Sitges Family: A Commitment to Generations to Come

The SITGES – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia stands firm in its commitment to bringing fantastic genre to audiences of all ages. Through Sitges Family, we want to convey our eternal passion for genre to the new generations of young boys and girls, tweens and teens, without overlooking values that are so inherent to the films we screen, such as equality, tolerance, teamwork, and ecological awareness. To this end, we will be offering a wide selection of productions for the whole family to enjoy.

Sitges, September 17, 2025. Located in the Mercat Vell, in Sitges' Town Hall Square, the Sitges Family venue is the perfect complement to the rest of the film competition's screening rooms, and features several different sections: Fantastic Kids, Fantastic Teens, Kids en Acció, and Popcorn Screenings.

Sitges Family – Fantastic Kids: Movies are Even Better with the Family! 

Far from the domestic format and all the distraction caused by cell phones at home, Fantastic Kids promotes the magic of watching movies in theaters to attract younger audiences. This allows the new generations to approach fantastic genre films accompanied by their families as a fun and collective experience. Below, we present all the films that will be screened as part of Fantastic Kids. It's a diverse selection of productions from very different origins, a blend of animation and stories starring real-life actors and actresses. 

Ventura, by Juan Andrés Cermeño Salas, follows a group of friends who help Nee, a hard-working and passionate girl, fulfill her dream, which is to participate in a famous competition. This will ultimately put their teamwork to the test. Love & Gold, by Connor Van Dyke, tells the story of two thieves searching for the same hidden gem in a dungeon, but they soon discover that there is a feeling much more valuable than any treasure. 

Meanwhile, The Rabbit's House at Number 968, by Jai-Xin Wu, transports us to the realm of Taiwanese animation to tell an enigmatic story, although it's best not to reveal its synopsis here. Forevergreen, by Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears, presents an ecological tale about an orphaned bear cub who finds a new home next to a tree. Everything seems to be going smoothly until his voracious appetite for garbage leads him into a dangerous situation. 

Equally noteworthy are productions such as The Cloud Herder by Aidan McAteer and Gibbous by Angela Yi Benet. The first invites us to discover the animation of an Irish filmmaker who tells the story of an aging herder who wants to protect her flock of sheep, which are shaped like clouds, from the arrival of a dark storm with lightning bolts that look like wolves. The second, on the other hand, tells the disturbing experience of a baby monkey and its mother with the shadows that inhabit the night. 

Other examples of the thematic and formal diversity of Sitges Family are the following pieces: Gökotta, by Kay Oceans, is a short story inspired by true events that deals with the grief of growing up and the magic of making peace with oneself. Meevil the Weevil: Breakfast of Champions, by Kyle Arneson, is a stimulating stop motion and live action hybrid that puts us in the shoes of a nervous insect who aspires to becoming a stuntman. To do so, he dares to skate frantically across a breakfast table, set in the 1970s, to the beat of jazzy rock music. The Rumble-Bumble Rally, by Annette Saugestad Helland and Johan Kaos, transforms the living room of an apartment into an acrobatic race track where Mathilde, a five-year-old girl, will hold a fierce competition with her two imaginary friends.

The Fantastic Kids section will be rounded off by films with intriguing plots whose synopses shouldn't be disclosed -such as Normal Human by Ye-jin Joo and MOTHBALLS by Aisha Evelyna- and, on a different note, a short film with a profoundly ethical message in defense of ecology. We're talking about the Indian production Blu's. Its director, Rajesh P.K., projects hope for the protection of the world's forests and rivers from industrial pollution through the eyes of a girl who will fight to defend her own environment. 

Likewise, families visiting the Mercat Vell will be able to enjoy other interesting pieces such as Honeymoon by Arthur Chays, about the odyssey of a bee searching for a flower in a world devoured by megacities; Marquis, Repeat by Halley Linscheid, which treats us to another wonderful piece of stop motion craftsmanship; L’últim desig by Núria Francisco, which treats us to the infinite tenderness of a little girl who wants to save her grandfather from dying with a witch's potion; and Le Petit et Le Géant by Isabela Costa, another opportunity to enjoy the magic of animation through the short story of a hamster that, in a post-apocalyptic world, tries to save the few remaining plants. 

Meanwhile, other outstanding short films in Fantastic Kids include Rajas and The Wolf Girl by Nidhi Reddy, Akopa (más arriba) by Clemente Piña, Sana by Manuel Larios, Dormilón by Olivia Marie Valdez, DUCKS by AJ Jefferies, Dancing in the Rain by Chao-chun Yeh, Peninsula by Angèle Vergoni and Sarah Vanhoeck, Dead End by Fabienne Prieß and Levin Tamoj, The Sock by Aleksi Artturi Räisänen, and Wishes: Windows & Nests by Ana Maria Mendez Salgado. 

However, this section also includes screenings of a stimulating selection of feature films belonging to different eras. The ideal complement for enjoying the best cinema in the company of mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. An experience for the entire family! 

Hanna i el Nadal oblidat by Elena Ruiz, a sequel to Hanna i els monstres, centers around the mythological feat of a girl who leads a group of fantastic creatures on an incredible mission to recover the spirit of Christmas. With The Paper Bear, by Arix Zalace, we travel to the forests of Florida to discover the coming-of-age adventures of a family of black bears. Likewise, Greek animation also finds its place in Sitges Family. With The Magic Trap by Nikos Vergitsis, we go back to a time of magic and prophecy, animated with a cartoon spirit. Pandora and Plato are the creatures that are most in love on Earth, and their tears can grant any wish, but one day Pandora announces that she will die when she turns 300. Finally, the icing on the cake in Fantastic Kids is Prehysteria! by Charles Band and his father Albert Band. It's a children's comedy from the 90s, the first part of an American trilogy, about two children who accidentally find five dinosaur eggs and end up taking on an archaeologist who wants to steal them from them to get rich.

Sitges Family – Fantastic Teens: the More Teen-Oriented Fantastic Genre Films 

Less kid friendly and more irreverent is the Fantastic Teens section, now in its second year, aimed at young people in mid puberty. Among the featured shorts are films such as La última campanada by Alberto Cano, Ostrich by Marie Kenov, The Ottoman by Mike Stamm, and a documentary we already announced in previous communications. We're referring to Horror and Love by Joaquim Oristrell, also included in Sitges Documenta, which is about the couple of horror and fantastic genre lovers, Cristina Raya and David Moreno, who share the dream of building the best horror-themed amusement park in Europe.

Another essential approach to get to know the other side of film history, with more of a focus on B movies and exploitation films, is the documentary Aquel último tiburón, co-directed by Àngel Sala and Víctor Matellano, which will be screened together with the film that is the subject of their in-depth study: The Last Shark, the apocryphal sequel to Steven Spielberg's Jaws. The title chosen by Sala and Matellano is a tribute to that great benchmark in the most bastardized European cinema, Enzo G. Castellari, director of such explosive titles as the 1970s film The Inglourious Bastards, one of the key ingredients in the postmodern soup that Quentin Tarantino would make decades later with Inglourious Basterds. 

In fact, everyone attending the screening of That Last Shark will have the opportunity to hear firsthand from Castellari himself, who, as we already announced, will receive a Time Machine Award this year. This is a wonderful opportunity to better understand the Italian roots of contemporary genre filmmaking.

Sitges Family – Kids en Acció: The Human Values of the Fantastic Genre 

Finally, we complete this varied repertoire for all ages with Kids en Acció, a section that allows us to appreciate the fantastic genre from a humanistic perspective, revealing values such as respect, tolerance, and commitment in films that often serve as a tool to address the injustices that still prevail today. We're talking about films such as the monumental Persepolis by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi, adapting a graphic novel written by her about the social and political evolution of Iran from the viewpoint of a young girl; and The Fish Child by Lucía Puenzo, an atmospheric portrayal of poverty midway between magic and reality. 

On the other hand, Neptune Frost by Anisia Uzeyman and Saul Williams will also be screened, a techno-poetic opera with African roots where the margins become the center; and three different ways of approaching children's epics without losing our capacity to reflect, as in the case of The Red Scroll by Nelson Botter Jr., Lila's Book by Marcela Rincón, and Tito and the Birds by Gabriel Bitar, André Catoto, and Gustavo Steinberg.

Sitges Family – Popcorn Screenings 

And as if that wasn't enough in itself, we top off the fruitful Sitges Family lineup with the special Popcorn screenings, sponsored by Frit Ravich. In this block, you'll find Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror, a brand new documentary – also included in Sitges Documenta – that explores one of the wildest cult phenomena in midnight movies. Director Linus O'Brien shares with us the keys to the wildly unbridled The Rocky Horror Picture Show, that experimental play that became a counterculture classic and which, even today, still turns movie theaters into a delirious glam rock party where the audience sings and screams at what's happening on screen.

Equally festive is ¡Dame un poco de amooor...! (aka Bring Me a Little Loving) by José María Forqué. This musical, which premiered in 1968, the same year that the Sitges Festival was born, is like a trip back to a time where pop superheroes engage in conversation with Fu Manchu's followers at a festival of dance, colors, and design set to the sound of Los Bravos.

Next, Hammer: Heroes, Legends & Monsters by Benjamin Field documents the evolution of the legendary British horror film company that brought us such legends like Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing as Dr. Van Helsing. Muertas Vivas, on the other hand, narrates a Chilean apocalypse from the perspective of three models who were going to shoot a commercial and suddenly find themselves caught up in a spiral of violence. Director Sandra Arriagada delivers a clever satire against the advertising industry, ironically commenting on the current role of women in a male-dominated context. And finally, alongside Arriagada's splatter comedy, we'll be screening Super Z by Dani Giménez Parias, which tells the story of a zombie hunter and a superheroine who join forces against the mutant that gives the film its title. New to the Festival, this short film introduces the zombie imaginary in Sitges Family for the first time!

Support for the 58th Edition 

This year the Festival's screenings will be at the following venues in the official circuit:  Meliá Sitges Auditorium, Tramuntana Room, Llevant Room (Brigadoon), Sitges Casino Prado movie theater, Escorxador - Cultural Center and Miramar Cultural Center.  

Once again this year, the Festival is grateful for the commitment of all the cooperating institutions and companies: Moritz (main sponsor), Cupra (automotive partner), Repsol (multi-energy partner), CaixaBank (strategic partner), TV3, Catalunya Ràdio and 3CAT (official TV network and radio station), La Vanguardia (official newspaper), and Meliá Sitges (sponsor and official headquarters). 

The Festival confirms its agreements with AMC - Dark TV, Aullidos, Campari, China Madrid, Cinesa, Cines Verdi, Cobega-Coca Cola European Partners, Cruz Roja, Dama Autores, Droom, Embotits Bundó, ESCAC, FNAC, Fotogramas, Frit Ravich, Fundación Japón, FX Animation, HBO MAX, Grup Flaix FM, Grup Iguana, Grupo Prisa, Iberia, IES Joan Ramon Benaprès Escuela de Hostelería, Grupo Main, Montaz Media, Ocimag, Port d’Aiguadolç, Reial Cercle Artístic, Renfe, SGAE y Fundación SGAE, Salicrú, Sensacine, Transperfect Translations S.L., The Original Cha-Chá, Tik Tok, Tresc and Vertix. 

Sitges 2025 is organized thanks to the participation of the Sitges Town Hall, the Catalonian Generalitat’s Department of Culture’s Institut Català de les Empreses Culturals (Catalan Institute of Cultural Enterprises), the Sitges Casino Prado and Escorxador – Centre Cultural theaters and receives financing from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports’ Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts), the Barcelona Diputació (City Council), and the Carnet Jove - Departament de Benestar i Família (Department of Social Rights and Inclusion). 

List of Films 

Opening 

The Red Scroll – Nelson Botter Jr. 

Sitges Family – Fantastic Kids 

Short Films 

Akopa (más arriba) – Clemente Piña (2025) 

Blu's – Rajesh P.K. (2025) 

Dancing in the Rain – Chao-chun Yeh (2025) 

Dead End – Fabienne Prieß & Levin Tamoj (2025) 

Dormilón – Olivia Marie Valdez (2025) 

DUCKS – AJ Jefferies (2025) 

Forevergreen – Nathan Engelhardt & Jeremy Spears (2025) 

Gibbous – Angela Yi Benet (2025) 

Gökotta – Kay Oceans (2025) 

Hanna i el Nadal oblidat – Elena Ruiz (2025) 

L'Últim desig – Núria Francisco (2025) 

Le Petit et Le Géant – Isabela Costa (2025) 

Love & Gold – Connor Van Dyke (2025) 

Lune de miel – Arthur Chays (2025) 

Marquis, Repeat – Halley Linscheid (2025) 

Meevil the Weevil: Breakfast of Champions – Kyle Arneson (2025) 

MOTHBALLS – Aisha Evelyna (2025) 

Normal Human – Ye-jin Joo (2025) 

Peninsula – Angèle Vergoni & Sarah Vanhoeck (2025) 

Prehysteria – Charles Band & Albert Band (2025) 

Rajas & The Wolf Girl – Nidhi Reddy (2025) 

Sana – Manuel Larios (2025) 

Super Z – Dani Giménez Parias (2025) 

The Cloud Herder – Aidan McAteer (2025) 

The Magic Trap – Nikos Vergitsis (2025) 

The Paper Bear – Arix Zalace (2025) 

The Rabbit's House at Number 968 – Jai-Xin Wu (2025) 

The Rumble-Bumble Rally – Annette Saugestad Helland & Johan Kaos (2025) 

The Sock – Aleksi Artturi Räisänen (2025) 

Ventura – Juan Andrés Cermeño Salas (2025) 

Wishes: Windows & Nests – Ana Maria Mendez Salgado (2025) 

Sitges Family – Fantastic Teens 

Short Films 

La última campanada – Alberto Cano (2025) 

Ostrich – Marie Kenov (2025) 

The Ottoman – Mike Stamm (2025) 

Feature Films 

Aquel último tiburón – Àngel Sala & Víctor Matellano (2025) 

Horror and Love – Joaquim Oristrell (2025) 

The Last Shark – Enzo G. Castellari (1981) 

Sitges Family – Kids en Acció 

Lila's Book – Marcela Rincón (2017) 

The Fish Child – Lucía Puenzo (2009) 

Neptune Frost – Anisia Uzeyman & Saul Williams (2021) 

Persepolis – Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi (2007) 

Tito and the Birds – Gabriel Bitar, André Catoto & Gustavo Steinberg (2018) 

Sitges Family – Popcorn Screenings 

Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror – Linus O’Brien (2025) 

¡Dame un poco de amooor...! – José María Forqué (1968) 

Hammer: Heroes, Legends & Monsters – Benjamin Field (2024) 

Muertas Vivas – Sandra Arriagada (2022) 

Short film: Super Z – Dani Giménez Parias (2025)