Against all odds, and flying in the face of invisible monsters, the 53^rd International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia in Sitges is already upon us. In these times of fear and dystopia in our very own streets and cities, it could actually be highly invigorating (and comforting) to take refuge in a movie theatre, if only to confirm that everything could be much, much worse… Although perhaps also much more fun. The team headed up by Ángel Sala knows this only too well, and so once again this year, they have rustled up an orgy of horror, lunacy and science fiction (with more than 250 titles), which audiences will be able to enjoy from both a theatre seat (although the capacity of the gathering has been reduced to 70%, owing to health-and-safety precautions) and the sofa in their living rooms, thanks to the virtual option that the festival is offering, through which its hoards of fans will have the opportunity to sample more than 150 titles from the official programme.

"The idea is to reproduce the whole liturgy of a physical film festival. In that vein, the platform is geoblocked to Spain and is restricted to the dates of the event. In addition, there are a limited number of tickets, and that way we strengthen this feeling of exclusiveness and having a golden opportunity to see titles outside of the usual circuits for audiovisual content," explains Mònica Garcia, head of the Fundació Sitges, whose festival will hand its Honorary Grand Prize – also online – to the ever-imitated but never-bettered master of the genre, David Lynch.

The Spanish contingent at Sitges will be very strong indeed over the coming days: Kike Maíllo, who will be there to premiere his Spanish-French-German co-production A Perfect Enemy [+lire aussi :
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interview : Kike Maíllo
fiche film], a thriller based on the novel by Amélie Nothomb; The Barcelona Vampiress [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], a recreation of a murky historical event starring the always believable Nora Navas (see the news); Baby [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], the new arrival of eternal enfant terrible Juanma Bajo Ulloa, which – once again in the filmography of the man behind La madre muerta – is about a particularly complex motherhood (see the news); the supercharged Álex de la Iglesia, who will be rocking up to present his eagerly awaited HBO series 30 Coins [+lire aussi :
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fiche série], toplined by Eduard Fernández, Miguel Ángel Silvestre and Megan Montaner (see the news); Cross the Line [+lire aussi :
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interview : David Victori
fiche film] by David Victori, starring Mario Casas on red alert; and the entertaining romp Malnazidos [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Alberto de Toro and Javier Ruiz Caldera, which sees Aura Garrido lost amidst a bunch of extreme and violent characters, and which will have the honour of opening the festival.

But don’t switch off just yet, because many more diabolical creatures are on the menu of this hybrid 2020 edition of Sitges: between 8 and 18 October, audiences will also be able to enjoy, among many other titles, premieres such as the hilarious Mandibles [+lire aussi :
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interview : Quentin Dupieux
fiche film], a French-Belgian co-production by the gutsy Quentin Dupieux; Teddy [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], the new escapade from the Boukherma twins; Mosquito State [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] (Poland/USA), an insecticidal nightmare by Filip Jan Rymsza; the world premiere of Paul W.R.'s Last Journey [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by France’s Romain Quirot; and The Book of Vision [+lire aussi :
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interview : Carlo S. Hintermann
fiche film] (Italy/UK/Belgium), a period film by first-timer Carlo Hintermann, which was backed by Terrence Malick.

The complete line-up of Sitges 2020 can be found here.