One month after Sitges festival 2022 announced its new edition would lean into the science fiction heritage of the 1982 film Tron, alongside a curated selection of recent works from renowned names in classic and contemporary fantasy and horror. The organizers emphasized a continued commitment to directors who push the boundaries of genre storytelling, with a fresh lineup presented by the competition’s director and festival leadership to ensure fans of the fantastic could feel the thrill again.
Notable guests would include Edgar Wright and Neil Marshall, who were acknowledged for receiving Sitges’ Time Machine Award, recognizing their influence on the future of modern fantasy cinema. Wright’s career, known for genre-blending hits like Shaun of the Dead and the more recent adventures in visionary cinema, sits comfortably within Sitges’ tradition of celebrating bold, genre-defying titles. Marshall’s cinematic footprint, ranging from action-fueled thrillers to the enduring appeal of creature features, also aligns with Sitges’ appetite for cinematic reinventions, such as psychological horror and creature-centric narratives that have left a lasting mark on the festival’s programming.
The festival’s steadfast devotion to Spanish genre cinema remained evident with the inclusion of a rising voice from the Sundance scene, introduced years earlier by Sala, the festival’s guiding figure. The film Cerdita, Carlota Pereda’s debut, brought a rural noir energy to the slate, threading tension through a landscape that feels both intimate and unsettling. Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s recent triumph The Best and Paul Urkijo’s Basque production Irati were highlighted for their world premieres, bringing intense storytelling and high-stakes drama set against rich, often stark hinterland settings. Irati, a medieval fantasy drama staged in a lush but foreboding Galician countryside, juxtaposes a family’s intimate turmoil with a larger, ancestral struggle, echoing epic traditions while leaning into contemporary psychological stakes. Other Spanish language offerings included Sadrac González’s Asombrosa Elisa, Raúl Cerezo and Fernando González Gómez’s Viejos, and Luis Tinoco’s La paradoja de Antares, each bringing distinctive regional voices to the festival’s international mosaic.
You Will Not Be Alone and the Miike Moment
Sitges continues to reflect major current trends by spotlighting titles that delve into collective fears. You Will Not Be Alone, Goran Stolevski’s Sundance-originating film, features Noomi Rapace as a young woman who becomes a supernatural entity in 19th-century Macedonia, exploring themes of identity, loneliness, and the moral weight of power. The post-apocalyptic thread also appears in the festival’s program with Vesper, a production associated with Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper, which threads a stark, visually arresting future world through a critical lens on humanity and survival. The festival also offers a meditation on social judgment through stories like Speak No Evil and Le Tour, the latter directed by Guillaume Nicloux, who is known for provocative, boundary-pushing cinema that pairs confrontational dynamics with strong character studies. The conversation around cultural criticism and the role of art in society resonates through these selections, inviting audiences to reflect on the boundaries of fear and empathy in cinema.
Asian cinema has a notable presence at Sitges, with Takeshi Miike closing a bold trilogy and bringing his characteristic blend of ferocity, humor, and surprise to the screen. The Mole Song Final installment promises a wild, chaotic, and unforgettable ride. Documentary filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe returns with Lynch/Oz, a feature that blends iconic film history with cinematic storytelling, a nod to the festival’s long-standing interest in meta-cinematic inquiry. The programming also nods to the broader mythic and dreamlike cinema traditions, with references that echo the tapestry of influences—from the eerie magic of Blue Velvet to the hallucinatory visuals of surreal adventures, inviting audiences to navigate a landscape where reality and fantasy blur in boldly original ways.