Sitges opens with sci-fi Eva, line-up includes Balaguero latest

Spain’s Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival has announced an impressive line-up of international titles and hot local premieres, including Kike Maillo’s Eva, starring Daniel Bruhl, and paranormal thriller Emergo backed by Buried director Rodrigo Cortes.

This year’s edition (October 6 - 16) will be inspired by the concept of artificial intelligence and will open with Maillo’s feature debut Eva about a young boy who creates a robot that struggles to fit into society. Produced by Escandalo Films, this is the first film in the Catalan language to open the festival and is due for release in Spain through Paramount in the Autumn.

Award-winning shorts director Carles Torrens’ drama Emergo about a team of parapsychologists who investigate strange goings-on at an apartment will also feature in the lineup. The film is produced by in-demand director Rodrigo Cortes for Versus Entertainment.

Other stand-out local titles include Rec director Jaume Balaguero’s thriller Sleep Tight about a disturbed doorman who harasses a resident, produced by Filmax and starring Luis Tosar, and Alejandro Brugues’ zombie comedy Juan Of The Dead.

Leading international titles in the line-up include Bela Tarr’s The Turin Horse, The Vicious Brothers’ Grave Encounters, Na Hong-jin’s The Yellow Sea, and 3D films such as Gareth Maxwell Roberts’ The Mortician.

Last year’s Stiges festival gained a huge amount of publicity worldwide after the festival’s director Angel Sala was charged by Barcelona’s public prosecutors for screening child pornography in the form of Srdjan Spasojevic’s controversial title A Serbian Film.

Further Sitges titles in sections such as Noves Visions and Midnight X-Treme will be announced soon.