Jordi Sánchez-Navarro, researcher and professor of information and communication sciences at the UOC, is also director of the Anima’t section of the Sitges Festival, author of the book Tangible imagination. An essential history of animation cinema (UOC, 2020) and, needless to say, a great expert in animated film. That is why it is valuable that on October 15th, upon leaving the screening of Wildwood in Sitges and still overwhelmed, he affirmed that it was “surely” “the best animation film stop-motion of history”. And once seen, it is difficult to contradict Sánchez Navarro.

The audience at the Sitges Festival, so noted this edition for the bad habit some spectators have of applauding every violent death whether it is pertinent or not, has once again shown that, when it wants to, it can be the great asset of this festival. And it has done so with a simple and natural gesture, of elemental justice: awarding the best film of the festival, Wildwood, an extraordinary film that is already history of animation cinema, if not of cinema in general. The film from the animation studio in stop motion Laika, a true technical and cinematic prodigy, has taken the festival's Audience Award, but the official section jury has completely ignored it in its list of winners and opted to award a minor and derivative work like the French Sanguine, the second feature film by Marion Le Corroller, which underlines with a fluorescent pencil its critique of the labor exploitation of capitalism with elements of body horror borrowed from much superior recent titles like Cru or The Substance.

As it enters its final stretch, the Sitges Festival welcomed this Friday one of its prodigal sons, Duncan Jones, the son of David Bowie who debuted as a director in 2009 with Moon and won the award for best film of the festival. “I am very happy to return to Sitges, it is an incredible festival,” exclaimed an euphoric Jones who was carrying a backpack, a nod to his new film: Rogue Trooper, his first fully animated feature, which brings to the cinema a great icon of British comics that emerged from the legendary talent pool of the magazine 2000 AD.

A great comedy actor and enormous filmmaker, Danny DeVito (Neptune, New Jersey, 1944) has another brilliant but lesser-known facet: a producer with a keen eye. In the 90s, he produced titles such as Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty, Erin Brockovich (his only Oscar nomination), Out of Sight and Gattaca, which triumphed at the Sitges Festival in 1997. Nearly three decades later, DeVito visits the festival this Thursday to receive the Grand Honorary Award and present a new film as a producer, the horror comedy Drag. But this time it is a more personal project, as DeVito co-produces it with his son Jake and his daughter Lucy, who also plays one of the two sisters in the film who have the worst night of their lives when they break into the house of a famous artist.

In a Hollywood where socialism is a taboo word and even Paul Thomas Anderson resists talking about politics after having made a film as political as There Will Be Blood, directors like Boots Riley (Chicago, 1971) are a rare exception. "In case it isn't obvious from watching my film, I am a communist and I believe that the people should democratically control the wealth that labor generates. And to change things, obviously it is necessary to fight. We need general strikes," he stated this Wednesday at the Sitges Festival after presenting the fantasy comedy I'm a Virgo.

Actress Noomi Rapace has returned to the Sitges Film Festival to present The end of it, a dystopian science fiction drama directed by the filmmaker from Reus, Maria Martínez Bayona. Known for bringing Lisbeth Salander to life in the adaptations of the Millennium saga and for her participation in films such as Prometheus, Lamb or Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, the performer reflected on her career in an interview with the ACN. Rapace asserted that all the characters she has played throughout her career are "versions" of herself, from Elizabeth Shaw to Maria in Lamb or Marta in her new film. "All the characters live within me and stay within me," she stated.

Two scout leaders, ten scout children, a mountain refuge isolated by a snowstorm, and an unexpected apparition. These are the elements with which directors Paula Serra (Palamós, 1998) and Clàudia Serra (Barcelona, 1998) build the thriller horror film 11, a story about childhood and evil that thematically coincides with the leitmotif of this edition of the Sitges Festival, where this opera prima, darker than it seems, is also the only production in its original Catalan version in the competition.

Saturday evening, just before Peter Jackson (Pukerua Bay, New Zealand, 1961) received the Grand Honorary Award at the Sitges Festival, the usual montage of scenes from the honoree's filmography was screened which, in this case, culminated in the iconic image of King Kong walking towards the town of Sitges that is never missing from any festival session. “For me this is truly incredible –said an emotional Jackson–, because two important things coincide: that the King Kong from 1933 is my favorite movie of all time and that Sitges is my favorite festival in the world”.

There are Hollywood couples who try not to mix love and work to protect their relationship, but that is not the case for Kevin Bacon (Philadelphia, 1958) and Kyra Sedgwick (New York, 1965), married since 1988: they have shared the screen on numerous occasions and have even directed one another in films and series. In Family movie, which was presented this Saturday at Sitges, the actor from Mystic river and the actress from The closer go further and make cinema a family affair: the film is directed by Bacon, produced by Sedgwick, and stars both of them and their children, Sosie and Travis. Of course, they filmed it at the family home.

Peter 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.

Fifty years have passed since Sissy Spacek was drenched in blood in Carrie (1976) in one of the most iconic scenes in the history of horror cinema. For this reason, the Sitges Festival has decided to pay tribute to Brian De Palma's 1976 film, an adaptation of Stephen King's novel (available in Catalan in a new edition from Males Herbes publishing house). In a dark atmosphere typical of the festival's genre, within the Moritz Factory in Barcelona, the Catalan International Fantastic Film Festival presented this Monday the programming for its 59th edition, which will be held from October 8 to October 18. The festival's leitmotifs will orbit around prom dances and children with psychic powers, coinciding in theme "}with the 50th anniversary of De Palma's film and the Spanish classicWho can kill a child? (1976) by Chicho Ibáñez Serrador. The artistic director of the festival, Àngel Sala, and the director of the foundation, Mònica Garcia, have made a first preview of the program that will recover great restored classics in 4k of the fantastic genre such as Scanners (1981)of David Cronenberg and King Kong (1976) by John Guillermin.Remembering classics

The Sitges Festival 2026 also revives The Devils (1971), by Ken Russell, a film of diabolical possessions and ecclesiastical sex starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave, of which a restored version by Warner Studios can be seen (the original film is available on FiImin). Titles that marked a before and after in Spanish horror cinema will also be revived, such as Tesis (1996), the opera prima by Alejandro Amenábar, to commemorate the thirty years since its premiere. Amenábar himself will participate in a colloquium and explain how the filming went. In addition, the festival will also offer a review of Cannibal Holocaust (1980), by the Italian director Ruggero Deodato, the mockumentary about the limits of Western ambition that was banned in more than fifty countries.Terror and religion

Among the novelties that Sitges 2026 will present, there are films such as Leviticus (2026), by the Australian Adrian Chiarella, which mixes religious fanaticism and repression of homosexual desire; Her private hell (2026), by the Dane Nicolas Winding Refn, a thriller about obsession, desire, and violence that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and the debut of Marion Le Corroller, Sanguine (2026), another episode of body horror. This year's edition will also feature the participation of Finnish director Hanna Bergholm, with Nightborn (2026), which addresses the theme of motherhood and children who generate terror. The North American actor and producer Nicolas Cage will once again have a presence in Sitges, this time with The carpenter's son(2025), by the British Lofty Nathan, a reinterpretation of biblical stories that Àngel Sala defines as "the first temptation of Christ". The new work by French director Léa Mysius, The birthday party (2026), starring Monica Bellucci, which transforms a family celebration into a terrifying nightmare, will also be shown.A commitment to Asian cinema

In addition to European productions, the festival continues its firm commitment to Asian fantastic cinema, with recognized names in the panorama such as South Korean Yeon Sang-ho, who will bring the thriller Colony (2026), and Japanese Takashi Shimizu with The mouths (2026), a supernatural horror proposal that turns the body and word into a space of tension. Even samurai-themed films can be screened, such as Kokurojo: The samurai and the prisoner (2026), by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.This year's edition will not have its venue at El Retiro cinema because it is "still under construction". "The restoration of the facility could coincide next year with the festival's 60th anniversary, let's hope so," wishes Mònica Garcia.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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"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."

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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