Sitges Film Festival kicks off 50th anniversary

The Sitges Film Festival kicked off its 50^th anniversary, celebrating half a century as a worldwide referent for horror and fantasy film. The festival, celebrated in the southern seaside town, opened its doors on October 5 with an inaugural gala featuring filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro as master of ceremonies, as well as a showing of the director’s new production The Shape of Water. Additionally, the director William Friedkin, best known for films like The Exorcist, was presented with the festival’s Grand Honorary Award.

This international-facing festival comes at a politically charged time in Catalonia. This meant that many had something to say about the real-life tension happening outside of the silver screen, on the streets in the country.

The most tolerant form of culture

Àngel Sala, director of the festival, said in a speech at the inauguration gala that this year will be about culture as well as cinema. “Culture,” he added, “makes us big, tolerant, and allows us to have dialogue, and to talk.” This is something that Sala emphasized must happen more not only “in the country,” but in the world as well. Indeed, he continued, “fantasy cinema is the most tolerant form of culture in the world.”

The festival was established in 1968, during the Franco dictatorship. In his speech, the festival director he paid homage to the founders of the event “who took their chances” on a genre like fantasy and horror in such “difficult moments.” Sala drew parallels between the strangeness of the genre and the strangeness that permeated the country in the late ‘60s – those who started the festival, he said, did so “with courage.”