The International Fantastic Film Week of the Costa del Sol celebrates its 25th anniversary with a review of its trajectory.

The festival, which will celebrate its last edition this year, will be held from September 7 to 14 in Estepona, with parallel activities in Benahavís, Marbella and Málaga.

It will have as godfather the actor and humorist Miguel Ángel Martín from Málaga, and the ‘Unicorn of Honor’ will be awarded to Claudio Fragasso, Italian screenwriter and one of the cult directors of international fantasy-terror.

The event will also recognize Álex O’Dogherty, Salva Reina, Elia Galera, José Pastor, Agustín Padilla, the sponsors, and the television series ‘Mano de Hierro’.

The International Fantastic Film Week of the Costa del Sol, which will take place from September 7 to 14, celebrates its silver jubilee with farewell, since it will be its last edition. The event will review its 25 years of history with a full program that will take place in the Felipe VI Auditorium in Estepona, and with parallel activities in Benahavis, Marbella and Malaga city.

The inauguration of the film event will take place on Saturday, September 7, at 9 p.m., in the Plaza del Ajedrez, sponsored by the Malaga actor Miguel Ángel Martín. During the opening gala will take place the premiere of the short film ‘El Tiempo Anado’, a thriller shot this year under the direction of Manuel Vera, starring Ramón Langa, Candela Vergara and Julio Peces San Román, and produced by the Asociación Cultural y Cinematográfica ‘Unicornio’, in collaboration with the City Council of Arenas de San Pedro (Ávila). In addition, the ASFAAN award will be presented to the comedian, actor, presenter and musician Álex O’Dogherty, and Tim Burton’s film ‘Bitelchús’ (1988) will be screened.

The festival will continue on Sunday 8, at 21.00 hours, in the Plaza del Reloj, with a gala tribute to the sponsors of the festival, companies and public organizations that have made possible a quality cultural offer.

The screenings of the XXV International Fantastic Film Week of the Costa del Sol will take place in Rooms 1 and 2 of the Felipe VI Auditorium, and will be divided into several categories. In the Official Section ten films will compete: ‘Witches: they will cross the threshold’, ‘Green Grass’, ‘Hanky Panky’, ‘Scalper’, ‘Unbridled’, ‘Opal’, ‘The tourists’, ‘Bullets and katanas’, ‘The gusset’ and ‘I’ll blow you up’, from Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, Japan, USA, Ukraine, France and Spain. The Parallel Section ’25 Years of Fantasy’ will screen ‘Psycho’ (1960), ‘The Exorcist’ (1974), ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (1978), ‘An American Werewolf in London’ (1981), ‘Blade Runner’ (1982) and ‘Streets of Fire’ (1984).

In the ‘Family Fantastic’ category, there will be ‘A World of Fantasy’ (1971), ‘Rage of the Titans’ (1981), ‘Ghostbusters’ (1984), ‘Bitelchus’ (1988), ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ (2023) and ‘Spiderman. Crossing the Multiverse’ (2023). The ’50th Anniversary’ section will pay tribute to the 1974 films ‘Skin on Asphalt’, ‘Young Frankenstein’, ‘Defense’ and ‘Phantom of the Paradise’.

The jury of this 2024 edition will be chaired by Ramón Langa, accompanied by Javier Quintas and Miguel Carrillo.

As for exhibitions, after its passage through the Felipe VI Auditorium, the XXV Fantastic Film Week will present at the Centro Cultural y Juvenil San Pedro Alcántara, from September 7 to 15, the exhibition ’25 Years of Fantasy’, consisting of a collection of posters of the festival since its inception in November 2000 until this latest edition, in 2024, as well as panels with photographs of the award-winning characters, films in competition and honorees in these 25 years.

With the same title, ’25 Years of Fantasy’, on Monday, September 9, at 8:00 p.m., a documentary by Manuel Vera will be presented at the Felipe VI Auditorium, in which its director, Julio Peces, narrates everything that happened during this period, from the first year with Paul Naschy, Chicho Ibáñez Serrador and Jesús Franco, to the last ‘Unicorn of Honor’, Mick Garris, including names like Christopher Lee, Dolph Lundgren, Michael Paré, Álex de la Iglesia and a long etcetera. It also includes photographs and recordings of personalities, now disappeared, who passed through the festival as Alfonso Azpiri, Paul Naschy, Carlos Pacheco, Ray Harryhausen or Terele Pávez.

Throughout the 24 editions of the International Fantastic Film Week, more than thirty literary works related to genre cinema and its works, myths and legends have been published. In this edition, it will be possible to enjoy the presentation of the commemorative book ‘Nos veremos en la cara oculta de la luna’, a detailed compendium of the uninterrupted quarter of century of this festival, written by its director, Julio Peces San Román; and the book ‘Cine y Salud Mental’, by the psychiatrist José Ignacio del Pino. Both publications will be presented on Tuesday 10, at 8 p.m., in the Felipe VI Auditorium.

The activities parallel to the festival will be completed with the ‘XV Jornadas Gastronómicas 2024’, an original initiative that mixes cinema and gastronomy in the kitchen. As hosts, the restaurants LaLaLa, from Puerto Banús, and Don Juan (El Paraíso), Take a Wine and La Boquerona, from Estepona, will participate.

The closing gala of the XXV Costa del Sol Fantastic Film Week will take place on Saturday 14, at 20.00 hours, in the Felipe VI Auditorium, presented by the versatile Álex O’Dogherty, and will be enlivened by the performances of the pianist Joaquín Castellano, the pop group ‘Malpaso’ and the voices of the trio ‘BlackSheep’. At this gala, the ‘Unicorn Awards’ will be presented to the winning films in the Official Selection, in the categories of Best Film, Direction, Acting, Screenplay, Special Effects, Photography and David Geary Award for Best Music.

Among the honorees this year, the jury has decided to award the ‘Unicorn of Honor’ to the Italian screenwriter and one of the cult directors of international fantaterror, Claudio Fragasso. Before collecting the award, Fragasso will attend the screening of ‘Monster Dog

Leviathan’ (1984), on Thursday 12th, at 8.30 p.m., at the Cortijo Miraflores in Marbella, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the film.

During the closing gala there will also be a special award ceremony: the Special Jury Prize, which will go to actress Elia Galera (‘The ugliest woman in the world’, ‘Hospital Central’, ‘Fragile’, ‘El Príncipe’, ‘Amar es para siempre’); the Special Jury Award ‘Mancomunidad de Municipios de la Costa del Sol Occidental’, to the Malaga actor José Pastor (‘Acacias 38’, ‘Cerdita’, ‘Bosé’, ‘La latina’, or ‘El Marqués’); and the Award for Best TV Series 2024, to the Spanish series ‘Mano de Hierro’. The award will be collected by one of its actors, the Malaga-born Salva Reina, who has also triumphed as an entrepreneur, producer and cultural manager.

Comic cartoonist Agustín Padilla will receive the ‘Azpiri’ Award for Best Graphic Illustrator 2024, as a tribute to the immortal genius Alfonso Azpiri. Since the late 2000s he has worked almost exclusively for the North American market for DC, Marvel, IDW Publishing and Dark Horse, among others.

Tickets for the closing gala, completely free of charge, can be picked up starting Monday, September 9 at the Centro Cultural Padre Manuel in Estepona.

The International Fantastic Film Week of the Costa del Sol is organized by the Cultural and Film Association of the Costa del Sol ‘Unicorn’, with the sponsorship of the City of Estepona, Benahavis Town Hall, Association of Municipalities of the Western Costa del Sol, Diputación Provincial de Málaga, Achedosol-Montes Torres, Casino Marbella and Ona Group.

Attendance to all film screenings, publications and other activities of the festival will be free of charge, until full capacity is reached.

The official 2024 catalog can be downloaded at www.cinefantasticocostadelsol.com