Sitges Film Festival to honor Giancarlo Esposito with Time Machine Award

The Sitges Fantasy and Horror Film Festival will honor American actor Giancarlo Esposito with the Time Machine Award. 

The actor, known for his iconic role as Gus Fring in the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul series, will be in Sitges to present his latest film, Please Don't Feed The Children, at the festival. 

The festival is also awarding Catalan filmmaker Mar Targarona with the Woman In Fan award, an honor that the festival is bringing back after first introducing it two years ago. 

At a press conference in Barcelona, the director of the festival foundation, Mònica Garcia i Massagué, explained that the event explicitly wants to support women in the film industry, and this award is a manner of giving additional visibility to women in cinema. 

In total, 31% of the films showing at the Sitges film festival have been created by women. Garcia pointed out that this number is higher than what is shown at the Cannes and Venice film festivals, and highlighted that Sitges seek talent to showcase with the limit of a specific genre, as opposed to other, non-themed, film festivals.

The Sitges Fantasy and Horror Film Festival takes place in the seaside town south of Barcelona between October 3-13. You can see the full festival lineup here.

New festival additions

Ángel Sala, director of the festival, also explained that new titles have been added to the Sitges program.

Nightbitch, Sala highlighted, comes with decent chances at making the next Oscars. He called it a "risky film, very interesting, and very fun." 

Another "very fun" title comes in Ick, a "classic monster movie" playing with themes of body horror. The Sitges film festival will be its European premiere. 

 Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is a documentary that tells the tragic story of the actor and his dramatic accident that left him in a wheelchair. 

V/H/S/Beyond is the latest installment of the cosmic terror series, telling the story of extraterrestrial invasion, while Shatter Belt is "interdimensional science-fiction fun," according to Sala.

Exhibitions

In addition to the excellent program of films on show, Sitges also offers two exhibitions for fans to enjoy in between screenings. 

Coinciding with the festival's tribute to Freaks, Tod Browning's cult 1932 film, on exhibition pays homage to the figure of the "freak" in cinema and other disciplines.

Elsewhere, 'The Strange Colors of Vranckx' showcases the poster art of the legendary illustrator Giles Vranckx.