Saturday, in Sitges, Kevin Bacon is there at midday. El País: 68, the European premiere of Family Movie, which he directed. Kyra Sedgwick, 61, his wife, 38 years together. The children, Travis and Sosie, in from the West Coast, in the film. The festival, the paper writes, treats them like gods. The line in the headline is his, not a press note: “I’m still 100% focused on improving, transcending, and doing something impactful.” The same hunger he had at 18. He does not know what to call it. That is what drives him.

The film began in lockdown, on the Connecticut farm. The New York apartment and the farm remained, El País writes, after the Madoff scheme took almost all their savings. Bacon’s question: if we never went back to working away from home, could we make a film at home? A screenwriter shaped the ideas. The result: an ode to horror, a tribute to people who make films without thinking about money and without stopping at failure. The Smiths, a dark mirror of the Bacons. He, a director of Z-movies, ignored by festivals, vilified by critics, shooting at home, hoping at least for a festival. She, wife, star, muse, settling rows by murder. The children, fed up with their father’s failures. “We’re professional impostors. And here we are.”

He fled Hollywood after Footloose. For years he disowned Tremors. Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, a game, made him an icon. He made peace with the name. He does not read reviews of his own work. He does of other people’s. The algorithm brings them anyway. He had directed Sedgwick before; she had directed him. At Sitges she is also on the Carrie series, one episode. Family Movie goes a step further. The red line: a theatrical release before streaming. “I still make films for theaters.” The anecdote: The Naked Gun, 10 a.m., alone, then a woman. Her laugh, his. The phone, forgotten.

The festival’s site: Bacon, Sedgwick and Peter Jackson shake up Sitges. The honorary award, at the Meliá auditorium. Family Movie, “a love letter to genre.” People, not machines, in an age of AI. Bacon, a fan of Miike’s Audition. He wants to explore the human condition. Horror, once low, now Oscars and box office. Fotogramas: he would love to direct Penélope Cruz or Javier Bardem. Almodóvar, a genius. That is festival talk. It is not a contract.

In recent years, smaller films, projects that actually appeal to him. Television, which he looked down on until his wife’s The Closer. Then I Love Dick, The Following, City on a Hill. The filmography, from Animal House to Diner, JFK, Apollo 13. The lead in his comedy is a talentless failure. Bacon is not. They share family and cinema. ARA quotes him: the same drive and passion as at 18. Two papers, the same age.

Until streaming, what remains is the auditorium. After streaming, what remains is whether professional impostors can still fill a festival town. Between them, a man who says he is still fighting, 100%, and a farm where a love letter to fake blood was born.

Image: Juan Pablo Olmo, Sitges Film Festival, 10 October 2008, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The photograph is of the 2008 festival, not the 2026 Family Movie premiere.

Sources consulted: Kevin Bacon: ‘I’m still 100% focused on improving, transcending, and doing something impactful’ — El País; Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick and Sir Peter Jackson Shake Up Sitges — Sitges Film Festival.