The ugly stepsister, first film by the Norwegian Emilie Blichfeldt, which has already been released in commercial theaters and which faces the classic Cinderella From a feminist and twisted vision when entering the body horror subgenre, the jury has chosen the best film of the 58th edition of the Sitges festival.
It is the fourth time that a director has won in this contest after Surveillance, the Jennifer Lynch, and 2008; The invitationby Karyn Kusama, in 2015, and The devil’s bath co-directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, in 2004.
The ugly stepsister is a black comedy, quite disturbing, that can remind in its approach to the dictatorship of beauty to The substance, by Coralie Fargeat. Elvira is an unattractive young woman who becomes the stepsister of the beautiful Agnes. The protagonist is in love with the prince of Swedlandia, who does not give much of himself between his conceit and his lack of intelligence. To make him notice her, Elvira will undergo, with the help of her selfish mother, some very primitive and truly brutal cosmetic surgery processes. His smile, his eyes and a slimmer body after swallowing a tapeworm egg will finally catch the prince’s attention. Obviously, as happens in the Sitges films, there will be no happy ending.
According to the jury of the official section, made up of Peter Chan, Hernan Findling, Mary Harron, Laura Pedro and Jovanka Vuckovic, The ugly stepsister It has been chosen for “its originality in reinventing a classic story,” they commented at a press conference this Saturday at noon, together with the director of the contest, Ángel Sala, and the director of the foundation, Mònica Garcia, who announced that the contest has grown by 12% compared to last year.
The Special Jury Prize has been from the same to The Furiousdet hongit of Kenyan Tandaki, the Obsessionby the American Curry Baker. The first is an enjoyment for the audience, which tells how a man, an expert in martial arts, fights to recover his daughter, who has been kidnapped by a child trafficking network. The fights are magnificently choreographed and filmed, such as the one where two sides confront each other and a third thug appears to compose a three-way confrontation. Obsession, which has also won the audience award, talks about the reification of romantic relationships through a boy’s obsession with his platonic love.
The South Korean Park Chan-wook, great of Asian cinema, has won the award for best director for No Other Choicewith which he already competed in Venice, and which adapts the novel The Long Knives, by Donald E. Westlake.
In the acting categories, the Australian Rose Byrne has won the same award in Sitges, that of protagonist, as at the Berlinale for If I could, I would kick you (in the Catalan contest the trophy is for best female lead, since there is a distinction by gender in Sitges, which does not happen in the Berlin festival) for her risky creation – omnipresent on screen – of a therapist at the limit of her physical and mental health with a sick daughter, an absent husband and a house that is collapsing. Joel Edgerton and the newly teenage boys of To the wound have jointly obtained the award for best male lead thanks to their coordinated work in this drama about bullying at a men’s water polo camp.
In the rest of the honors, the award for best photography stands out for the Argentine Diego Tenorio for his work in The Virgin of Tosqueradirected by Laura Casabé, which is based on several stories by Mariana Enriquez. Critics have awarded another ex aequo for best film, in its case for Chuck’s lifein which Mike Flanagan adapts a story by Stephen King, and for Reflection On A Dead Diamondin which Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani repeat their sophisticated style.
As explained by those responsible for the contest, the 2026 edition will have as lead motive the different incarnations of evil. To do this, they will remember the 50th anniversary of The prophecy and the 50th anniversary of Who can kill a child? and of Carriethe 40th anniversary of The immortals and they will dedicate a spotlight to the British production company Hammer.