Peter Jackson and Danny DeVito will visit the Sitges Festival

BarcelonaPeter Jackson, the director of the celebrated 'The Lord of the Rings trilogy and one of the great names of contemporary fantastic cinema, will visit the next edition of the Sitges Festival to present a new 4K remastered version of Braindead (Dead Alive in its Catalan version), the classic gore film that Jackson himself presented in Sitges in 1992. Jackson, who a few months ago announced in Cannes that he is preparing a new film adaptation of Tintin, will receive the Sitges Grand Honorary Award, which this year will also distinguish Danny DeVito, an actor, producer, and director with an extensive career and exuberant personality. In the realm of fantasy, he embodied the Penguin in Tim Burton's Batman Returns, with whom he worked again on Big Fish, Mars Attacks! and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, among others. The festival will screen the thriller Drag, which DeVito produces and which stars, among others, the actor's daughter, Lucy DeVito. Sitges will also award actress Amy Irving, one of the stars of Carrie; additionally, the Murcian actress Bárbara Rey will receive the Nosferatu award.

Other guests at this edition will be the Dane Nicolas Winding Refn, aesthete of violence and director of the modern classic Drive, who will present his latest work at the festival, the oneiric thrillerCopenhagen Cowboy. Another Sitges regular is the master of special effects Rick Baker, winner of seven Oscars and responsible for Michael Jackson's makeup in the Thriller music video and for the effects in King Kong (1976), An American Werewolf in London, Men in Black or The Grinch, among many others. Baker will share a talk with Peter Jackson about the myth of King Kong and special effects. Also receiving honorary awards this year will be the Italian musician Pino Donaggio, a regular composer for Brian De Palma; editor Bob Murawski, Sam Raimi's right-hand man; Japanese director Takashi Shimizu; martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, and actor Michael Ironside, an iconic face of 80s and 90s fantastic cinema.

Carlota Pereda, the director of Cerdita, awarded with the Méliès d'Or at Sitges in 2022, will open the event on October 8th with Mother Couch, starring Chloë Grace Moretz. It will be the first time that a Spanish female director inaugurates the festival. The film that will close the festival on October 18th will be the medieval fantasy Wicker, with Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård, which adapts a short story by Ursula Wills. Sitges will also celebrate the 30th anniversary of Tesis, the debut of Alejandro Amenábar, who will present the film at the festival together with one of the protagonists, the actor Eduardo Noriega.