Sitges Film Festival kicks off with star lineup including Benedict Cumberbatch and Terry Gilliam

Julia Ducournau, the Palme d'Or-winning French director behind Raw and Titane, opens the 58th Sitges Film Festival on Thursday with her new film Alpha.

The fantasy and horror festival features an edition with major names from the world of cinema including Benedict Cumberbatch, Joe Dante, Sean S. Cunningham, Carmen Maura and Terry Gilliam.

Highlights include screenings of Bugonia by Yorgos Lanthimos, Frankenstein by Guillermo del Toro, Scarlet by Mamoru Hosoda, Dracula by Luc Besson, and No Other Choice by Park Chan-wook, the Korean director of Oldboy.

This year's festival features many films exploring humor and comedy within the horror, fantasy, and science fiction genres.

Alpha and The Long Walk

Taking place since 1968 in the seaside town of Sitges, 40km south of Barcelona, Stiges Film Festival bills itself as the world's number one fantasy film festival.

This year's opener Alpha follows a troubled 13-year-old girl living with her single mother whose life unravels after she comes home from school with a tattoo on her arm.

The film stars Tahar Rahim, Golshifteh Farahani, Mélissa Boros, Emma Mackey and Finnegan Oldfield, and deals with themes of family love, grief, empathy, bodily transformation and addiction.

The closing film of the 2025 edition will be The Long Walk, a survival thriller directed by US filmmaker Francis Lawrenc, adapted from the Stephen King novel of the same name.

It follows a group of young boys who take part in a brutal endurance competition.

Awards

English actor Benedict Cumberbatch will receive the Time Machine Award, while Spanish actor Carmen Maura and directors Terry Gilliam, Peter Chan and Joe Dante will each receive the festival's Grand Honorary Prize.

Time Machine Awards will also go to William Fichtner, Enzo G. Castellari, Ben Wheatley and Sean S. Cunningham, the legendary director and producer of the Friday the 13th saga.

Producer Gale Anne Hurd will receive the WomanInFan Award, and actor Dominique Pinon will be honoured with the Méliès Career Award.

Highlights

Among the honourees, Carmen Maura appears in this year's programme with her starring role in Crazy Old Lady (Vieja loca) and Benedict Cumberbatch headlines with The Thing with Feathers.

Park Chan-wook brings his latest feature No Other Choice to Sitges, while Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude presents his own take on Dracula. British director Ben Wheatley returns with Bulk.

Mike Flanagan adapts Stephen King's The Life of Chuck, a modern fable starring Tom Hiddleston, and John Maclean presents Tornado, featuring Tim Roth.

Japanese horror makes a strong showing with Exit 8 by Genki Kawamura, New Group by Yuta Shimotsu, and The Curse by Kenichi Ugana, each showcasing the genre's enduring inventiveness.

Other highlights include The Ugly Stepsister by Emilie Blichfeldt – a feminist, darkly comic reimagining of Cinderella – and one of the year's most acclaimed titles, Dead Lover by Grace Glowicki.

Eduardo Casanova's Silencio promises to shock and mesmerise in equal measure – a provocative queer vampire tale exploring the body, pain and beauty.

Sitges Collection

The Sitges Collection section gathers out-of-competition titles already celebrated at other major festivals, including Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos), Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro), Scarlet (Mamoru Hosoda), Dracula (Luc Besson), The Ice Tower (Lucile Hadžihalilović), The Home (James DeMonaco), Black Phone 2 (Scott Derrickson) and Sisu: Road to Vengeance (Jalmari Helander).

Exclusive preview

Sitges will host an exclusive screening of the opening of It: Welcome to Derry, the upcoming HBO Max series premiering on 27 October.

Executive producers Barbara and Andy Muschietti, the duo behind the two-part film adaptation of Stephen King's It, will attend the presentation.

Horror-comedy spotlight

The festival also marks the 40th anniversary of the cult classic Re-Animator (1985), making its blend of horror and comedy the central theme of this year's edition.

A special screening will feature actor Barbara Crampton, composer Richard Band and other members of the original team. 

Screenings will take place across Sitges, including the Melià Sitges Auditorium, Sala Tramuntana, Sala Llevant (Brigadoon), Casino Prado, Escorxador Cultural Centre and Miramar Cultural Centre.