El apego (Valentín Javier Diment)

Mention to the Film
2551.01 (Norbert Pfaffenbichler)

Best Direction
Anita Rocha da Silveira (Medusa)

Best Noves Visions Petit Format Short
Brutalia, Days of Labor (Manolis Mavris)

SITGES DOCUMENTA

Award Best Motion Picture
Inferno Rosso. Joe d’Amato Sulla Via Dell’Ecccesso (Manlio Gomarasca, Massimiliano Zanin)

BLOOD WINDOW

Blood Window Award
A nuvem rosa (Iuli Gerbase)

CRITICS‘ JURY

José Luis Guarner Critic’s Award
Ex-aequo:
After Blue (Bertrand Mandico)
Mad God (Phil Tippett)

Citizen Kane Award for Best New Direction
Valdimar Johánnsson (Lamb)

Critics’ Award for Best Official Selection Short Film
Los huesos (Cristóbal León y Joaquín Cociña)

MÉLIÈS D’ARGENT

Award for Best Short Film
T’es morte Hélène (Michiel Blanchart)

Award for Best Feature Film
Tres (Juanjo Giménez)

CARNET JOVE

Carnet Jove Award for Best Fantasy Genre Feature Film
Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon (Ana Lily Amirpour)

Award for Best Animated Feature Film
Cryptozoo (Dash Shaw)

Award for Best Animated Short Film
Other Half (Lina Kalcheva)

BRIGADOON

Paul Naschy Brigadoon Award
Unheimlich (Fabio Colonna)

Mention to
Viewers : 1 (Daigo Hariya y Yosuke Kobayashi)

SGAES‘ NOVA AUTORIA AWARDS

Best Direction
La caída del vencejo (Gonzalo Quincoces)

Best Screenplay
Goodnight Mr. Ted (Gonçal Perales)

Best Original Music
Goodnight Mr. Ted (Gonçal Perales)

The dates are already set for Sitges 2022, to be held from October 6th to 16th!

The Festival has just announced the dates for its 55th edition, which will take place from 6th to 16th October 2022 and will celebrate the 40th anniversary of major genre film milestones including Tron (Steven Lisberger, 1982), The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982) and Conan the Barbarian (John Milius, 1982).