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FESTIVALS Spain

Catalonian fantasies

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Today sees the start of the 36th edition of the Festival of Fantasy Films in Catalonia, which will be continuing in the Spanish city until December 7, 2003. The programme includes more than 760 screenings of feature length and short films.
The competitive section, Fantastic, has 26 works in total running for the prizes, with some of the cream of American productions competing against 4 Japanese films, three Korean works and a film from Thailand. Europe is also widely represented, with a strong presence from France, represented by 4 films (Dancing by Patrick-Mario Bernard, Xavier Brillat and Pierre Trividic, The Pharmacist by Jean Veber, son of the famous Francis, Who Killed Bambi? by Gilles Marchand, and Switchblade Romance by Alexandre Aja), as well as the British entry The Last Horror Movie by Julian Richards and two Spanish feature films, Una de zombies by Miguel Angel Lamata and Ouija by Juan Pedro Ortega. There are also a whole host of European co-productions, like Le temps des loups by Michael Hanneke (Austria and Germany), That Day by Raoul Ruiz (France and Switzerland) and Fear X by Nicolas Winding Refn (Britain, Denmark and Canada).
This edition sees the introduction of the section “Noves Visiones”, featuring a series of films judged to be part of the fantasy genre because of their experimental nature or the themes they tackle. The Gran Angular section is a showcase for around 10 national or European premieres, include the French-Canadian production entirely made with computer graphics, Kaena, The Prophecy by Chris Delaporte and Pascal Pinon, Cold Creek Manor by Mike Figgis (a co-production between Britain and America), the Spanish animation film El Cid, the Legend [+see also:
trailer
film profile
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by Josep Pozo and the American film Timeline directed by Richard Donner and based on the book of the same name by Michael Crichton.

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The retrospectives offered this year are dedicated to the works of the American filmmaker Curtis Harrington and to new Japanese cinema. And some past gems from the world of fantasy cinema are being shown under a series of screenings called “Mondo Macabro”.
Television also has a look in at the festival, where the section Audivsual Català will be presenting TV movies like Tempus Fugit, documentaries such as Mos viajes de Mona Lisa and Relatos de la periferia as well as many short films.
Finaly there are Maquina del Tiempo lifetime achievement awards being given to three filmmakers who made an indelible impression on the cinema of the’70s and ’80s: Tobe Hooper, Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna.

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(Translated from Italian)

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