The Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia awarded director Mary Harron the WomanInFan Prize on Thursday and paid an emotional tribute to director David Lynch at the opening of its 58th edition. The festival screened Julia Ducournau’s ‘Alpha’ as the opening film. If ‘Alpha’ marks the third time a female director has opened the Sitges Film Festival, Harron was the first with ‘American Psycho’ in 2000. The second was Ana Lily Amirpour with ‘Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon’ in 2021.
Upon receiving the award, Harron recalled there weren’t too many genre directors who were women at that time, and that this prize is recognition of how far female filmmakers have come today. Harron, who’s a jury member for this year’s Official Fantàstic section, said it’s her favourite festival and that it’s the most open-minded she knows.
The Sitges Film Festival showed a video remembering David Lynch, who died earlier this year. It recalled when he was awarded for ‘Blue Velvet’ and screened his thank-you speech that he recorded from his home when he received the Sitges Honorary Grand Prize. Following this tribute, the traditional ‘in memoriam’ segment remembered deaths from the past year. These included actors Robert Redford, Val Kilmer, Tony Isbert and Gene Hackman, actresses Verónica Echegui, Marisa Paredes and Claudia Cardinale, composer Lalo Schifrin, director Mariano Ozores and musician Ozzy Osbourne, amongst many others.
The opening gala also featured the screening of ‘Señuelo’ by Martha G. Ayerbe, the first winner of The Dream Makers short film competition. This initiative is promoted by the Sitges Film Festival and Cupra, with collaboration from Escac, and has J.A. Bayona and Daniel Brühl as ambassadors. Bayona celebrated that a competition of this type allows young filmmakers to take the leap. Meanwhile, winner Martha G. Ayerbe thanked the director for the learning experience throughout the whole process thanks to his mentorship.
The festival runs until mid-October, showcasing horror, science fiction and fantasy films from around the world. Sitges has long been recognised as one of the world’s leading genre film festivals, attracting filmmakers, industry professionals and fans to the coastal town just south of Barcelona.
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