SITGES FANPITCH Showrunners Lab

SITGES FILM FESTIVAL

This program is funded by:

Funded by:

Program description

For the eighth year in a row, the Sitges – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia is organizing its feature film and series project pitch competition. Starting this 2022, Sitges Pitchbox will be renamed Sitges FanPitch, broadening the contents of the call for entries with training and the preparation of the competing projects.
Consequently, Sitges FanPitch is the international pitch competition event focused on horror, science fiction or fantastic feature films and series in development and is adding a training laboratory on sustainability and leadership of audiovisual projects.
This initiative still maintains its goal of discovering the very best genre projects and matching them with leading companies in the industry. The event will take place in hybrid format on October 10^th and 13^th as part of the Sitges Film Festival.
A total of five series and five feature films from around the world will be selected. The people responsible for each of the selected projects will have the opportunity to make a sales pitch and meet with each of the participating companies. In addition, the 3 winning feature film projects will be eligible for travel grants for their international circulation. In the series category, 1 winning project will be selected, which will receive a cash prize for ongoing development.
For the second consecutive year, this edition will be complemented with the Showrunners LAB, an introductory and mentoring seminar on the role of the showrunner. The selected projects will be able to carry out individual mentoring sessions with each of the showrunners participating in this year’s edition.
Training for the winning projects will be provided at THE SITGES SUSTAINABLE PITCH LAB. Social Perspectives, Resource Awareness & Pitch as a Tool for Change and Success, a two-day laboratory (October 11 and 12) within the framework of the festival, presented by Helene Granqvist and Valeria Richter.
All the selected projects will have the option of acquiring a free Industry accreditation of this edition of the festival to be able to attend all the Industry sessions (except the private ones), be part of the Sitges Industry Online-Catalan Films platform, and the viewings of films included in the accreditation.

Awards

The projects selected at Sitges FanPitch will be eligible for the following awards:

FEATURE FILM CATEGORY

Three travel grants for 1 representative of each project (includes travel and living expenses at the destination):

SERIES CATEGORY

Cash award of 2,500 euros (VAT included) for the project’s development*

* The representative of the winning series project must submit a proposal for expenses as part of the production development plan, which will be approved and paid for directly by the Sitges Film Festival of Catalonia Foundation.

Programming blocks

The Sitges FanPitch programming is divided into the following blocks: Scripted Series, Feature Films and Showrunners Lab, an introductory seminar and advice on the figure of the showrunner through the presentation and analysis of three models: Spanish, South American and Nordic.

SITGES FANPITCH – SHOWRUNNERS LAB

This edition of Sitges FanPitch is complemented with the Showrunners LAB, an introductory seminar and advice on the figure of the showrunner, a key piece in series productions, through the presentation and analysis of three models: Spanish, South American and Nordic.

The initiative invites the five series projects selected in the Sitges FanPitch call to participate in this laboratory, which counts on the the collaboration of an outstanding showrunner representative of each of the models.

The three participating showrunners will offer one-to-one advice to the five projects and will carry out a round table exposing the main characteristics of their model.

Showrunners Lab
Round Table

Mentoring Sessions

Showrunners Lab: Round Table

Description

In this roundtable, guided by Guillem Clua, the participating showrunners of the three models will share their experiences as well as the main characteristics of each model.

Information

Date: Thursday, October 13th / 4:30 p. m. – 5:30 p. m.

Location: Industry Room – Catalan Films (Sala Garbí 2, Hotel Meliá Sitges)

Moderator:

Guillem Clua: Playwright, screenwriter, stage director and journalist.

Participants

Ruth García: Creator and executive producer of Paraíso, creator of series such as Los Protegidos, Perdida or El Incidente, coordinator of the second season of Edha, escaletista and dialoguista in different daily formats such as Acacias 38, La Lola or La Sopa boba. Author of countless successful series on Spanish television such as Génesis en la mente del asesino, Los hombres de Paco, Aquí no hay quien viva, La chica de ayer or La señora. In addition, she is a professor in screenwriting courses at the Sociedad General de Autores, in the master’s degree in screenwriting Globomedia and at the ECAM.
Federico Durán Amorocho: With nearly 20 titles between feature films and series, his experience ranges from the creation and work of writer’s room, to post-production, promotion and release. He is a showrunner and creative producer very dedicated to each stage of production. He has co-produced with France, Spain, USA, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, among others. He combines his production activity with writing and directing. Some of his outstanding titles are Mil colmillos, El páramo or La virgen de los sicarios.
Björn Hylnur Haraldsson: Director, writer, actor and producer. Co-founder of Vesturport, one of Europe´s most innovative film, TV and theatre groups. Björn Hlynur´s latest project is TV series Blackport winner of the Grand Prize in the International competition Series Mania in Lille, France in 2021. Started out as an actor after graduating from The Drama Academy of Iceland in 2001. Focusing mainly on writing and directing for film, television and stage as well as working as an actor and producer. His debut feature film as writer/director Blóðberg (Homecoming) opened in 2015 and is currently being re-made in the UK. Written and directed also by Björn Hlynur. Also with a prolific acting carreer, Björn Hlynur has appeared in among others, Netflix´s The Witcher and Neil Jordan´s The Borgias for Showtime. Most recent acting role is in feature film, LAMB, which premiered at Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2021.