Joe Dante (Morristown, New Jersey, 1946), the director of the two parts of Gremlins, Piranha either The prodigious chip, is an essential name when describing popular cinema from the 1980s. Forged in the B-movie ethic of the Corman factory, he achieved success under the guidance of Steven Spielberg, who saw him as the ideal director for a script about small creatures with a great potential for chaos. This year, the Sitges Film Festival is honoring him as one of its great heroes.