Sitges Film Festival honorary prize awarded to makeup and special effects artist Colin Arthur

The Sitges Film Festival is back to celebrate fantasy and horror movies from October 6 to 16 in the seaside town of Sitges, south of Barcelona. Makeup and special effects artist Colin Arthur will be awarded the 2022 honorary prize, as announced by organizers on Wednesday.

Arthur is well known for his work on movies such as 'The Rift' (1990), Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her' (2002), and John Milius' 1982 'Conan the Barbarian'. 

This will not be the first award Arthur receives as he won the 1990 Goya for Best Special Effects for 'The Rift' film. With the prize, the festival recognizes the British artist's work with directors such as Steven Spielberg, Almodóvar, or Ridley Scott.

Claudio Simonetti will also be awarded during the 2022 Sitges Film Festival with the Golden Méliès, recognizing the Best European Feature and Short Films. The Italian composer born in Brazil has written soundtracks for Dario Argento movies. 

Almost 300 movies

Catalan director Jaume Balagueró will kick off the 55th edition of the Sitges Film Festival with a screening of his new 'Venus' movie. The film, starring Ester Expósito known for Netflix drama Élite, is a horror story inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's books. In fact, 'The Dreams in the Witch House' novel is hugely important to the plot.

This is not the first time Balagueró premieres at the festival, as he has already opened up the event with 'Darkness', '[REC 2]', and '[REC 4]'.

2022 will be the year for [REC]'s saga director to shine. During the festival, they will premiere the documentary '[REC] Terror sin pausa', a long piece featuring some of the main actors and the two creators, Balagueró and Paco Plaza, explaining the last 15 years since the first movie was released.

But the leitmotiv of the film festival this year is inspired by Steven Lisberger's 1982 movie 'Tron' as topics such as the metaverse, multiverse, or virtual reality, are quite present nowadays.

While Balagueró will open the festival, Luca Guadagnino will close it on the night of October 15 with his movie 'Bones & All'. Starring Timothée Chalamet, Chloë Sevigny, Michael Stuhlbarg, Taylor Russell, and Mark Rylance. The film is based on a homonymous novel by Camille DeAngelis.

Among the almost 300 movies and documentaries available to watch during the festival, Joe Begos' 'Christmas Bloody Christmas' and Jason Eisener's 'Kids vs. Aliens' will also play a key role. 

But series are also part of the Sitges festival, and this year new episodes of the 'Historias para no dormir' second season will be broadcast to attendees. Those present will also get to enjoy HBO Max's shows '¡García!' and 'Pobre Diablo'.

Zombie Walk returns

Sitges' international festival is known for one of its unique nights, the Zombie Walk. On October 8, at 8 pm, hundreds of people dressed up as zombies will take to the streets of Sitges once again.

Those interested in taking part can start applying their make-up from 12 pm until 7 pm at a tent set up at the Sant Sebastià beach. 

A-list guests

The 55th edition of the fantasy and horror movies festival will welcome some of the most important figures in the industry. 

The 2011 Oscars Best Director and Best Movie, French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius, will present his latest movie 'Final Cut' (Coupez!). With this film, he returns to comedy after eight years of working on horror and fantasy movies.

The proposal is a remake of the 2017 success 'One Cut of the Dead'. 

Hazanavicius will also take part in the Zombie Walk, as he will be in charge of firing the walk's starting pistol.

Other prominent cinematic figures who will walk down the red carpet in Sitges include Robert Englund, mainly known for his Freddy Krueger performance. The American will present his latest work, a documentary honoring all his career, 'Hollywood, Dreams and Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story'. 

Fans will get to see Squid Game's main actor Lee Jung-Jae, who was recently awarded an Emmy for his role in the Netflix series, up close. The South Korean will debut as a director with 'Hunt'.

Jury

Once again, Sitges's jury will include some of the genres' most important directors and producers. In this year's edition, William Lustig, known for his horror classic 'Maniac' or 'Maniac Cop' B series thriller trilogy, will sit beside Argentinian writer Mariana Enríquez. 

The film distributor and former vice president of Fox Searchlight Europe, Christophe Mercier, Austrian actress and star of movies such as 'Good Night, mama', Susanne Wuest, and cofounder of Etheria Film Festival, Heidi Honeycutt, will also join them as judges.