TRIESTE SCIENCE+FICTION FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES THE FIRST FILMS OF ITS 26TH EDITION
Taking place from November 3 to 8, the Trieste festival unveils the first titles in an unmissable selection showcasing the best in international fantastic cinema. Opening the 26th edition will be the eco-conscious science fiction film “The Squirrel”, a dystopian comedy set in a future without nature, while Yeon Sang-ho, director of the cult hit “Train to Busan”, returns with the outbreak horror film “Colony”.
The programme also includes “Exit 8”, a labyrinthine nightmare adapted from the internationally acclaimed video game; “Freaks II”, the sequel to the 2018 Asteroide Award winner, directed by the filmmakers behind “Final Destination: Bloodlines”; and the arachnophobic horror film “Arachnid – Ragnatela letale”, starring “Revenge” actress Matilda Lutz, who will attend the festival.
Director Paolo Strippoli, whose film “L’estranea” was recently selected as Italy’s entry for the Oscars, will chair the Asteroide Award Jury alongside Emma Braslavsky and Morten Haagensen. The Méliès d’argent Award Jury will comprise Valentina Ariete, David Cox and Martin Unsworth, while the Stars War Critics’ Award for Best First Feature will be presented by Marco Lovisato, Beatrice Pagan and Simone Soranna.
Trieste Science+Fiction Festival, Italy’s leading event dedicated to fantastic cinema, is preparing for its 26th edition, taking place from November 3 to 8, by announcing the first films in its programme.
Once again this year, the Trieste festival will bring the finest international fantastic cinema to the big screen, exploring the many facets of contemporary science fiction: future worlds where nature has vanished, epidemics capable of transforming human beings, liminal spaces from which escape seems impossible, people with extraordinary powers forced to live on the margins of society, and terrifying animal invasions. Five films blending science fiction, horror and thriller elements, created by established filmmakers and emerging voices in genre cinema.
“Once again, Trieste Science+Fiction Festival turns to the genre we love and its extraordinary creators to tell the story of, and interpret, the times we live in,” said Artistic Director Alan Jones. “Through the cosmic perspective of science fiction, the titles we are announcing today reflect the social changes we are experiencing and the anxieties that accompany them. In an increasingly unstable world, we look towards the epic, the celestial and primordial forces. From robotic animals and out-of-control viruses to extreme alienation, the relentless pursuit of truth and a fight for survival against an unknown threat, our passionate and loyal audience will find what they are looking for: emotion, adventure, thrills and, above all, new ways of understanding the world around us.”
This year, the Asteroide Award Jury will be chaired by acclaimed director Paolo Strippoli, whose film “L’estranea” was recently selected as Italy’s submission for the 2027 Academy Awards. The Asteroide Award is the international prize presented each year at Trieste Science+Fiction Festival to the best film by an emerging director in the science fiction, horror and fantasy genres. Joining Strippoli on the international jury are writer and director Emma Braslavsky and Morten Haagensen, Artistic Director of the Ramaskrik Film Festival. The Méliès d’argent Award Jury, for a competition organised in collaboration with the Méliès International Festivals Federation (MIFF) and reserved for European-produced feature-length fantastic films, will consist of journalist Valentina Ariete, David Cox, Editorial Director of the British channel Film4, and Martin Unsworth, Editorial Director of Starburst and film critic. Finally, the Stars War Critics’ Award for Best First Feature will be decided by Marco Lovisato, Beatrice Pagan and Simone Soranna.
On the big screen at Trieste Science+Fiction 2026:
“THE SQUIRREL” by Markus Lehmusruusu (Finland, 2026) – OPENING FILM
Markus Lehmusruusu’s “The Squirrel” will open the 26th edition of Trieste Science+Fiction Festival, where it will have its Italian premiere in competition. This dystopian comedy with ecological and surreal undertones is set in a future where nature and animals have disappeared, replaced by synthetic creatures. Pasi, a solitary designer of artificial animals, finds his life suddenly turned upside down when something that should no longer exist appears in his apartment: a real squirrel. Determined to protect it, he finds himself challenging the rules of a society that has sacrificed the natural world in the name of safety and comfort.
Screened at Fantastic Fest 2026, Lehmusruusu’s second feature film has also been selected as Finland’s official entry for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. An ironic and melancholic science-fiction fable reflecting on the increasingly fragile relationship between humanity, technology and nature, it turns the appearance of a small wild animal into an act of rebellion against a wholly artificial world.
“COLONY” by Yeon Sang-ho (South Korea, 2026)
From South Korea comes “Colony”, the adrenaline-fuelled new film from Yeon Sang-ho, the director who redefined the contemporary zombie movie with the international cult hit “Train to Busan”. Screened in the Midnight Screenings section at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival and distributed in Italy by Plaion, the film sees the filmmaker return to outbreak horror, combining action, science fiction and body horror.
During a biotechnology conference, Professor Se-jeong witnesses the sudden spread of a virus capable of mutating at an astonishing rate. When the authorities seal off the entire building, a group of survivors becomes trapped inside as the infected continue to transform into something increasingly unpredictable and deadly.
Having attracted more than 5.8 million cinemagoers in South Korea, “Colony” confirms Yeon Sang-ho as one of the leading contemporary masters of Asian fantastic cinema, once again examining human behaviour when social order collapses and survival becomes the only rule.
“EXIT 8” by Genki Kawamura (Japan, 2025)
A seemingly endless subway corridor, a single possible way out and one fundamental rule: do not overlook any anomalies. Genki Kawamura’s “Exit 8” comes to Trieste: an unsettling psychological thriller with a liminal atmosphere, adapted from the independent video game of the same name that became an international phenomenon. Distributed in Italy by Adler Entertainment, the film will be screened at the festival as part of IVIPRO 2026, the event dedicated to video games as a means of telling the stories of places and their cultural heritage.
At the centre of the story is a man trapped in an anonymous underground corridor, searching for Exit 8. To reach it, he must decipher his surroundings, turning back whenever he spots an anomaly and moving forward only when everything appears normal. A single mistake, however, will send him back to the beginning, transforming an ordinary, familiar space into an increasingly claustrophobic and disturbing loop.
Screened in the Midnight Screenings section at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, “Exit 8” transforms the video game’s simple, obsessive logic into a cinematic experience reminiscent of the Backrooms aesthetic, playing on repetition and paranoia. The film stars Kazunari Ninomiya, who previously appeared in Clint Eastwood’s “Letters from Iwo Jima”. It will be released in Italian cinemas by Adler Entertainment.
“FREAKS II” by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein (Canada, 2026)
A highly anticipated return to Trieste: Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein bring the world of “Freaks” back to the big screen with the Italian premiere of “Freaks II”, the sequel to the film that won both the Asteroide Award and the Wonderland Rai4 Award at Trieste Science+Fiction Festival in 2018.
Several years after the events of the first film, Mary and her daughter Chloe are living on the run, concealing their identities and powers while being hunted by the Abnormal Defense Force, a paramilitary unit tasked with eliminating people like them. Mary no longer wants to hide or flee: driven by revenge, she is determined to find the agent responsible for the death of her first daughter.
A violent, visionary science-fiction anti-superhero movie that expands the world of the first film, “Freaks II” marks Lipovsky and Stein’s return to independent filmmaking following the international success of “Final Destination: Bloodlines”, which the duo directed in 2025. Having received its world premiere as the closing film of the 30th Fantasia International Film Festival, “Freaks II” promises to take the original film’s exploration of otherness, fear of difference and the persecution of those who do not conform even further.
“CRAWLERS” by Ángel Gómez Hernández (USA, 2026)
An invasion of deadly venomous spiders turns an apartment building into an inescapable trap in “Crawlers”, a horror thriller directed by Ángel Gómez Hernández and starring Matilda Lutz, who previously appeared in Coralie Fargeat’s cult film “Revenge” and will attend Trieste Science+Fiction Festival.
When a devastating infestation forces the police to quarantine an entire residential complex, building manager Serena and its residents find themselves trapped as the spiders continue to multiply at an alarming rate. Knowing every corner of the building, Serena may be the only person capable of leading the others to safety, but to do so she must confront her deepest fear.
Distributed in Italy by Minerva, the film is a potent blend of survival horror, creature feature and claustrophobic tension, transforming domestic spaces into one enormous hunting ground.
TRIESTE SCIENCE+FICTION FESTIVAL
Founded in Trieste in 2000, Trieste Science+Fiction Festival carries on the legacy of the historic Trieste International Science Fiction Film Festival, held from 1963 to 1982, the first event dedicated to genre cinema in Italy and one of the earliest in Europe. It has become Italy’s leading event devoted to the worlds of science fiction and fantasy. Cinema, television, new media, literature, comics, music, visual arts and performing arts all form part of its exploration of the wonders of what is possible.
Among the major international guests who have attended Trieste Science+Fiction Festival since 2000 are Pupi Avati, Dario Argento, Jimmy Sangster, John Landis, Lamberto Bava, Terry Gilliam, Enki Bilal, Neil Gaiman, Joe Dante, Jean “Moebius” Giraud, Ray Harryhausen, Christopher Lee, Roger Corman, George Romero, Alfredo Castelli, Gabriele Salvatores, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Bruce Sterling, Rutger Hauer, Sergio Martino, Douglas Trumbull, Phil Tippett, Brian Yuzna, Abel Ferrara, Neil Marshall, Claudia Gerini, Federico Zampaglione and Gabriele Mainetti.
Trieste Science+Fiction Festival is organised by La Cappella Underground, a centre for film and audiovisual research and experimentation. It is an official board member of the Méliès International Festivals Federation, belongs to AFIC – the Italian Film Festivals Association, and participates in EURASF, a European network of festivals focusing on scientific films.
The Festival is recognised by the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia as one of its three-year projects of regional significance and international interest in the field of cinema.
La Cappella Underground
Piazza Duca degli Abruzzi 3 – Trieste +39 040 3220551
