Sitges Film Festival’s Monica Garcia at the Costa Rica Media Market: ‘We’re Waiting for the Next Issa Lopez’

At the Costa Rica Media Market (CRMM) to announce the launch of the Latin American offshoot of genre initiative WomanInFan, Sitges Film Festival director general Monica Garcia sat with Morbido CEO Pablo Guisa and Mexican director Luis Javier Henaine (“Disappear Completely”) to discuss the state of genre filmmaking in Latin America and the surge of women directors in the field, despite the obstacles.

Speaking to Variety before the panel, Garcia revealed that the number of female genre directors participating at Sitges since WomanInFan launched six years ago, has jumped from 6% to some 30%., encouraging news for the new WomanInFan LatAm program.

But the field of genre filmmaking remains tough for women. Showing the audience a trailer for a documentary she directed, which offered a snapshot of some women who had ventured into the field, the consensus was not altogether rosy.

“The common denominator in all of their statements is the difficulties, the desire – sometimes fulfilled, sometimes not – to be directors because they weren’t allowed to, or the obstacles they faced. Even Katharina Kubrick, Stanley Kubrick’s daughter, talks about the marginalization she suffered for being Kubrick’s daughter and a woman.”