Sitges 2026 scheduled to open with Found Alive and close with Wicker; manager says early sales up 19%

The Sitges Film Festival scheduled its 59th edition to open on Thursday, October 8, and run to October 18, 2026. According to the festival, the opening film is “Found Alive,” directed by Carlota Pereda and starring Chloë Grace Moretz. The festival says it is the first Sitges opening feature by a Spanish female director. It does not claim a world premiere for the film. The closing film is “Wicker,” directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson and starring Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård.

At a press conference a week before opening, the festival’s general manager, Mònica Garcia Massagué, said sales in the first few days were up 19% on the previous year. That is the festival’s own figure, with no sales total attached.

The same update names the Best Film Award, which CUPRA is backing with 20,000 euros toward the Spanish distribution of the winning film.

Catalan News reported in July that organisers anticipated high participation, with nearly 3,800 titles received. That counts submissions, not the films on screen. We have not seen the final schedule, and the opening details are the festival’s plan as published before the event.