Sitges Film Festival
Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya
Sitges · Catalonia · Spain
Sitges has shown fantasy and horror since 1968 and is the senior genre festival in the world, ahead of Fantasia and Fantastic Fest in both age and standing. Directors who are ignored elsewhere are taken seriously here, and a Sitges premiere is a recognised route into European distribution for genre work.
No attendance figure is recorded here in this pass.
The audience is part of the event: the screenings are loud, partisan and sold out, and the seafront fills with people in costume.
The listings trap is the town. Sitges has two internationally known events — this film festival in October and the carnival before Lent — and they share nothing but the location. Barcelona is forty minutes by train, which is how most of the audience arrives.
PlanningAn October window — a different event entirely from the Sitges carnival in February.