Sitges 2026 brings Peter Jackson back with a first look at a 4K restoration of Braindead

In an announcement on September 4, the Sitges Film Festival said Peter Jackson would return this year to receive its Grand Honorary Award and to present a first version of a new 4K restoration of “Braindead.” The festival describes him as coming back more than three decades after he presented the film there.

The announcement says Jackson would also take part in a special “King Kong” screening with the makeup artist Rick Baker. The festival credits Baker with a record seven Oscars in makeup and says it gave him its Time Machine Award in 2015. The festival’s programme lists “King Kong 4K (1976)” in its Sitges Clàssics section. The festival does not say which version the Jackson and Baker screening will show.

makes Re-Animator look like a UNESCO documentary

In a separate item about this year’s honorees, Sitges quotes the critic Peter Rainer saying “Braindead” “makes Re-Animator look like a UNESCO documentary.” That is a critic’s line, quoted in the festival’s description of the film.

The restoration is described only as a “first version.” The festival names no restorer or rights holder and gives no date for a finished version or a home release. We have not seen it, and this is the festival’s own account of its programme.