ESCAC, once more at the Sitges Film Festival
The University School of Cinema and Visual Communication of Catalonia (ESCAC), adjunct to the University of Barcelona, comes once more to the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, with their dual category of school and film producer. It brings for the fourth time their teaching activity at the festival and organizes the ESCAC Week. On the other hand, as usual, it will be present in the festival program, this year with three productions signed by ex-students of the School.
The University of Barcelona, however, will not only be represented in Sitges 2016 by ESCAC but also by professor Jordi Ojeda, co-author of two official books of the festival, the current edition -the 49th- is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Star Trek and to space trips. This event for the followers of fantastic cinema starts on Friday October 7, and will last until October 16.
The University School of Cinema and Visual Communication of Catalonia (ESCAC), adjunct to the University of Barcelona, comes once more to the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, with their dual category of school and film producer. It brings for the fourth time their teaching activity at the festival and organizes the ESCAC Week. On the other hand, as usual, it will be present in the festival program, this year with three productions signed by ex-students of the School.
The University of Barcelona, however, will not only be represented in Sitges 2016 by ESCAC but also by professor Jordi Ojeda, co-author of two official books of the festival, the current edition -the 49th- is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Star Trek and to space trips. This event for the followers of fantastic cinema starts on Friday October 7, and will last until October 16.
ESCAC Week: lessons are moving to the festival
From October 10 to 14, ESCAC brings the classrooms to Sitges and organizes ESCAC Week, a program of activities and screenings in which hundreds of students participate. The objective is to allow students live the experience in Sitges from inside the artistic event and its industry, understand international fantastic cinema and participate in the professional network of the country.
A film and two short films in the festival poster
On Tuesday October 11 ESCAC Day will be held, with the presentation of two ESCAC Films productions. The Auditorium of Hotel Melià Sitges will hold theAmo premiere at 11 h, by the ex-student Àlex Gargot -who is competing in the Official Fantastic Competition Shorts section. The story revolves around an android programmer obsessed to reproduce the human anatomy and intelligence, “who will find himself driven into the darkest places of his own mind guided by his domestic android”, as the synopsis says. The work has been created in the master degree of Film Direction of ESCAC.
At 16.15h, there will be the focus of the presentation at the Tramuntana room in Hotel Melià Sitges: Salvación, the debut in filmmaking by Denise Castro, ESCAC graduate. The film is part of the Noves Visions Plus section of the festival. It is not the first time Castro visits Sitges, she already did when presenting the short films Vamp (2015) and V.I.T.R.I.O.L (2010). This time she comes as a director of her first film. In this work, Castro joins the vampire genre to tell the story of a teenager with a coronary disease that enters hospital to have an open-heart surgery. In the hospital she will meet a boy who claims to be a vampire and offers another kind of salvation for her heart. Produced by ESCAC Films, Salvación was created in the official master degree of Cinematography of the School, and the team is built by ex-students of the center.
The works by Àlex Gargot and Denise Castro will be projected again on Wednesday October 12: the short film Amo, at 12 h, in El Retiro cinema, and the film Salvación, at 17.30 h, at Prado cinema. These are not the only productions by ESCAC Films that will be screened at the festival. Supporting young talent and new formats, Sitges 2016 includes in its official program a third production by ESCAC: the short film Mater Salvatoris by the graduate Marc Barceló, which can be watched out of competition, on Sunday October 9, at 14.30 h, at Prado cinema, within the Noves Visions Short Films section.
Presentation of the two official books of the festival
Professor Jordi Ojeda from the Faculty of Economy and Business of the University of Barcelona will visit Sitges to present the two official books for the festival. The first one is entitled Donde nadie ha llegado antes and commemorates the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. The second one is red Planet Marx: la conquista soviética del espacio, a title which also remembers the soviet science-fiction cinema held by the Sitges Festival this year. Both publications will be presented on Sunday October 9, at 11 h, at FNAC in front of Melià Sitges. Entrance is free.
More information on Sitges Festival website.