Every October, the seaside town of Sitges trades its beaches for red carpets as it hosts the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, the world’s leading showcase for horror, sci-fi, and fantasy cinema. This year’s 59th edition runs from 8 to 18 October 2026, eleven days that will pack the town’s cinemas with premieres, restorations, and a genuinely stacked guest list.

A Landmark Opening Night

For the first time in the festival’s 59 editions, Sitges will open with a film directed by a Spanish woman: “Found Alive,” from Carlota Pereda (director of “Piggy” and “La Ermita”), an international co-production starring Chloë Grace Moretz. It will screen alongside the short film “Homing” from Lizzie Atherton and Hansel Rodrigues. Closing the festival is “Wicker,” directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, starring Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård.

Carrie Turns 50 — and Sets the Theme

This edition is built around the 50th anniversary of Brian De Palma’s “Carrie,” which even inspired the official festival poster, evoking the film’s blood-soaked prom climax. Sitges will screen a new restoration of the 1976 original alongside the first episodes of Mike Flanagan’s upcoming television adaptation, using Carrie’s themes — teenage cruelty, bullying, and psychic power — as connective tissue across the program. Fittingly, another Spanish genre landmark also turns 50 this year: Narciso Ibáñez Serrador’s “Who Can Kill a Child?” returns in a new 4K restoration.

Official Selection Highlights

More than 30 titles will compete in the Official Fantastic In-Competition Selection, arriving fresh from Cannes and Venice. Standouts include Casey Affleck’s directorial effort “Company,” featuring Nick Nolte and Ben Mendelsohn; Quentin Dupieux’s 78-minute comedy “Full Phil,” starring Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart; Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Sheep in the Box”; Adam Wingard’s “Onslaught”; and Laika’s stop-motion feature “Wildwood,” directed by Travis Knight. Danny DeVito arrives as executive producer of “Drag,” which stars his daughter Lucy DeVito. Asian cinema has a strong showing too, with Yeon Sang-ho’s “Colony,” Joko Anwar’s “Ghost in the Cell,” and Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s first samurai film, “The Samurai and the Prisoner.” Nearly 3,800 submissions were received this year — a festival record reflecting the genre’s global vitality.

Star Power on the Red Carpet

The festival’s Gran Premi Honorífic (Grand Honorary Award) headliners this year are genuinely heavyweight: Peter Jackson returns to Sitges more than three decades after presenting “Braindead,” this time unveiling a new 4K restoration of that cult classic and joining special-effects legend Rick Baker to present John Guillermin’s 1976 “King Kong.” Danny DeVito will present a 4K restoration of “Matilda” for its 30th anniversary. Amy Irving, whose screen debut came in the original “Carrie,” will introduce a special screening of 1978’s “The Fury”.

Elsewhere, Robert Eggers collects the Time Machine Award and will present “The Witch”; Alejandro Amenábar receives the Méliès Federation prize alongside a restored 30th-anniversary screening of “Tesis,” with the original cast expected to attend; and Spanish actress Bárbara Rey receives the Nosferatu Award for her contribution to genre cinema. Composer Pino Donaggio, action choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, editor Bob Murawski, and director Nicolas Winding Refn (presenting his new film “Her Private Hell”) round out the guest list.

Classics, Restorations, and More

Beyond new premieres, Sitges Clàssics brings 4K restorations of David Cronenberg’s “Scanners,” Ken Russell’s uncensored “The Devils,” and Ruggero Deodato’s “Cannibal Holocaust,” alongside genre-spanning sidebar sections like Panorama, Òrbita, and the archival Seven Chances strand.

The FIPRESCI Award also makes its Sitges debut this year, with a three-member jury of international film critics — Raquel Abad, Eirik Bull, and Emanuele Di Nicola — selecting a winner from the Official Selection, adding a fresh layer of critical recognition alongside the festival’s own Kong awards.

Spanish genre cinema gets particular attention this year too, with a run of homegrown titles including “Las hijas” from Clàudia and Paula Serra, “Upiro” from Óscar Martín, “Salitre” (the debut of Norma Vila), and “The Death of Dracula” featuring Javi Botet. Carles Torrens also returns with “Apocalypse Z: Part II,” the sequel to his pandemic thriller, this time relocating survivors to the Canary Islands.

One practical note for anyone attending: El Retiro, one of the festival’s traditional venues, will be unavailable this year due to ongoing renovation work, so screenings will be concentrated across the town’s other historic cinemas.

If you’re planning a visit, book accommodation early — Sitges gets busy fast in October, and screenings across its historic venues sell out well ahead of the festival’s opening weekend. With a lineup this stacked, both in star power and sheer volume of premieres, the 59th edition looks set to be one of the festival’s biggest yet.