Sitges selections include world premiere of The Body

The Catalonia Fantastic International Film Festival celebrated in Sitges arrives next October 4 with it 45 edition. The Body, a new thriller by Rodar y Rodar (The Orphanage) with Belén Rueda will premiere worldwide in the Festival.

Julia’s Eyes screenwriter Oriol Paulo makes his feature directorial debut with the psychological thriller about the mysterious disappearance of a body from a morgue. The film is distributed in Spain by Sony Pictures and is a production of Rodar y Rodar, Antena 3, Televisió de Catalunya and Canal Plus.

Spanish cinema will have a leading role in next Sitges, with other selections including El bosc by Carlos Aibar, a fantastic thriller based on a story by bestselling author Albert Sánchez Piñol with Tom Sizemore and Alex Bendremühl in the cast. Insensibles is the debut by Juan Carlos Medina, who treats the Spanish Civil War with a fantastic tone.

Another selection is the anticipated new film by Jennifer Lynch, Chained, about a serial killer, after her triumph at the festival in 2008. Eduardo Sánchez, one of the directors of The Blair Witch Project, will introduce his new film, Lovely Molly, about a woman who revives her childhood traumas.

Elijah Wood leads the cast of Alexandre Aja’s Maniac, a remake of the classic 1981 slasher of the same title. Jessica Biel stars in The Tall Man, by Pascal Laugier (Martyrs), about a mother who looks for her child and unravels a legendary infant killer.

The Official Selection will be completed with two films from Cannes: the controversial Holy Motors by Leo Carax, and Cosmopolis, by David Cronenberg with Robert Pattison.

The Apocalypse is the theme of this year’s edition and some titles will reinforce it including the very violent three part omnibus The Day or Doomsday Book, by Korea’s KIM Jee-woon and YIM Pil-sung.