Sitges Film Festival 2023

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The number one fantasy film festival in the world is back for another year, as Sitges turns into a film lovers' paradise for a week of screenings, exhibitions and presentations of fantasy films from across the world. With a solid track record, the event offers a stimulating framework for meetings, exhibitions, presentations and projections.

Born in 1968 as the 1st International Week of Fantasy and Horror Movies, today the festival is an essential rendezvous for movie lovers and audiences eager to come into contact with new tendencies and technologies applied to film and the audiovisual world.

Both Catalan and Spanish productions will play a key role during this 56th edition of the Festival. In addition to Paco Plaza's previously announced return home in order to present Sister Death, the opening film, this year's festival will also feature the presence of highly acclaimed and impacting names like Pablo Berger, Carlota Pereda and Álex de la Iglesia.

Crossing the border, we'll see the French fantastique film Acid, directed by Just Philippo, a film where the angst for survival emanates from the eco-anxiety of a world battered by a vengeful nature. In an equally disconcerting (and desperate) scenario, where some human beings have mutated into animals, we will be immersed in Thomas Cailey's new project, The Animal Kingdom, starring Adèle Exarchopoulos and Romain Duris. Meanwhile, Sébastien Vanicek will trigger our arachnophobia with Vermin, and Stéphan Castang will stun us with Vincent Must Die, about the agonizing drama of a man (played by a brilliant Karim Leklou) who, when he wakes up one day, discovers that a horde of unknown people want to kill him.

Other films that are setting trends this year in the genre will also be landing in Sitges. This is the case with Cameron and Colin Cairnes' Late Night with the Devil, Jason Yu's Sleep, Weston Razooli's Riddle of Fire, Christopher Murray's Sorcery, Demián Rugna's When Evil Lurks and Club Zero, starring Mia Wasikowska, the new and controversial feature from Jessica Hausner, one of the most consolidated talents in European cinema.

Animation and documentaries will have an outstanding representation with entries including Tian Xiao Peng's Deep Sea, Áron Gauder's Four Souls of Coyote; Robert Morgan's Stopmotion and Eddie Alcazar's Divinity will surprise us with a bunch of sensational animated scenes. In non-fiction, we will see David Gregory's Enter the Clones of Bruce, Jeremy Coon and Steve Kozak's A Disturbance in the Force, Sarah Appleton and Jasper Sharp's The J-Horror virus and Yves Montmayeur's Kaidan. Strange Stories of Japanee Ghosts, these last two, dedicated to the tireless attraction that Japanese terror holds for fans.

Every year, the town of Sitges prepares for its annual meeting with fans of fantastic, the industry and the press. The Festival combines the best genre cinema of the moment with a look at films that have traced the history of fantastic, as well as adding tributes to film personalities with a special connection to fantastic.

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