‘When evil lurks,’ best film in Sitges international festival

The Argentinian-American production ‘When evil lurks’ has won the best film award in the Sitges horror and fantastic film festival.

The announcement, made on Saturday at midday local time, included the best director prize to Baloji, for his film ‘Omen.’

The jury's special prize has been for both 'Stopmotion,' a work by Robert Morgan, and 'Vermines,' by Sébastien Vanicek. Kate Lyn Sheil has won the best actress prize for her role in 'The Seeding,' while Karim Leklou, has prevailed in the best actor category for 'Vincent must die.' 'Robot Dreams,' by Pablo Berger, has won the people's choice award.

The finale of the seaside town international event comes some days after, also in Sitges, the acclaimed Catalan director J.A.Bayona picked up the Time Machine Award for his lifetime achievement in entertainment, a recognition for his career.

'When evil lurks'

In 'When evil lurks,' two brothers find a mutilated corpse near their property and convene with the locals to suss it out. They learn that the odd happenings in their village are the cause of a spirit that’s found its way into a local man waiting for the proper protocols to rid his body of the festering demon.

In an interview with the Catalan News Agency (ACN), its director, Demián Rugna, said that this is a "grim and harsh account." Yet, he added that "the film is not only causing an impact, because it also wants to tell an entertaining tale." 

"In 'When evil lurks,' I wanted to offer a different view of possessed people." 

Rapper Baloji, best director

The other main prize at Sitges was for rapper and filmmaker Baloji, a Belgian resident with Congo origins. 

The work tells the story of a young Congolese man returns to his birthplace of Kinshasa, after spending years in Belgium, to confront the intricacies of his family and culture. This individual has a strange greeting by locals, who believe he is a wizard who has come from another land. 

Bayona, road to Oscars

The awards where announced just a few days after the acclaimed Catalan filmmaker J. A. Bayona picked up the Time Machine Award on Tuesday evening at the Sitges Fantasy and Horror Film Festival.  

The director’s latest film, the tense thriller ‘Society of the Snow’, has won plaudits across the world, and has been chosen as Spain’s entry in the next Oscars for Best International Feature.  

In an interview with the Catalan News Agency, Bayona said that his love for cinema cannot be separated from the Sitges film festival: “they’re the same thing.”