20/10/2026 - European co-productions such as The Spiral, The Birthday Party and Titanic Ocean have taken home other key awards

Sitges – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia has come to a close with an awards ceremony that crowned the winners of its 59th edition, with Marion Le Coroller’s Species taking home the top prize, the Award for Best Feature Film in the Official Fantastic Competition (informally known as “The Kong”, named after the festival’s King Kong emblem). The film, which follows a driven young ER internist who encounters patients with strange symptoms, had its world premiere in the Midnight Screenings section of the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

Notably, 2026 marks the third year in a row where the winning film has been directed or co-directed by a woman. This year, the fantastic jury consisted of Locarno Film Festival artistic director Giona Nazzaro, Spanish writer and filmmaker Valeria Vegas, British producer Andy Starke, Russian-born US screenwriter Alex Litvak and Spanish producer Merry Colomer.

Other top award winners perhaps point to more genre diversification at European prestige festivals such as Cannes, Berlin and Venice; last year’s big winner, The Ugly Stepsister, screened in the Berlinale’s Panorama section. In the Official Fantastic Competition, Italian thesp Jasmine Trinca took home the Award for Best Actress for her role in Paolo Strippoli’s newest feature, The Spiral, which vied for the Golden Lion at Venice.

As for Best Actor, France’s Benoît Magimel walked away with the prize for his role in Léa Mysius’s The Birthday Party, which was in contention for the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Paris-based cinematographer Raphaël Vandenbussche received the Award for Best Cinematography for his lensing of Konstantina Kotzamani’s Titanic Ocean, also a Cannes premiere. Joko Anwar’s Indonesian horror-comedy Ghost in the Cell also premiered at the Berlinale this year and received the Award for Best Direction at Sitges.

Kōhei Kadowaki’s animated diptych We Are Aliens (a Cannes Directors’ Fortnight premiere) ended up clutching the top prize in the Anima’t section. Javi Prada’s Spanish-produced Gummy, which premiered at the festival, won the top prize in the Òrbita section, for films with styles bordering on the fantastical, such as thriller, action, adventure, noir and suspense.

Finally, the Méliès Awards are given out to films screened at gatherings within the Méliès International Festivals Federation (including Brussels' BIFFF, Sitges and Strasbourg) for European genre cinema. Winners of the Méliès d’Argent, handed out at each festival, then go on to compete for the Méliès d’Or at the end of the cycle. Feels Like Home by Gábor Holtai won the Méliès d’Or after winning the Méliès d’Argent at last year’s edition of Sitges. This year, The Spiral scooped the Méliès d’Argent, meaning that it will qualify for the Méliès d’Or competition next year.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Official Fantastic Competition

Best Feature Film
Species – Marion Le Coroller (France/Belgium)

Special Jury Award
Drag – Greg Yagolnitzer, Raviv Ullman (USA)

Best Direction
Joko Anwar – Ghost in the Cell (Indonesia)

Best Actress
Jasmine Trinca – The Spiral (Italy/France/Belgium)

Best Actor
Benoît Magimel – The Birthday Party (France)

Best Screenplay
Casper Kelly, Jamie King – Buddy (USA)

Best Cinematography
Raphaël Vandenbussche - Titanic Ocean (Greece/Germany/Romania/France/Spain/Japan)

Best Music
Mondo Boys - River (USA)

Best Special, Visual or Make-up Effects
Hong Jeong-ho - Colony (South Korea)

Best Short Film
Man Eating Pussy – Emily Lawson (Canada/USA)

Citizen Kane Award for Best New Director
Adrian Chiarella – Leviticus (USA)

Noves Visions (New Visions)

Best Feature Film
Hen – Nico Scheepers (South Africa)

Best Direction (ex aequo)
Fernando Martínez, Juan González (aka Burnin’ Percebes) - The Death of Dracula (Spain)
Cristian Ponce - Family Fears Another Night of Terror (Argentina)

Best Short Film (ex aequo)
Snakes in the Lace – Martina Pavlíková (Czech Republic)
NOIZE – Javier Rodríguez Pino (Chile)

Òrbita

Best Feature Film
Gummy – Javi Prada (Spain)

Anima’t (animated film section)

Best Feature Film
We Are Aliens – Kōhei Kadowaki (Japan/France)

Best Short Film
The Flesh Dress – Joachim Hérissé (France)

Méliès Awards

Méliès d’Or for Best Fantastic Genre Feature Film
Feels Like Home – Gábor Holtai (Hungary)

Méliès d’Or for Best Fantastic Genre Short Film
The Old Lady and the Eternity – Marc Martínez Jordán (Spain)

Méliès d’Argent for Best European Fantastic Genre Feature Film
The Spiral – Paolo Strippoli

Méliès d’Argent for Best European Fantasy Genre Short Film
El moribundo – Laura Guerricaechevarría (Spain)

Brigadoon

Paul Naschy Award for Best Short Film
The Last Snow – Rodolphe Bouquet-Populus (France)

Sitges Documenta

Best Documentary Award
Dernsie: The Amazing Life of Bruce Dern – Mike Mendez (USA)

SGAE Nova Autoria Awards

Best Direction-Production
Dissecció d’una incoherència en crisi – Nausica Serra (short film) (Spain)

Best Screenplay
Diana Magallón - Amor comestible (short film) (Spain)

Best Original Music
Pablo Garayoa, Lídia Grau - Amber Lights (short film) (Spain)

People’s Choice Awards

Best Feature Film in the Official Fantastic Competition
Wildwood – Travis Knight (USA)

Best Feature Film in the Sitges Collection Section
5 More Minutes – Javier Ruiz Caldera (Spain)

Best Feature Film in the Panorama Section
The Fox – Dario Russo (Australia)

Best Feature Film in the Midnight X-Treme Section
Kung Fu Deadly – Fergal Costello (Ireland/Australia)

Best Feature Film in Blood Window
Don’t Come Out – Victoria Linares Villegas (Dominican Republic)

Best Feature Film in Focus Asia
Blades of the Guardians: Wind Rises in the Desert – Yuen Woo-ping (China/Hong Kong)

Other awards

FIPRESCI Award
The Incomer – Louis Paxton (UK)

Carnet Jove Jury Award for Best Feature Film in the Official Fantastic Competition
Ghost in the Cell – Joko Anwar