Sitges is dressing again as a fantastic film, just as the beginning of every October, when our town inaugurates the Festival, the most important one in his genre and the first film festival in the country. And this year, Sitges dresses even more fantastic thanks to initiatives geared to strengthen the presence of the festival in the entire town, especially in the center of the town, an area in which the Festival had lost connection and presence with the passage of time.
The Festival is probably our most useful, profitable and effective tool to promote Sitges on an international level. The projection in the media of the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia today has an exceptional value: nearly 450 million hits on newspapers, radio, television and Internet. The Festival is covered by more than 400 accredited media. This scenario helps to relate Sitges with the Festival, to the point that many in the Film Industry use the name of the town to designate the Festival, in a clear demonstration of the association of the Festival with Sitges. For this reason, it was a sound decision when, in times of Pere Junyent as mayor, the Festival installed its photocall in one of the observation points of Aiguadolç, so that images of actors and directors appearing in the media have Sitges as the background.
From the artistic point of view, the commitment of the last ten years to promote the fantastic cinema, and its variants such as horror, science fiction, animation, Asian ... - has been fully successful and has helped to give the show a marked profile, warmly received by the audience and critics.
However, in Sitges there is a sensation that the Festival has lost its local character and profile over the years. People from Sitges that think that the Festival only has a residual presence in the center of the town are quite right. This trend, which has grown in importance in recent years, has generated some concern and aloofness in the relationship between the town and the event, something which must be corrected urgently.
For this reason, one of the many urgent measures of the new municipal government is to implement immediate actions to reinforce the active presence of the Festival at the center of town, and recuperate the affective relations between the people of Sitges and their Festival. The decor and atmosphere of streets, the fantastic menus prepared by twenty restaurants ascribed to the Hotel Association, the collaboration with schools, so that children can attend special sessions, or the large number drawings made by students that will be placed in various shops, are some of the actions carried out according to this line of action.
Sitges needs a solid Festival and in full projection. And the Festival needs the support, love and affection of all the inhabitants of Sitges. These actions aim to strengthen and enhance this relationship.
I truly wish that all those attending the Festival and visitors in general enjoy the magic of cinema!
