From 8 to 18 October, the 59th edition of the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia will take place, offering 288 feature films, 127 short films and 11 television series. These are staggering figures, matched only by the 19 sections across which all these titles are distributed.
At Sitges, these numbers take on particular significance because, unlike other festivals such as San Sebastián, it faces considerable limitations in terms of screening venues. The screening capacity of this festival, which is approaching its sixth decade, was reduced in the late 1990s to three venues: the Auditori at the Hotel Meliá (opened in 1992), Cinema Casino Prado and Cine El Retiro (the latter two are among Catalonia’s thirteen century-old cinemas).
With the arrival of the new century, the number of screening venues increased to four, yet none of the additional spaces is, strictly speaking, a purpose-built cinema: adapted hotel function rooms, temporary spaces or a portable cinema installed in the former slaughterhouse.
Clearly, the sheer scale of the programme, combined with these spatial constraints, is placing the festival under increasing strain, affecting the experience of both audiences and industry professionals, who have now been joined by the official presence of influencers as a new accreditation category.
Peter Jackson and Diana Peñalver at the 1992 Sitges Film Festival, where they presented Braindead.
It is against this increasingly heated backdrop that Sitges 2026 is about to raise the curtain. The festival will open on Thursday, 8 October, and run until Sunday, 18 October, with three guests set to leave their mark on the 59th edition: Sir Peter Jackson, Kevin Bacon and Danny DeVito. Other major figures will also be attending, but these are undoubtedly the three names that have generated the greatest anticipation.
All three will receive the Grand Honorary Award, but of the three, Sir Peter Jackson perhaps has the closest connection with Sitges. In 1992, when he was still a little-known New Zealand filmmaker who had made only two very low-budget gore films, Bad Taste (1987) and Meet the Feebles (1989), he arrived in Sitges with Braindead (retitled in Spain with the rather ridiculous Tu madre se ha comido a mi perro), a film that, more than 30 years later, remains an essential reference point for the splatter genre, where blood and entrails are given free rein, often with an underlying comic rather than horrific intent, as is the case here.
Jackson therefore returns to Sitges after a Hollywood career that has made him one of the most important fantasy filmmakers of recent decades, bringing the story full circle with the presentation of the new 4K restoration of Braindead. For the occasion, he will be joined by the film’s leading actress, Seville-born Diana Peñalver—a detail that also serves as a reminder that, during one of its early stages of production, Braindead was a New Zealand-Spanish co-production, although the Spanish producer ultimately withdrew from the project.
Kevin Bacon, meanwhile, is a remarkably versatile actor with a career spanning almost five decades. He has by no means concentrated on fantasy and horror, although he has ventured into the genres on several occasions. One need only recall, for example, Flatliners (1990), by the much-missed Joel Schumacher; Hollow Man (2000), by the ever-fascinating Paul Verhoeven; or, above all, Tremors (1990), directed by Ron Underwood, an ingenious homage to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws and probably the genre film for which Bacon is best remembered.
Family Man (Kevin Bacon, 2026)
It is worth noting, however, that his connection with the genre that dominates Sitges goes much further back, to one of his earliest films, when Bacon was still an unknown actor: he was one of the first victims in the franchise launched in 1980 with Friday the 13th, in a scene featuring some truly impressive special make-up effects by the great Tom Savini.
Bacon will also take advantage of his visit to present his third feature-length directorial effort, Family Movie, a black comedy in which a family shooting a low-budget slasher film is forced to conceal a real corpse to prevent production from being shut down.
The film will be presented in the Sitges Collection section, which brings to the festival films that have already screened at other festivals.
As for Danny DeVito, his connection with the fantastic is perhaps less extensive than Bacon’s, and certainly more limited than Jackson’s. Nevertheless, his Penguin in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns (1992) remains indelibly etched in cinephile memory.
It is also worth noting that, in his relatively brief career as a film director, even when he does not venture explicitly into the fantastique, its influence can often be felt lurking beneath the surface. The War of the Roses (1989), for example, is driven by an unmistakable undercurrent of horror, while in Throw Momma from the Train (1987), DeVito delivers a darkly comic exercise in film noir that would surely have delighted the Alfred Hitchcock of The Trouble with Harry (1955).
Danny DeVito in Matilda.
The fantasy film directed by DeVito that I referred to earlier is the delightful Matilda (1996), a print of which the actor and director will present at this year’s Sitges. DeVito will also present one of his latest projects as a producer, Drag, directed by Greg Yagolnitzer and Raviv Ullman.
The film is competing in the Official Selection and offers a return to the exuberant genre cinema associated with Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, telling the story of two sisters who, while burglarizing a house, find themselves fighting to escape after one of them suffers an accident and is left immobilized.
Other notable guests provide an opportunity to highlight some of the titles likely to generate the most discussion at Sitges 2026. Amy Irving, for example, will present a 4K restoration of Carrie (1976), Brian De Palma’s film in which she played Sue Snell, the student who, regretting her part in tormenting Carrie, tries to help her, only to make matters worse in that unforgettable and blood-soaked finale.
The screening also serves as a fitting companion to the Sitges presentation of the series that the formidable Mike Flanagan has made based, like De Palma’s film, on the famous novel by Stephen King.
Hope (Na Hong-jin, 2026)
Korean filmmaker Na Hong-jin will also receive a Time Machine Award and will take the opportunity to present Hope, a spectacular blend of horror and action that arrives at Sitges following its triumphant appearances at Cannes and San Sebastián, among other festivals.
The award is by no means a frivolous choice: it is worth remembering that every film Na Hong-jin has made to date has screened in different sections of Sitges, from The Chaser (2008) and The Yellow Sea (2010) to, above all, The Wailing (2016), an intriguing, if excessively repetitive, mystery thriller.
Carlota Pereda, the director who burst onto the film scene in 2022 with her second feature, Piggy, returns to Sitges after her follow-up project, The Chapel (2023), went largely unnoticed. The festival has entrusted her with nothing less than the responsibility of opening its 59th edition with Found Alive, a psychological thriller in which Chloë Grace Moretz plays a woman obsessed with a traumatic event from her past.
Another major presence at Sitges this year will be Casey Affleck, who is currently making the festival rounds with his third feature, Company. Ben Affleck’s younger brother, competing in the Official Fantàstic Competition, explores a kind of narrative Russian-doll structure in which one story swallows up the next to examine revenge and forgiveness.
Chloë Grace Moretz in Found Alive, opening film at Sitges 2026
Noomi Rapace will also walk the Sitges red carpet, competing in the Official Selection with The End of It. A co-production between Spain, Norway and the United Kingdom, the film is directed by Catalan filmmaker Maria Martínez Bayona and follows a 250-year-old woman whose decision to put an end to her tedious existence gives rise to an exploration of the modern fear of the human body’s physical decline—a theme that proved enormously successful at Sitges just a few years ago with the mediocre The Substance.
And watch out, because none other than Heather Graham will also be making an appearance at Sitges this year. The actress, who first came to prominence in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights (1997), has since had a rather uneven career, appearing in disposable comedies and productions of questionable quality.
That certainly does not appear to be the case with What Happened to Doris?, directed by Nick Simon, in which a woman claims to have been brutally attacked in her home by an invisible force. The film chronicles the real-life case of Doris Bither, which in 1974 sparked a paranormal investigation that proved highly controversial at the time.
Heather Graham, tormented by an invisible entity in What Happened to Doris?
Those of a certain age may remember The Entity, the 1982 film directed by Sidney J. Furie, in which Barbara Hershey was attacked by malevolent forces in her own home. That film was, in fact, a direct adaptation of Frank De Felitta’s book documenting the Doris Bither case.
The festival will also pay tribute to an essential work of recent Spanish genre cinema, Thesis (1996), Alejandro Amenábar’s debut feature, which celebrates the 30th anniversary of its release. Sitges will host the world premiere of a newly restored version with remastered sound and image, presented at 25 frames per second rather than the traditional 24, as Amenábar originally intended. Amenábar will be in Sitges to present the film alongside Eduardo Noriega and Fele Martínez.
The guest list for Sitges 2026 is seemingly endless, as is the list of films. Both can be found on the festival’s website, as Sitges approaches its 59th edition facing evident problems of organization and artistic conception, yet at the same time retaining an indestructible vitality fuelled by its immense popularity among fans of fantastic cinema.
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