SITGES AWARDS ANNOUNCED!!! The Genre Films Of Tomorrow Today!

Hey folks, Harry here in Sitges, Catalunya along the Spanish Riviera for the greatest Genre Film Festival in the world. Yesterday my fellow jury members and I sat down and spent 7 hours going back and forth over the incredible crop of great genre films at the 33rd Sitges Film Festival this year.

Along with me, the other jury members banged out the awards. The 7 hour debate, exploration and conversation considered everything from entertainment to art to duty to quality to history and on and on. My fellow jury members were Mercedes Abad, an award winning author from Barcelona, whose first novel was SANGRE (aka BLOOD). There was Carlos Molinero, a filmmaker from Madrid that directed a brutal first film entitled SALVAJES in 2001. Then there was the gorgeous Goya Toledo from AMORES PERROS by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarruti. Then from England came Pete Tombs author of MONDO MACABRO: WEIRD & WONDERFUL CINEMA AROUND THE WORLD!

Here are the winners:

Best Original Soundtrack: DEMONLOVER by Sonic Youth

Best Visual Effects: REIGN OF FIRE by Richard R Hoover

Best Art Direction: A SNAKE OF JUNE by Shinya Tsukamoto

Best Make Up: CABIN FEVER by Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger

Best Cinematography: THE EYE by Decha Srimantra

Best Screenplay: MAY by Lucky McKee

Best Actress: MAY by Angela Bettis

Best Actor: CYPHER by Jeremy Northam

Best Director: SPIDER by David Cronenberg

Best Film: DRACULA: PAGE'S FROM A VIRGIN'S DIARY by Guy Maddin

There were two special mentions for the continuing contributions to the fantastic genre by Hayao Miyazaki for SPIRITED AWAY and Hideo Nakata for DARK WATER

So, if you take anything from this list of winners take this. All of these films are absolutely exceptional. Each category was agonized and debated over. The jury didn't want to choose the easy sweep mentality, but wanted to acknowledge the accomplishments of this amazing crop of films that were to be found in competition this year. I wish the debate had been captured on Video as the discussion was remarkable beyond words. The greatest 7 hour discussion of genre filmmaking I have ever been a part of, and I hope to do it again soon. It is unfortunate that we could not acknowledge all the films we loved or commented upon the films out of competition. To reward IRREVERSIBLE or THE LAST SECOND or THE RULES OF ATTRACTION or 800 BALAS or NARC... these were all desired by the jury. Alas, we were limited to the competition films, which... thank god, because had we had to consider all the other worthwhile films in the festival, I'm afraid we would still be in that room. As for you folks, look for these films... They are jewels each and every one!