The Sitges Film Festival’s 59th edition ran from October 8 to 18, 2026, placing the 50th anniversary of ‘Carrie’ central to its program. The ten-day event featured restored classics and a focus on religious horror. Its official image transformed Sissy Spacek’s famous blood-soaked look from ‘Carrie’ into red streamers, drawing on the film’s enduring associations with adolescent trauma and religious fanaticism, as well as its scenes of public humiliation that lead to retaliatory violence. The program also linked the anniversary to the 50th anniversary of Chicho Ibáñez Serrador’s ‘¿Quién puede matar a un niño?’
Sitges screened Brian De Palma’s ‘Carrie’ alongside ‘The Fury’ as part of a retrospective featuring Amy Irving, who plays Sue Snell in ‘Carrie’. Irving received the festival’s Grand Honorary Award on October 18. De Palma sent a message for the tribute praising the lasting stature of great performances. The anniversary program also included a newly restored 4K version of De Palma’s 1976 film and the yet-to-be-released miniseries adaptation by Mike Flanagan, set to debut on Prime Video. Other restored highlights included David Cronenberg’s ‘Scanners’ (1981) and Ibáñez Serrador’s ‘¿Quién puede matar a un niño?’. Alejandro Amenábar’s ‘Tesis’ also returned to the big screen in a restored version, accompanied by a public discussion with the director.
Religious horror emerged as a central theme, with new films exploring faith and fanaticism, particularly where they fuel social stigma. Adrian Chiarella’s Australian film ‘Leviticus’ uses horror to address homophobia and religiously inflected prejudice; festival coverage singled it out among the edition’s stronger titles. The film was scheduled to open in Spanish cinemas on October 30, after its Sitges presentation. Lotfy Nathan’s ‘The Carpenter’s Son’, starring Nicolas Cage, offers an unconventional account of Jesus’s early life, told from Joseph’s perspective and focused on Jesus’s childhood and adolescence rather than a conventional biblical epic. Marion Cotillard leads ‘Karma’, a film centered on the terror of religious cults. The festival also presented ‘Hungry’ by James Nunn, featuring a rebellious hippopotamus, and the dark comedy ‘DRAG’, with Ricky Ullman and Greg Yagolnitzer; Lucy DeVito also appears.
Spanish productions maintained a strong presence. María Martínez Bayona’s English-language film ‘The end of it’ premiered, while Carles Torrens’ ‘Apocalipsis Z: Parte 2’ imagined the last uninfected humans in Europe seeking refuge in the Canary Islands. Korean director Yeon Sang-ho returned with ‘Colony’, following his previous success with ‘Tren a Busan’. Other impressive entries included ‘Nightborn’ by Hanna Bergholm and ‘The Birthday Party’ by Léa Mysius, which explores the chaos of a remote birthday celebration.
Festival director Ángel Sala announced that the Retiro cinema, a basic Sitges venue, would remain closed because of ongoing renovations. The festival also expanded its program with premieres of recent Cannes horror titles, including ‘Su propio infierno’ by Nicolas Winding Refn and ‘Sanguine’ by Marion Le Corroller. Its basic screening venues included the Auditori Melià and Casino Prado Suburense, with L’Escorxador also in use, alongside public events and exhibitions. One exhibition focused on the evil-child figure in horror cinema, with Ibáñez Serrador’s 1976 film among the works framing the anniversary program.
Established in 1968, the Sitges Film Festival is recognized as one of the world’s leading events for fantasy and horror films. Its programming attracts filmmakers and industry professionals from across Europe, along with fans. The 2026 edition brought restorations and new international releases together with recurring questions of religious repression and bodily shame, alongside social exclusion. Ongoing renovations at venues such as Retiro also highlighted the practical challenges of maintaining historic cultural infrastructure while staging a major international festival.
