Benedict Cumberbatch to receive Sitges 2025 Time Machine Award

The Sitges fantasy and horror film festival will honour English actor Benedict Cumberbatch with the Time Machine Award this year.

Actress Carmen Maura and directors Terry Gilliam and Joe Dante will each receive an Honorary Grand Prize at the 58th edition of Catalonia's biggest film festival.

William Fichtner, Enzo G. Castellari and Ben Wheatley will also receive the Time Machine award.

This year's edition of the Sitges Festival has announced that it is completing its selection with titles such as 'Bugonia' by Yorgos Lanthimos, 'Frankenstein', by Guillermo del Toro; 'Scarlet' by Mamoru Hosoda, and 'Dracula', by Luc Besson.

'The Long Walk', a survival thriller directed by Francis Lawrence that adapts the novel of the same name by Stephen King, has been chosen as the closing film for the festival. The film deals with the harrowing experience of a group of young people who participate in the most brutal of competitions.

Competition selection

Among the names announced in the official section, Park Chan-wook, director of 'Oldboy', joins the list with his latest work, 'No Other Choice'. After its screening at the Venice Film Festival, this satire on capitalism arrives in Sitges.

Another of the great references who lands in Sitges with his long-awaited latest film is Radu Jude, who will bring his particular version of 'Dracula'.

Ben Wheatley will also present his latest lo-fi romantic sci-fi work, 'Bulk'.

'Balearic', by San Sebastian-based Ion de Sosa, and 'Singular', the second film by Alberto Gastesi, have also been added to the list.

Also announced are 'The Whisper', by Uruguayan director Gustavo Hernández Ibáñez, 'Todos los males' by Chilean Nicolás Postiglione, 'We Bury The Dead' by Zak Hilditch, 'Together' by Michael Shanks starring real-life married couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco, and 'Death of a Unicorn' by Alex Scharfman, among others.

The Sitges fantasy and horror film festival is on in the seaside Catalan town from October 9-19.