‘Alpha’, by Julia Ducournau, will open the 58th edition of the Sitges Film Festival

The 58th edition of the Sitges- International Fantasy Film Festival of Catalonia presented a first preview of the programme on 15th July by the artistic director, Ángel Sala, and Mònica Garcia i Massagué, director of the Foundation. The event was held at the Moritz Barcelona factory and allowed us to learn how, during the event, the director and producer Peter Chan, the American producer Gale Anne Hurd, the French actor Dominique Pinon and the Mexican Hugo Stiglitz will be honoured. These are some of the names that have been announced in an edition that will have as its leitmotif the relationship between humour, comedy and the different branches of fantasy.

The film Alpha, by director Julia Ducournau, will open the 58th edition of the SITGES – International Fantasty Film Festival of Catalonia. The French filmmaker, who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2021 with Titane and made an impact with Crudo in 2017, will be the third female filmmaker to open the Festival, after Mary Harron with  American Psycho (2000) and Ana Lily Amirpour with  Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon (2021).

Julia Ducournau will attend the screening of the film Alpha , a family drama in a context of social dystopia, which addresses issues such as climate disaster, body transformation and family tensions in a fascinating visual and sensory journey that constantly plays with the viewer’s perception.

Alpha will open a wide selection of titles that will be displayed in the different sections of the festival, and which will demonstrate the heterodoxy of themes, approaches and visual styles characteristic of the current genre. Among the most outstanding titles are the indie comedy If I had legs I’d kick you starring Rose Byrne, and The life of Chuck  by Mike Flanagan, which adapts Stephen King into a modern fable that tells us about the life of Charles Krantz, (played by Tom Hiddleston in his adult version), in reverse order: from his death to childhood, in a haunted house. The film also features Mark Hamill, the mythical Luke Skywalker from the classic Star Wars saga. Also worth mentioning are The Thing with Feathers , directed by Dylan Southern and starring a Benedict Cumberbatch who fights against his own ghosts and other invisible presences that inhabit the silence;Tornado , the new film by John Maclean (Slow West), with Tim Roth as the protagonist.

The most canonical horror, although reformulated from contemporary visual points of view, will be represented by Eye for an Eye , by Colin Tilley, which builds a fascinating horror universe with some of the most striking images of the year, while The Home , the long-awaited return of James DeMonaco (responsible for the Purge saga), turns a nursing home into a space where the everyday becomes disturbing. On the other hand, the terrifying psycho-thriller Dolly , by Rod Blackhurst, presents a twisted horror tale about kidnapped childhood and a monstrous upbringing.

There will also be space for science fiction and fantasy at Sitges. Redux Redux , by Kevin and Matthew McManus, is a meta-cinematic experience which challenges the limits of audiovisual language through repetition, rewriting and memory; while Orang Ikan , by Mike Wiluan, turns a lost island in the Pacific into a battlefield, where the war between men is overshadowed by the harassment of a relentless creature.

And as every good Sitges festival needs its dose of sword and sorcery, there will also be Deathstalker , the remake of the 80s cult classic of the same name, with the signature of Steven Kostanski and all the ingredients we love: barbarians, evil wizards and monsters. More poetic but equally epic is The Legend of Ochi , by Isaiah Saxon, which transports us to a fantasy universe where a young protagonist enters an unknown world inhabited by amazing creatures.

Japanese horror cinema returns to Sitges with three proposals that demonstrate the genre’s validity and capacity for reinvention. Exit 8, by Genki Kawamura, turns a subway ride into a top-level psychological nightmare, inspired by the video game of the same name. New Group , by Yuta Shimotsu (Best Wishes to All), locks the viewer in a claustrophobic atmosphere inside a high school where the students begin to behave in a disturbing way, in a film that captures the textures of Junji Ito’s horror and the narrative dynamics of the genre on social networks. For its part, The Curse, by Kenichi Ugana, recovers the spirit of the traditional Japanese curse to take it to new levels of tension and renew the aesthetics of J-Horror from the beginning of the millennium. Also from Asia, in this case from Thailand, comes A Useful Ghost, by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, a poetic fantasy about loss in which the ghost of a loved one returns, possessing a vacuum cleaner, in one of the most surprising and original films of the genre in 2025, winner of the Critics’ Week at the last Cannes Film Festival.

Other titles at Sitges 2025 will explore new themes or reimagine old stories in a contemporary light. The Ugly Step Sister, by Emilie Blichfeldt, reimagines the classic tale of Cinderella from a feminist, dark, sarcastic and very painful perspective; while Fucktoys, by Annapurna Sriram, is another female odyssey where a cursed young woman travels through the suburbs of Trashtown trying to collect a thousand dollars to free herself from a curse. One of the most celebrated titles of the year is Dead Lover, by Grace Glowicki, a gothic horror comedy where a gravedigger finds herself trapped in an impossible romance. Touch Me, by Addison Heimann, opts for a mix of science fiction, polyamorous relationships with visitors from other planets and a country aesthetic, while Mermaid, by Tyler Cornack, offers a dark tale about marginality, which begins when an addict finds an injured mermaid on the coast of Florida.

This year’s Spanish production once again stands out for its overwhelming personality and its ability to explore fantasy from unique perspectives. Some of the titles that will be programmed are Gaua , the new work by Paul Urkijo, and La virgen de la tosquera , by Laura Casabé.

Animation and classics

Animation has a major role to play at the festival this year, with a selection that demonstrates the creative power and versatility of the format for exploring fantasy universes. Heart of Darkness, by Rogério Nunes, offers a visually apotheosophical adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s work, while The Great History of Western Philosophy offers a journey as acidic as it is brilliant, through the great ideas of Western civilization. Its screening will testify —unfortunately, posthumously— to the great talent of its director, Aria Covamonas.

The Sitges Festival has always been a place for the recovery and vindication of classic fantasy films, and this year will screen cult films such as Re-Animator (1985), which celebrates its fortieth anniversary this year. To commemorate this, the screening will be special and will feature the stellar presence of actress Barbara Crampton, composer Richard Band and part of the team.

Awards and appearances by big names in fantasy

The festival has announced that director, producer and screenwriter Peter Chan will receive the Grand Honorary Award at Sitges 2025 in recognition of his career. The filmmaker is known for titles such as Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996), The Warlords (2007) and Wu Xia (2011) and also for being a key figure, as a producer, for many emerging and established talents in Chinese cinema.

Producer Gale Anne Hurd and actors Dominique Pinon and Hugo Stiglitz will also be honored at the festival. At the same time, the legendary director and producer of the Friday the 13th saga, Sean S. Cunningham, will be distinguished with the Honorary Time Machine Award, while director Joe Joe Dante, a fundamental talent in the mix between horror and comedy, will return to Sitges as the godfather of this year’s leitmotif.