Sitges Film Festivals Monica Garcia waits for Issa Lopez
Sitges Film Festival director general Monica Garcia used the Costa Rica Media Market to launch WomanInFan LatAm and declare the genre world is waiting for the next Issa Lopez. The Sitges Film Festivals Monica-led push backs Latin American women in fantastic cinema after female directors at Sitges rose from 6% to about 30%.
Key Takeaways
- Monica Garcia announced WomanInFan LatAm at the Costa Rica Media Market (July 14–15).
- Female genre directors at Sitges rose from 6% to about 30% since WomanInFan began six years ago.
- Garcia said Sitges is waiting for the next Issa Lopez and for Laura Casabé’s return.
- She credited Argentina and Ventana Sur’s Blood Window with boosting regional genre co-productions.
- Panelists also included Morbido CEO Pablo Guisa and director Luis Javier Henaine.
Why was Sitges Film Festivals Monica Garcia in Costa Rica?
Garcia was at the Costa Rica Media Market to announce the Latin American offshoot of Sitges’ WomanInFan program. She joined Morbido CEO Pablo Guisa and Mexican director Luis Javier Henaine (“Disappear Completely”) for a panel on Latin American genre filmmaking and the rise of women directors—despite persistent barriers.
Speaking to Variety before the session, she framed WomanInFan LatAm as momentum worth watching for fans who follow global genre pipelines via Streaming & TV Alerts.
How has WomanInFan changed who screens at Sitges?
Since WomanInFan launched six years ago, female genre directors at Sitges have climbed from 6% to some 30%, Garcia told Variety—encouraging news for the new LatAm chapter. Still, she stressed the field remains hard for women.
She screened a trailer for a documentary she directed on women in genre. The shared theme, she said, was difficulty and desire: being blocked from directing, or facing obstacles even when that door cracked open. Citing Katharina Kubrick’s account of marginalization, Garcia argued the problem has spanned decades and generations, even as conditions have improved.
The challenge is double, she noted: bias against women directors, and bias against women working in genre specifically.
What did Garcia mean by waiting for the next Issa Lopez?
“We’re waiting for the next Issa López [‘Tigers Are Not Afraid,’ ‘True Detective’]. We’re waiting for Laura Casabé [‘The Virgin of the Quarry Lake’] to return with another film,” Garcia said. Continuity is hard for any filmmaker—and harder for women—but Sitges has followed these talents from their first films and will keep waiting for them.
She also argued Latin America, led by Argentina, set the genre standard, pointing to Ventana Sur’s Blood Window as a co-production boost. Argentine Demián Rugna’s “When Evil Lurks” made Sitges history in 2023 as the first Latin American winner of the festival’s best feature prize.
Guisa tied Spain and Latin America through a shared language and religious imagery that fuels fantasy, while Henaine compared comedy and horror as genres that demand real emotional response. CRMM ran July 14–15.