At Sitges (4-10 October), of world premieres, Stuart Gordon's Space Truckers played to long laughs, and shorter suspense at its world debut. But this year the show was stolen by Quentin Tarantino, present at the Festival, and a Spanish mega-melodrama which merited the Jury's adjudication of both the Best Screenplay award and a Special Jury Mention to a low-budget debut by young Spaniard Elio Quiroga, Fotos (Photos), a delirious mixture of a telenovela melodrama, religious fantasies and castration, which made it for the local press, for better or for worse the standout world premiere at this year's fest edition.

The ever-popular Sitges Fantasy Film Festival drew huge queues for its screenings; far more surprisingly for Spain, its jury enjoyed near unanimous applause from local critics for their final verdict.

Apart from Fotos, the festival's Best Film prize went to Peter Greenaway's quirky erotic drama, The Pillow Book, and the Best Direction plaudit to Iran's Mohsen Makhmalbaf for his penultimate film, Gabbeh.

James Woods was voted Best Actor for his performance in Tim Metcalfe's hard-hitting prison drama, Killer: a Journal of Murder, admired by local scribes. Alberto Schiammi's whacky, sci-fi comedy The Killer Tongue drew a generally more lukewarm reaction from the Spanish press but still netted star Melinda Clarke the Best Actress prize. John Hopewell