Sitges Film Festival, one of the most important, veteran and acclaimed European movie festivals of the genres of fantasy, horror and science-fiction, has been officially presented this morning. As every year, the festival will pay tribute to a movie classic. If the last years the subject were the anniversaries of iconic masterpieces like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Dracula (1992) or Star Trek (TV Series 1966–1969), this year the subject of the theme is the apocalyptic action science-fiction epic Mad Max (1979).
The festival will take place in the idyllic Catalan coast town of Sitges from the 3rd to the 13th of October, and will feature a big variety of events for the lovers of the genre like exhibitions, street performances, the already classic Zombie Walk, tens of celebrity guests, masterclasses and numerous screenings of new releases and classics.
The official site of the festival has published the presentation letter to the audience. You can read it entirely at SitgesFilmFestival.com. Here is a short extract of the presentation of the 52nd edition of the festival.
Sitges 2019 breathes in dust from the desert and rusty iron. This year’s upcoming film competition, to be held from 3 to 13 October, will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Mad Max, directed by George Miller. An important date that inspired the poster, a retrospective and the Festival’s official book, one which will pervade Sitges for eleven days.
The first installment of the most emblematic dystopian saga in film history is the poster for Sitges 2019, with the China Agency’s unique signature. “Appearing in the image is a car destroyed by rust, abandoned in the middle of an infinite desert, with no trace of any characters. An enigmatic, simple and powerful composition that drinks from an iconography as unmistakable as Miller’s saga and its color palette of oranges, ochers and yellows. It is a tribute to a work with a unique graphic universe, which lends itself like few others to the synthetic and iconic format of the billboard”, explains the executive creative director, Rafa Antón. The Mad Max phenomenon, arriving straight from Australia, will be eagerly experienced in every corner of Sitges.
The Sitges – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia will also be commemorating the 40th anniversary of another iconic title in genre films from 1979: Alien, by Ridley Scott, a film that marked an era and that still continues to be very present today, amassing a legion of fans. Likewise, other tributes to essential fantastic films will have their own space for reminiscence at Sitges 2019.
