The International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia starts today with Sister Death, the new film by Paco Plaza, which takes place in a convent in post-war times where one of the nuns, played by Aria Bedmar, has supernatural powers.
Sister Death, sequel to Verónica, the celebrated film that Plaza filmed in 2017, will give the public a few scares and will inaugurate in style a contest that will screen nearly 200 titles until Sunday, October 15.
The Sitges Festival, directed by Ángel Sala, will have a lot of horror films and a little of everything else: documentaries, series, tributes, reruns and the presence of some of the films that have impacted this year's big competitions such as Cannes or Venice.
But let's go in parts. The official section has 31 titles in competition. Lovers of the genre are already lining up to see films like Kubi, by Takeshi Kitano, a samurai film that promises an all-out fight between rival warlords, or Moscas, the new intrigue by Aritz Moreno, where Ernesto Alteiro has a hard time trying to get rid of a dead body.
Robot Dreams, by Pablo Berger, is one of the most anticipated titles in this official section. Although he is not very prolific, he has only made four films in 20 years, Berger is one of the most prestigious Spanish filmmakers. Robot Dreams passed through Cannes and thrilled critics. It is an animated film based on a graphic novel by Sara Varon that tells the story of a lonely dog who builds a robot to have a friend.
Frenchman Stéphan Castang will present Vincent Must Die, a film with Kafkaesque overtones that tells the story of a man who wakes up one morning and discovers that everyone wants to kill him. You have to be very prepared for Club Zero, by Jessica Hausner, because those who have already seen it say that this food dystopia can turn your stomach.
And Vermin: The Plague, by Sébastien Vanicek, is also not for the faint of heart, as it delves into the consequences that a plague of poisonous spiders could unleash.
Carlota Pereda became known last year with her Cerdita, a slasher that garnered countless awards. The director now returns to Sitges with La ermita where Belén Rueda plays a false medium.
Salem (Jean-Bernard Marlin), In Flames (Zarrar Kahn), The Wait (F. Javier Gutierrez), The Universal Theory (Timm Kröger), Late Night with the Devil (Colin Cairnes, Cameron Cairnes), When Evil Stalks ( Demian Rugna) or Acide (Just Philippot) are other titles that participate in the official competition section.
Sitges has also been betting on the series for some time now and in this edition it will not make an exception. Álex de la Iglesia, a regular at this festival, will present the second season of 30 coins, which features Eduard Fernández, Miguel Ángel Silvestre, Megan Montaner and Macarena Gómez as protagonists.
While Elena Matic, Sasha Cócola, Jordán, Ricardo Gómez, Guillermo Toledo and Belén Cuesta make up the cast of Romancero, a series created by Fernando Navarro that delves into the universe of vampirism.
Berto Romero, for his part, will bring The Other Side to the big screen in Sitges, a six-episode miniseries, starring Romero himself, Andreu Buenafuente and Eva Ugarte, which tells of the vicissitudes experienced by a journalist specializing in paranormal events.
In addition, and out of competition, the festival will program one of the most anticipated films for the next season, Poor Creatures, by Yorgos Lanthimos, a gothic fable with Emma Stone in the shoes of a young woman eager for knowledge and sex who won the Lion of Gold at the Venice Biennale.
There will also be a spot for The Snow Society, Juan Antonio Bayona's story about the accident of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 that crashed in the Andes in 1972. The film represents Spain at the Oscars. Bayona will receive the Time Machine award.
The contest will also pay tribute to Mary Lambert, the first woman to direct a zoombie film, and to Stanley Kubrick through the Oscar-winning Lee Unkrich, who will present a book about The Shining. In addition, it will recover one of the most controversial films in history: Caligula, by Tinto Brass, which raised a storm in 1979 when it was considered pornographic.
Dream Scenario, by Kristoffer Borgli, with Nicolas Cage as the protagonist, will be in charge of putting an end to 10 days of terror, scares, nightmares and many liters of blood on October 15.
