2010 Sitges Film Festival announces its special honorees

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

Another Autumn, another Sitges Film Festival approaches. The Catalan-based fest that points a spotlight on all things horror, sci-fi, and suspense commences its 43rd edition on OCTOBER 7th, and in addition to a screening line-up that includes fresh treats like JULIA’S EYES, CHATROOM and RUBBER (and special presentations of classics like THE SHINING and THE EXORCIST), Sitges will be honoring a host of beloved figures from the genre world. Read on for a list of who’s being feted at the fest, along with a mini-bio as provided by the Sitges website (although of course most of the people need no introduction).

Vincent Cassel – Born in Paris on November 23rd, 1966, son of the actor Jean-Pierre Cassel, he began his artistic career when he was 17 after attending Anne Fratelli’s Circus School. In conjunction, he also studied Dramatic Art at different schools in his city and, later on, at the Actor’s Institute in New York. Vincent Cassel began his career as a performer in Jean Louis Barrault’s theater company. His collaborations with actor, screenwriter and director Mathieu Kassovitz made him the most popular star in French cinema, thanks to films like Metisse (1993) or La Haine (1995), a movie for which he was nominated for a César award for best actor. Among his filmography we can find titles like Doberman (1997), The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999), The Crimson Rivers (2000), Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001), Irreversible (2002), Renegade (2004), Eastern Promises (2007), Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 and Mesrine: Killer Instinct (2008).

Josep Maixenchs – Born in Terrasa in 1943, Josep Maixenchs i Agustí is an Art History graduate, and has a diploma in Aesthetics and History of Cinematography and another in Semiology of the Audiovisual Image. Maixenchs has been the director of the Catalonian Superior School of Cinema and Audiovisuals (ESCAC) for more than ten years, where teaches cinema and its diffusion, both from his educational center and participating in festivals.

Caroline Munro – An English actress, born on January 16th, 1949 in Windsor, Berkshire, she wanted to be a painter but became a sought-after advertising model when she won The Evening News’s “Face of the Year” contest in 1966. After debuting as an actress in Richard Quine’s comedy-western A Talent for Loving (1969), her relationship with cinema was mainly connected to fantastic cinema. Hired by Hammer Films, she appeared in Alan Gibson’s Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972), and Brian Clemens’ Captain Kronos–Vampire Hunter (1974), and thanks to her outstanding performance in this film, she starred opposite John-Philliph Law in Brian Clemens’ The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974). Her definitive leap to fame took place when she became a “Bond girl” in Lewis Gilbert’s The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).

Julio Coll (received by his daughter) – Julio Coll i Claramunt (Barcelona, April 7th, 1919 – Madrid, January 17th, 1993) was a filmmaker, screenwriter and producer for cinema, Television director, writer, journalist and music and theater critic. But above all, Coll was one of the great celebrities in Spanish and Catalan cinema thanks to his excellent noir films. Among others, Nunca es demasiado tarde (1955), Distrito Quinto (1957), A Glass of Whisky (1959), Los cuervos (1961), La cuarta ventana (1961), Ensayo general para la muerte (1962) or Los muertos no perdonan (1963), whose unusual visual strength led the French newspaper “Le Figaro” to categorically state that Coll could well be, along with Bardem and Berlanga, “the third man of Spanish cinema”.

Tom Savini – Actor, director, makeup SFX wiz and stuntman, Vincent Thomas “Tom” Savini was born November 3rd, 1946 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After studying at Carnegie-Mellon University, Savini was sent to Vietnam as a combat cameraman. There he saw death from up close and, according to his own statement, the terrible experience branded his film work.

Mick Garris – Producer, director and screenwriter, Mick Garris was born December 4th, 1951 in Santa Monica, California. His connection to fantastic cinema is divided into two clearly different facets: his outstanding role as an adapter of Stephen King novels and stories, and the creation of popular TV horror series.

Richard Kelly – North American filmmaker and screenwriter, Richard James Kelly was born on March 28th, 1975 in Newport News, Virginia. With the aid of a scholarship, he was able to study at the USC School of Cinema –Television (California), where he directed two shorts, The Goodbye Place (1996) and Visceral Matter (1997), before shooting Donnie Darko (2001), his first feature-length film, with a budget of only 4.5 million dollars. The movie became a cult piece —at the Pioneer Theater in New York it ran for twenty-eight straight months—and picked up more than twenty international awards. Kelly’s film career continued with the black comedy Southland Tales (2007) and the disturbing sci-fi movie The Box (2009), based on a Richard Matheson story.

Joe Dante – Filmmaker and producer, Joseph “Joe” Dante Jr. was born November 28th 1946 in Morristown, New Jersey. He graduated from the Philadelphia College of Art and after doing a stint as a film critic with magazines like “Film Bulletin”, he began his movie career in 1974 as a film editor for the New World production company, which belonged to Roger Corman. It was precisely thanks to Corman that he debuted as a director in Piranha (1978), becoming one of the great creators of North American fantastic cinema, with mythical titles in his filmography like The Howling (1981), Gremlins (1984), Explorers (1985), Amazon Women on the Moon (1987), Matinee (1993) or the telefilm Homecoming (2005).

Rebecca de Mornay – Born in Santa Rosa (California) on August 29th, 1959, Rebecca de Mornay studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute in Los Angeles. She debuted as a movie actress in Francis Ford Coppola’s One From the Heart (1983), but her big leap to fame took place with the box-office hit Risky Business (1983), by Paul Brickman, a film she starred in opposite a young and practically unknown Tom Cruise. Her role as a young prostitute who sets up her business in the home of Joel Goodsen (Cruise) while his parents are out of town won her the critics’ unanimous applause. She would later go on to be outstanding in the role of a psychopathic nanny in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), by Curtis Hanson, and the erotic thriller Never Talk to Strangers (1995), by Peter Hall, where her co-star was Antonio Banderas.

Kim Ji-woon – He worked in theater before debuting in cinema with The Quiet Family (98) and films like A Tale of Two Sisters (03) and A Bittersweet Life (05) have made him one of the most successful genre film directors in Asia. The spectacular The Good, the Bad, the Weird (08) picked up the award for best director and best special effects at Sitges’08.

Eugenio Martín – With two emblematic titles among his filmography, an indisputable national horror film classic Panic in the Tran-Siberian Train (1972) and the western The Ugly Ones (1967), the Ceuta-born filmmaker Eugenio Martín (15/05/1925) will be at SITGES 2010 to pick up the Nosferatu Award in a tribute to his lifetime achievement in genre films. A commitment taken on from the very start with his first feature-length film Despedida de soltero (1957) and that has continued throughout the years down a road full of co-productions, managing to carve out a place for himself in the history of Spanish cinema thanks to his work and commitment to film.

Julie and Roger Corman and Sig Haig will also be honored…

For all your 2010 Sitges info, including screenings, showtimes and more, head on over HERE

Caroline Munroe