While they were filming It: Episode 2The second part of the diptych adapting one of Stephen King's most important novels for the screen saw Argentine director Andy Muschietti and Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård begin toying with the idea of exploring the origins of the monster Skarsgård portrays in the film, the child-eating clown Pennywise. "We were particularly interested in his human side," Muschietti explained during the recent Sitges Film Festival. "The book mentions a man named Bob Gray, who would dress up as a clown and become Pennywise. At some point, It decided to take this form to wreak havoc, and that fascinated us." This fascination has now taken the form of a series on HBO Max. It: Welcome to Derry ((available with Catalan subtitles), in which he travels to the 1960s in the small town of Derry to expand the universe of the novel, but starting from "the crumbs that Stephen King leaves in the book for readers to pick up," explains Muschietti. The script is also inspired by "the interludes" written by one of the novel's protagonists, Mike Hanlon, who investigates Derry's history of violence and terror. "They are very enigmatic quests, questions that lead nowhere, but we use them to tell a new, secret story told in reverse," says Muschietti.

Once upon a time, there was a festival where the stories were violent nightmares of blood and guts, and the protagonists were subjected to torture and amputations. In Sitges, the small kingdom of terror in Garraf, it was crowned best film this Saturday. The Ugly Stepsister, which reinterprets the Cinderella story from the perspective of the ugly stepsister, subjected to a hell of primitive aesthetic treatments to be the prettiest girl at the prince's ball. The jury, chaired by American filmmaker Mary Harron, awarded the film by Norwegian director Emilie Blichfeldt, a debutant who thus becomes the fifth director to triumph at the festival after Sally Potter (Orlando, 1993), Jennifer Lynch (Surveillance, in 2008), Karyn Kusama (The invitation, in 2015) and Veronika Franz, who beat her last year by The Devil's Bath (co-directed with Severin Fiala).

When a few days ago they asked him Joe Dante for a project that he ultimately could not direct, he said: "The best thing to ask Terry Gilliam, who knows a lot about failed projects." There are few filmmakers whose successes (Monty Python, Brazil, Twelve Monkeys, The Fisher King, etc.) are as well known as their obstacles when it comes to carrying out projects (such as The Secret of the Brothers Grimm and, above all, The man who killed Don Quixote). All of this makes Gilliam (Medicine Lake, United States, 1940) one of the most beloved directors by fantasy fans, a tireless fighter who at 84 years old has displayed his enviable energy and good humor during his visit to Sitges, where this Friday he will receive the festival's Grand Honorary Prize.

The Professional, Nikita, The Fifth Element, Lucy... Luc Besson (Paris, 1959) has been demonstrating for decades now that European cinema can have commercial ambition and compete head to head with Hollywood. With Dracula, which he presented this Wednesday at the Sitges Festival, the French director approaches Bram Stoker's novel, greatly enhancing its romantic dimension, moving the action from London to Paris and introducing digital gargoyles that the Prince of Darkness has as servants in his castle. It is the first major production released by Besson after a judge declared him innocent in 2023 of the rape complaint filed in 2018 by actress Sand Van Roy; later, anonymous accusations of sexual misconduct by eight women were added on the French investigation website Mediapart.

"My God, the guy who's made all these films must be a maniac," said director Ben Wheatley about the montage of scenes from his filmography that was screened this Tuesday at the Sitges Film Festival before presenting him with the Màquina del Temps award. A very special award for the Briton, because Sitges was "the first film festival" he attended, before directing films. "You'd go to the bar and there'd be George Romero, and you'd think: 'Are all festivals like this?' I spent three days getting drunk, watching films and talking about cinema, it was incredible."

He is Marvel's Supreme Sorcerer, the best Sherlock Holmes of recent decades and also the most anticipated star of this edition of the Sitges Film Festival. Benedict Cumberbatch (London, 1976), twice nominated for an Oscar – for The imitation game and The power of the dog–, visited the festival this Monday to present That thing with wings, a psychological drama by Dylan Southern starring a comic book artist overwhelmed by the death of his wife, unable to cope with his job, raising two children and, above all, his mental health alone. Twisted by his own grief, the artist begins to express his grief in the form of the anthropomorphic crow that stars in the graphic novel he's working on; a fantastical presence (and ambivalent in its intentions) that pushes the film towards the territory of the gothic horror tale.

As explained in the documentary King on screen, available on Filmin, director Mike Flanagan was very attracted to horror movies but they scared him so much that, at age 10, he decided to try horror books and read Item, by Stephen King. "It was a huge mistake," he recalls. "I didn't want to keep reading because I was so scared and had terrible nightmares, but I cared so much about the characters that I couldn't stop. And I realized that each chapter offered me an opportunity to learn to be brave. Because that's what horror is, a training in exercising courage in two. Horror and Stephen King became my hero," he explains.

The big star of this year's Sitges Festival is Indy, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever who, unfortunately, didn't make it to the festival. "He stayed at my parents' house and is very happy playing with their dog," explains Ben Leonberg, the director of Good boy. Indy, of course, is his dog, who appears in almost every scene of a film that subverts the conventions of horror cinema by adopting the point of view of the typical quisso who, in these films, smells from an hour away that there is something evil in the basement or a spirit running around the attic. In Good boyIndy senses a supernatural presence that threatens his master and is consuming his health, but he has no way of telling him. Through his worried gaze, his alert expression, or his perked ears, we read all the emotions of an animal: loyalty, helplessness, anguish, and, above all, the fear of losing what you love most.

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.

"Are we together because we love each other or because we have become accustomed to each other?" he asks. Together the teacher played by Alison Brie, who is increasingly having doubts about her boyfriend, a musician reluctant to commit, with no professional prospects and, lately, with little desire to make love. Added to their marital crisis is another problem: the supernatural phenomenon that makes it impossible for them to stray too far from each other and, when they touch, their flesh fuses. The perfect nightmare or the solution to marital problems?

"I feel like a lot of time has passed and we've all grown up," he says with a nostalgic smile. Julia Ducournau (Paris, 1983) recalling his first visit to the Sitges Film Festival to present his debut film, Raw, one of the sensations of the 2016 edition. "I have great memories of the festival, I had a great time," he adds. Nine years and a Palme d'Or later (for Titane), Ducournau is still that tall and magnetic young woman who, due to her attitude and cinematic tastes, could be mistaken for the festival audience, but now she opens Sitges with Alpha. She's left her jeans and t-shirts in the closet and wherever she goes she's surrounded by a group of fans and cameras, as befits one of the star directors of new European cinema.

If the Sitges Festival were a monster it would undoubtedly be one kaiju, a behemoth of unattainable size that will host nearly 400 screenings of fantasy, horror, and other genres from October 10th to 19th. The Matadero Cultural Center will once again fill the gap left by the Cine Retiro, which was closed for renovations, in an edition marked by visits from Benedict Cumberbatch, Terry Gilliam, and Joe Dante, among others.