by Jackie Keast

The Roache-Turner brothers’ Wyrmwood: Apocalypse has joined the line-up for Sitges – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia.

Other Aussie films on the genre festival’s program include shorts Evie, to screen in special session shorts, and Nest, which will play the Noves Visions strand.

Written by Kiah and Tristian Roache-Turner, and directed by Kiah, Wyrmwood: Apocalypse is a sequel to their 2015 cult hit Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead, which also played Sitges after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The film, invited to play in the Midnight X-Treme section, follows special-forces soldier Rhys, played by Luke Mckenzie (who starred in the first film), who teams up with a group of super-powered survivors to save a young woman from death by military experimentation. Starring alongside are Jake Ryan, Bianca Bradey, Tasia Zalar, Shantae Barnes-Cowan, Jay Gallagher and Nick Boshier.

Blake Northfield and Tristan Roache-Turner produce for Bronte Pictures and Guerilla Films respectively. Screen Australia and Screen NSW financially supported the production, while Studiocanal will handle the ANZ release.

‘Wyrmwood: Apocalypse’.

“Sitges is one of the greatest film festivals on Earth, and so to be invited back again with Wyrmwood: Apocalypse after having the honour of screening our first two features there feels like an invitation home,” said the Roache-Turner brothers in a joint statement.

“We’ll be playing on screens next to some of the best genre films of the year so it’s a really great feeling to know that we’ve made the grade to be rubbing celluloid shoulders with such a phenomenal group of talented and diverse artists. We honestly couldn’t be happier right now if we tried!”

Nortfield added it was an honour to have the film screen at the “crème de la crème” of genre festivals.

“It’s a really big celebration of the incredible job Kiah and Tristan have done in bringing this ground-breaking sequel to life.”

Directed by Alex von Hofmann, Evie is set in a world decimated by nuclear war, where barbaric clans and genetically modified dinosaurs roam the Australian countryside. Evie must venture alone to a distant farmhouse to seek medical supplies for her dying father.

Produced by Kate Separovich and writer/editor Luke Martin for Lake Martin Films, the film is already being adapted into a feature-length version.

James Hunter directs Nest, about an isolated father who, haunted by his child’s cries of hunger, takes up work as a timber feller only to be stopped by a mysterious alarm coming from deep in the woods. The script is written by Steve Anthopoulos.

The 54th edition of Sitges – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia runs October 7 to 17.