The Filmarket Hub platform and the Sitges Film Festival have announced the projects partaking in the new edition – the seventh – of Sitges Pitchbox, an international event focusing on features and series in development, all in the horror, science-fiction or fantastical genre. This industry event will take place in a virtual format on 8 and 15 October as an integral part of the Sitges Film Festival. The teams behind the selected projects (comprising six films and five series) will have the chance to conduct a sales pitch and have meetings with executives from companies of the likes of Elle Driver, Exile Content Studio, Globalgate, Particular Crowd, Red Arrow Studios, Showrunner Films, The Mediapro Studio, The Project, Wild Bunch, XYZ Films and Yellow Veil Pictures.

The projects (two of which are Spanish films and five of which are European series – all of these are covered in more detail below) will also be vying for one of the four cash prizes intended to be used to cover development costs. The Best Feature Award will be endowed with €5,000, while the two films that end up as finalists will receive €1,000 apiece, and the Award for Best Series will be valued at €2,500. The jury will be made up of Javier Fernández (Blood Window), Annick Mahnert (Frontières) and Jongsuk Thomas Nam (NAFF-BIFAN) for the films; and of Ana Diez (Movistar Plus+), Nína Dögg Filippusdóttir (Vesturport) and Candela Izquierdo (Federation Spain) for the series.

Furthermore, the five series projects will be invited to take part in the new Showrunners LAB, where they will receive one-to-one consultancy courtesy of the three showrunners acting as mentors: Nick Antosca, Teresa Fernández-Valdés and Jannik Tai Mosholt. During the lab, the showrunners will also hold a master class outlining the main characteristics of their respective models (USA, Scandinavia and Spain) as well as doing a case study based on their careers. This initiative boasts the support of, and was co-organised by, Creative Europe - MEDIA Desk Catalunya.

Here is the full list of projects:

Features

Anima - Andrés Beltrán (Colombia/USA)
Screenwriter: Andrés Beltrán
Producers: Natalia Echeverri (Dynamo), Luisa Fernanda Velosa

Jane - Aram Garriga (Spain)
Screenwriters: Javier Calvo and Mara Lethem
Producers: Aram Garriga (Visualsuspects SL), Carles Torras (Zabriskie Films SL)

La virgen de la Tosquera - Laura Casabé (Argentina/Mexico)
Screenwriter: Benjamin Naishtat (based on two stories by Mariana Enríquez)
Producers: Valeria Bistagnino, Tomás Eloy Muñoz (Mostra Cine), Alejandro Israel (Ajimolido Films), Diego Martínez Ulanosky (Caponeto)

Mother of Pigs (Australia)
Screenwriter: Jennifer van Gessel

The History of Monsters - Juan Pablo Arias Muñoz (USA)
Screenwriter: Juan Pablo Arias Muñoz

Tormenta de abril - Norma Vila (Spain)
Screenwriters: Norma Vila, Ana Hormaetxea
Producers: Alexandre Bass (NewCo Audiovisual), Cristina Urgel, Eva Moreno (Not Alone Productions)

Series

Dark Road (Ireland)
Creator and screenwriter: Paul FitzSimons

In Your Skin (Germany)
Creator and screenwriter: Tina Steffan

Madriz (Spain)
Creators and screenwriters: Dani Reina and Iker Aizpuru

Nexo (Spain)
Creator and screenwriter: Sergio Campo
Producer: Fernanda Tabarés (Voz Audiovisual)

Bad Teeth (Strigoi) (Romania/UK)
Creator and screenwriter: Sînziana Cojocărescu