The Argentina and United States co-production When Evil Lurks (2023) has been pointed as the Best Motion Picture of the Sitges Film Festival 2023 in the Official Fantàstic Competition category, the most important one of the event. The movie is set in a remote village, where two brothers find a demon-infected man just about to “give birth” to evil itself. They decide to get rid of the body, only to end up unintentionally spreading chaos.
Directed by Demián Rugna, known for his participation in the Satanic Hispanics (2022) anthology and being behind Terrified (2017) and You Don’t Know Who You’re Talking To (2016), When Evil Lurks (2023) was one of the fans favorites this year and you could see in the streets of Sitges how the moviegoers were praising the brutality and originality of the picture every time they had the chance. So it is fair to say this year’s award will satisfy most of the Sitges parish.
The Special Jury Award in the Official Fantàstic Selection is sharded by Stopmotion (2023), for its creative exploration of the dark side of creativity, and Vermines (2023), for being a powerful and political monster movie, something always appreciated in the Sitges community on the vogue for the rights for minorities and the fairest causes.
The Best Actress award went to Kate Lyn Sheil for her performance in The Seeding (2023), with a special mention to the astonishing performance by the debutant Zafreen Zairizal for Tiger Stripes (2023), without a doubt an emergent talent in the Malaysian cinema. The Best Actor award went to Karim Leklou for Vincent Must Die (2023).
Baloji raised the award for Best Direction for the political and racial Belgium drama Omen (2023). Colin Cairnes and Cameron Cairnes, the writers of Late Night with the Devil (2023), achieved the Best Screenplay award.
For the Best Special, Visual or Makeup Effects category, the award went to Frédéric Lainé, Jean-Christophe Spadaccini, Pascal Molina, Cyrille Bonjean-Jean, Bruno Sommier and Jean-Louis Autret for Animal Kingdom (2023), the Best Music award landed on Markus Binder for Club Zero (2023), and Best Cinematography to Martin Roux for La morsure (2023).
For the Noves Visions category, Ryan Stevens Harris’ astonishing dreamy nightmare Moon Garden (2022) achieved the Best Film award. David Kapac and Andrija Mardesic won the Best Direction award for The Uncle (2022) (aka Stric). Halfway Home (2022), Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2023) for its screenplay, and Mimì – Il principe delle tenebre (2023) for its cinematography got their Special Mentions.
The Méliès d’Argent Award for the best fantastic genre feature film award landed on La morsure (2023) while the Méliès d’Argent Award for the best European fantasy genre short film was achieved by the French horror Cultes (2023).
And, to end with the most notorious awards for the Sitges Film Festival 2023, we must outstand the Best Animated Feature Film in the Anima’t section award for Filip Posivac’s Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light (2023) (aka Tonda, Slávka a kouzelné svetlo), the Best feature film in the Òrbita section for Francis Galluppi’s The Last Stop in Yuma County (2023), and the Blood Window Award for best feature film for Demián Rugna’s When Evil Lurks (2023).
You can read the rest of our articles related to the Sitges Film Festival 2023 here.
- Sitges 2023 Chronicles: Day 1
- Sitges 2023 Chronicles: Day 2
- Sitges 2023 Chronicles: Day 3-4
- Sitges 2023 Chronicles: Day 5
- Sitges 2023 Chronicles: Day 6
- Sitges 2023 Chronicles: Day 7
Here is a list of some of the outstanding movie reviews of the festival.
