The Sitges Festival does not stop growing and continues in record numbers. With four days left until its 56th edition ends, it has already sold 78,744 tickets, 13% more than in 2022, according to what the organization announced today during the traditional lunch with the press. "On Monday we raised everything we raised last year," but more than talking about those figures, Mónica García, general director of the Sitges Foundation, referred to the "behavior of an audience that is anxious about coming to the festival and demonstrates an extraordinary level of loyalty", which, in his opinion, "is the closest thing to a music festival in film."
"A community effect that occurs around the Sitges festival that allows us to grow as little as possible, because the venues are what they are," he assured. In this regard, the director of the contest, Ángel Sala, recognizes that the festival needs more infrastructure "because if we had more spaces to fill there would be more repetitions or press screenings and more people would come." And he says that they are working with the institutions to make this possible. He is awaiting the recovery of the Retiro, "a very popular cinema", while praising the auditorium of the Melià hotel, which has "spectacular acoustics".
At a time when film festivals are opting to reduce the programming of the official section, Sitges continues this year with 31 films. "We have this idea of a large official section because if we put 15 here they kill us. Not the press, obviously, but the people who come. When we have reduced, like in 2004, the criticism has been brutal. People want to get lost in a forest of films and that is the style of the festival". Sala has pointed out, however, that next year there could be some change in regulations to make the official section more specific.
Looking ahead to 2024, he has announced that science fiction will be very present with an idea "that is not yet closed to a very important presence or presences referring to a type of tremendously famous and popular film." In his opening speech, Sala has claimed the "terrific talents" that are coming out of film schools and the need to "keep them here, to make films of all kinds and that they do not have to go to the United States or anywhere else to make films." fantastic".
And she has lamented the tremendous deficit of women dedicated to this genre. "There is a lot of female talent in Spanish and Catalan cinema, but there needs to be education through schools so that women who want to carry out fantastic projects can do so." She has mentioned the name of Carlota Pereda, "who has been very clever because she immediately made a second film", something complicated, "and even more so if it is fantastic."
The director of the International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia maintains that we must "study and investigate and among the contemporary talent that there is a lot in schools, women have the possibility of making their fantastic look in Spanish cinema. I think it is time "In France, the Nordic countries and the United States are very advanced."
Sala has also recognized the work of the press "in its defense of cinematographic and cultural information, in general, which is essential to combat misinformation. "We are threatened, and literally we are, from the tribune of Parliament, by certain people with the issue of freedom of expression". During the meeting with journalists, the organization paid tribute on this occasion to the years of work at the festival by Martín Merino and Fausto Fernández.
