The Devil's Bath and Alexandre Aja are the Stars of Sitges2024's Final Sprint

The 57th edition of the SITGES - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia reaches its end with the screening of Never Let Go, the latest film from French filmmaker Alexandre Aja, who also received the Honorary Time Machine Award. Corey Feldman also received this award during the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of The Birthday. Bertrand Mandico, the Director's Cut of The Fall and the surprise screening bring this year's edition to a close and in style. 

Noves Visions reached its climax at the Prado Theatre during the Festival's last day. Bertrand Mandico, the Festival's enfant terrible with bad trips like The Wild Boys and After Blue, was the master of ceremonies at this edition's closing with the screening of his new Dragon Dilatation, this section's closing film. On this occasion, the French filmmaker presented an experimental diptych in Sitges that combines his most recent works: a free adaptation of Igor Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka and a medium-length film entitled La Déviante Comédie. The grand finale was provided by Tarsem Singh, the Indian filmmaker who returned to the Festival with the same film with which he won it almost two decades ago. The Fall 4K (Director's Cut) thrilled the Festival's most nostalgic fans with this stunning cult extravaganza.

Fleur Fortune's dystopian The Assessment was the protagonist tonight at the Auditori, the surprise screening at this year's Festival. Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel star in this paternal sci-fi movie about a near future where climate change has limited the possibility of having children. Paul Naschy was also one of the main stars of the day thanks to the premiere of the documentary Call me Paul. Filmmaker Víctor Matellano García takes a comprehensive look at the life of one of the most recognizable faces of Spanish fantaterror with the collaboration of icons such as Caroline Munro and Jack Taylor. But the undisputed star of this final stretch of the Festival was The Devil's Bath. Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala made Festival history by winning three awards - it was considered Best Feature Film by the Official Jury, the Critics' Jury and the Carnet Jove Jury - with their TheDevil's Bath. Soi Cheang won the award for Best Director for Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In and Kristine Froseth, John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush, the awards for Best Actors.

The past and present of domestic cinema had their space at the closing of this year's Festival. Eugenio Mira's The Birthday is twenty years old now and we celebrated it in Sitges with a very special screening of this film. The audience at the Auditori was able to enjoy the new 4K director's cut of this orgiastic and cosmic rarity in Spanish filmmaking. But we couldn't celebrate this birthday without focusing on the film's leading man, Corey Feldman, who, although he was unable to attend the event, was here in spirit, making the most of this special date to receive the Honorary Time Machine Award for his iconic work in fantastic films, with roles in legendary movies including The Goonies and Gremlins. Immediately after the screening of The Birthday, Rodrigo Cortés' new film, Escape, described by the director himself as Escape from Alcatraz in reverse, landed at the Festival. Mario Casas, Anna Castillo and José Sacristán star in this biting satire that today, brought together its director and Albert Pla, one of the film's actors, on the red carpet.

This year's Closing Gala allowed us to say goodbye in style to the 57th edition of the SITGES - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia. The film that gathered together the entire Sitges audience at this collective farewell was Never Let Go, the new release from jack-of-all-trades filmmaker Alexandre Aja. On this occasion, the man behind High Tension, The Hills Have Eyes or the more recent Crawl tells the story of a mother-and-child nightmare where a family must literally stay together in order to survive the influence of an evil spirit. At a press conference, this Parisian director spoke about the tone of the film: “I didn't want to be gory as I have been in some of my previous projects, if I wanted to make a film like Evil Dead I'd ask Sam Raimi to make one; this story is looking for something else”. About the fantastic work of the rest of the film's departments, Aja praised them, stating that “a film with bad directing can be good, but if the rest of the departments fall short, there's no escape”. “I understand Sitges as a second family, I feel that in these theaters we enjoy different projects with no prejudices”, said the filmmaker in his farewell to the press. The Sitges premiere of his latest film was the perfect excuse for the Festival to give Alexandre Aja the Honorary Time Machine Award for his extensive and diverse filmography dedicated to horror movies.

Midnight X-Treme, the section for those who are NOT morning people, allowed the Prado's audience to finish the Festival in the wildest way with a triple bill of the zaniest movies. Sander Maran's Chainsaws Were Singing kicked off the Marathon, the bizarre wet dream of any genre fan where Monty Python directs a crossover between The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Les Miserables. Grabbing the baton for the screenings was Steven Kostanski, director of the critically acclaimed The Void, presenting a zany party with a bizarre creature in Frankie Freako. And topping it off was the screening of Spermageddon by Rasmus A. Sivertsen and Tommy Wirkola, a zany animated comedy about spermatozoa that must compete in a race where only one can win.