16/09/2015 - In Madrid, the director of the Catalan gathering Ángel Sala has delivered the latest news on its extensive and mouth-watering programme

Joined by Inés París (of the SGAE Foundation, which will hand out an award to short-filmmakers from Catalan film schools), Enrique López Lavigne and Jesús Ulled (the driving forces behind the inspiring Sitges Cine 365 Film project: read the news), Ángel Sala, the director of the festival, has announced that Oliver Stone will be receiving the Grand Honorary Award at Sitges 2015, to be held in the beautiful Catalan coastal town between 9 and 18 October. Furthermore, Japanese director Sion Sono, British filmmaker Terry Jones (who will present his latest work, Absolutely Anything), Poland’s Andrzej Zulawski (who will be bringing along his award-winning Cosmos [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Victória Guerra
film profile]), master of make-up Rick Baker and Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn will pick up the Màquina del Temps Award.

The 48th edition of the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival will also pay tribute to Argentinian actress Rossana Yanni – the muse of the 1970s Spanish horror scene – and Hong Kongese actor Simon Yan. The jury of the Official Fantastic Section will comprise Jarod Neece (programmer of the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin), horror-film scholar Kier La-Janisse, actor Carlos Areces (The Last Circus [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Álex de la Iglesia
film profile], Mi gran noche [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), director Javier Ruiz Caldera (3 Many Weddings [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Javier Ruiz Caldera
film profile]) and Fernando Ronchese, a seasoned publicist.

Besides the previously announced titles (read the news), other movies set to compete in the above section include Baskin (Turkey), an uncompromising horror film by Can Evrenol; Cemetery of Splendour [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (a co-production between Thailand, France, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and Germany); Demon [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Marcin Wrona (Poland-Israel); the Cronenberg-esque reimagining of the legend of Frankenstein, masterminded by Bernard Rose (Germany); Journey to the Shore [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Japan-France); Macbeth [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile] by Justin Kurzel; Schneider vs Bax [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alex van Warmerdam
film profile] by Alex van Warmerdam (the Netherlands, Belgium); The Hallow by Corin Harcy (Ireland); and The Survivalist [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Stephen Fingleton (UK).

According to Sala, this huge selection of titles spanning the event’s myriad sections “represents the festival’s commitment to a type of cinema that is independent, unorthodox and broad-minded”. Standing out among the movies is a well-stocked collection of films that will be premiered in Europe after being screened at Toronto – since, as the director of Sitges 2015 assures us, “the big festivals are crazy about the fantastic genre”.

(Translated from Spanish)