As Variety first reported, the Women In Fan LatAm initiative was launched at the 2026 Costa Rica Media Market – which took place in San José on July 14 and 15 –. Women In Fan LatAm is a permanent and structured space to support fantastic cinema made by women across Latin America.
WomenInFan LatAm derives from Sitges’ WomanInFan, a program that has supported female voices in the genre cinema world, from the historical recovery of women pioneers through documentary productions and book publications, to the creation of the Talent Accelerator program offering scholarships and intensive mentoring for emerging female filmmakers, to the consolidation of national and international networks promoting gender equality in the audiovisual sector.
WomenInFan LatAm involves the Fantastic Pavilion, Grupo Mórbido, and the aforementioned Costa Rica Media Market – it’ll will operate within the framework of the Fantastic Lab –. For Pablo Guisa (Fantastic Pavilion, Grupo Mórbido), “Latin American female filmmakers bring a perspective that exists nowhere else in the world: our myths, our creatures, our local healers and witches, the syncretism between indigenous cultures and Catholicism, our colonial past, our present as developing nations. Women in Fan LatAm exists to give those voices a home, a structure, and an international platform.”
Sitges’ General Manager Mónica García Massagué added that “WomanInFan was born at Sitges with the conviction that fantastic cinema grows stronger through equality and a diversity of voices. Over the years, that commitment has expanded from talent development and the annual presentation of Latin American women-led projects at Cannes through Fantastic 7 to the publication of Horror Girls Latin America, which recovers the region’s female pioneers. Women in Fan LatAm is the next natural step: building a permanent bridge between Latin American creators and the international genre industry. Together with our partners, we want to ensure that these voices are not only discovered, but supported, connected and empowered to shape the future of fantastic cinema.”