Spanish cinema presentation in Madrid

The Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences hosted the announcement of the 17 titles with Spanish production (12 feature films, one mid-length film, one short and three series) to show from 20-28 September in the Official Selection and the sections New Directors, Horizontes Latinos, Zabaltegi-Tabakalera and Velodrome at the 72nd edition of the San Sebastian Festival.

Soy Nevenka / I’m Nevenka, the true story of a town councillor and the high price she had to pay for reporting the abuse perpetrated by the mayor, is the fifth participation in the Official Selection from Iciar Bollain (Madrid, 1967). The author of Te doy mis ojos / Take My Eyes (2003), Mataharis (2007), Yuli (2018) and Maixabel (2021), all winners of various awards at San Sebastian, will once again compete for the Golden Shell with this movie starring Mireia Oriol and Urko Olazabal. The Festival has formerly programmed works by Bollain in its Special Screenings, such as En tierra extraña / In a Foreign Land (2014), and Made in Spain, including Hola, ¿estás sola? (1996); Flores de otro mundo / Flowers from Another World (1999), winner of an accolade at the Cannes Semaine de la Critique; Katmandú, un espejo en el cielo / Kathmandu Lullaby (2012), and La boda de rosa / Rosa’s Wedding (2020).

The Official Selection will also feature El llanto / The Wailing, the directorial debut from Pedro Martín-Calero (Valladolid, 1983), author of short films and a raft of works for the music and advertising industry. His feature film debut is written with Isabel Peña, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s regular co-writer on titles such as Que Dios nos perdone / May God Save Us (Official Selection, Jury Prize for Best Screenplay, 2016), El reino / The Realm (Official Selection, 2018) and As bestas / The Beasts (Perlak, City of Donostia / San Sebastian Audience Award for Best European Film, 2022). In El llanto, a Spanish co-production with Argentina and France, Ester Expósito, Mathilde Ollivier and Malena Villa play three women at different moments in time, connected to one another without realising it and faced with a threat bigger than all of them.  

Pilar Palomero (Zaragoza, 1980) will show her third feature, Los destellos / Glimmers, taking its inspiration from the short story Bihotz handiegia by writer Eider Rodríguez. Patricia López Arnáiz, Antonio de la Torre, Marina Guerola and Julián López head the cast of this story about a woman who accepts the task of caring for her ailing ex-husband despite having been separated for more than a decade. Palomero’s debut movie, Las niñas / Schoolgirls (Made in Spain, 2020), premiered in Berlin Festival’s Generation Kplus and won the Golden Biznaga for Best Film at Malaga as well as the Goyas for Best Film, Best New Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography. Her second film, La Maternal, competed in San Sebastian Festival’s Official Selection in 2022, winning Carla Quílez the Silver Shell for Best Leading Performance (ex aequo with Paul Kircher).

For his part, Albert Serra (Banyoles, 1975) will participate in the Official Selection for the first time with Tardes de soledad, a non-fiction about bullfighting bringing a study of the mental and spiritual states of the bullfighter in the ring. Ever since his first works Serra has been selected for competitions like the Quinzaine des Cinéastes in Cannes, where he presented Honor de cavalleria / Honor of the Knights (Made in Spain, 2006) and El cant dels ocells / Birdsong (Made in Spain, 2008). Història de la meva mort / The Story of My Death (2013) bagged him the Golden Leopard at Locarno Festival. He also landed the Grand Prix at the FIDMarseille with Roi Soleil (2016) while Liberté (2019) harvested the Jury Special Prize in Un Certain Regard at the Festival de Cannes, in whose Official Selection he competed with Pacifiction (Made in Spain, 2022). 

The series ‘Querer’ in the Official Selection out of competition

The Official Selection will show one series out of competition. Alauda Ruiz de Azúa (Barakaldo, 1978) will participate with Querer, telling the tale of a woman who leaves her husband after 30 years of marriage and reports him for continued rape. Nagore Aranburu stars in this 4-episode miniseries alongside Pedro Casablanc, Miguel Bernardeau, Iván Pellicer and Loreto Mauleón. This is the latest work from Ruiz de Azúa, who presented her first movie, Cinco lobitos / Lullaby (Zinemira Closing Gala, 2022), in the Panorama section of the Berlinale before screening to great success at the Malaga Festival, where it bagged the Golden Biznaga for Best Spanish Film, the Silver Biznagas for Best Actress (going to Laia Costa and Susi Sánchez), and Best Screenplay  and the Audience Awards, and at the Spanish Academy Awards, she was recognised with the award for best newcomer director.

‘Yo, adicto’ and ‘La virgen roja’, special screenings of the Official Selection

As part of the Special Screenings, Yo, adicto / I, Addict will tell in six episodes the story of overcoming of the homonymous book written by Javier Giner (Barakaldo, 1977). Giner, played by actor Oriol Pla, is also co-creator of the series with Aitor Gabilondo (San Sebastian, 1974), author of Patria (Official Selection - Special Screenings, 2020). The cast of Yo, adicto also includes, among others, Nora Navas, Omar Ayuso, Victoria Luengo, Alex Brendemühl, Ramón Barea, Marina Salas and Itziar Lazkano. Javier Giner and Elena Trapé (Barcelona, 1976), author of Blog (New Directors, 2010), Les distàncies / Distances (Made in Spain 2018) and Els encantats (Los encantados, Made in Spain 2023), direct the six episodes of the series (three each).

The Official Selection Special Screenings will also host the out of competition screening of the latest feature from Paula Ortiz (Zaragoza, 1979), director of titles such as La novia / The Bride (Zabaltegi, 2015) and Teresa (2023). In La virgen roja / The Red Virgin, starring Najwa Nimri, Alba Planas, Patrick Criado, Aixa Villagrán and Pepe Viyuela, she returns to the true events of Spain in the 30s, where the young Hildegart is conceived and raised by her strict mother to become the woman of the future.

Antón Álvarez, Cecilia Atán and Valeria Pivato, David Pérez Sañudo and Sandra Romero, in New Directors

The New Directors section will open with La guitarra flamenca de Yerai Cortés, the directorial debut from Antón Álvarez (Madrid, 1990), better known, in his musical facet, as C. Tangana. After starring in Esta ambición desmedida / This Excessive Ambition -which had its world premiere at the San Sebastian Festival (Velodrome, 2023)-, the documentary project signed by Little Spain, in this non-fiction film Álvarez uses the music as a vehicle to immerse the audience in the guitarist's personal story, reveal a great family secret and confront the ghosts of the past.

Cecilia Atán (Buenos Aires, 1978) and Valeria Pivato (Buenos Aires, 1973), who brought La novia del desierto / The Desert Bride (2017) to Horizontes Latinos following its premiere in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, will also compete in New Directors with their second collaboration, La llegada del hijo / The Arrival of the Son, about a mother reunited with her son on his release from jail. On the cast are Maricel Álvarez, Angelo Mutti Spinetta, Cristina Banegas and Greta Fernández.

David Pérez Sañudo (Bilbao, 1987) will return to New Directors, where he formerly showed Ane / Ane Is Missing (2020), winner of the Irizar Basque Film Award and the Goyas for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best New Actress. His second feature, Azken erromantikoak, based on the novel by Txani Rodríguez Los últimos románticos and starring Miren Gaztañaga, follows the life of a woman forced to rethink her entire existence on finding a lump in her breast. Pérez Sañudo is also the author of several short films, some programmed in Zinemira-Kimuak, and of the series Alardea / Boast (Alarde, Gala EITB, 2020). He was also among the resident moviemakers of the Ikusmira Berriak programme in 2023, working on the project La última noche de un Erasmus en Roma / An Erasmus Student’s Last Night in Rome.

The Andalusian moviemaker Sandra Romero (Écija, 1993), winner in Malaga of the Silver Biznaga for Best Director in the fiction shorts category with Por donde pasa el silencio / Where the Silence Passes (2020), takes the same story and title to make her feature directorial debut about a young man who returns to the family home.

Two films from WIP Latam 2023 in Horizontes Latinos

Among the Horizontes Latinos titles with Spanish production is Los domingos mueren más personas / Most People Die on Sundays, for which debuting director Iair Said (Buenos Aires, 1988) landed last year’s WIP Latam Industry Award and the Egeda Platino Industry Award for Best WIP Latam. Said, who boasts experience as a short filmmaker and actor, helms and stars in the life story of a young middle-class Jewish boy who returns from Europe to Buenos Aires when his uncle dies. The film premiered in the ACID section at the Festival de Cannes.   

Also to feature in the Horizontes Latinos section, dedicated to Latin American cinema, is the movie co-directed by Sofía Paloma Gómez (Santiago de Chile, 1985) and Camilo Becerra (Santiago de Chile, 1981), Quizás es cierto lo que dicen de nosotras / Maybe It’s True What They Say About Us, which was also one of the projects presented at last year’s WIP Latam. This latest work by the moviemaking duo tells the tale of a successful psychiatrist visited by her elder daughter following a long period cut off from the world as part of a sect.

An animated short film, a mid-length movie and the winner of WIP Europa in Zabaltegi-Tabakalera

The Zabaltegi-Tabakalera programme will once again include a film from Elena López Riera (Orihuela, 1982), Las novias del sur / Southern Brides. This mid-length movie recently premiered at the Cannes Semaine de la Critique, where it bagged the Queer Palm, follows a group of mature women as they discuss marriage, love and sexuality. López Riera’s first shorts were selected at events including the Locarno Festival and the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes, where she later showed her feature debut, El agua / The Water (Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, 2022), after winning the Post-production Award at the Ikusmira Berriak residencies programme and the CNC Award at the Cannes Cinéfondation.

Having made his debut with Sag Du Es Mir (2019), Michael Fetter Nathansky (Cologne, 1993) will participate with his second work, Alle die Du bist / Every You Every Me, a German-Spanish co-production, winner in 2023 of two WIP Europa awards at the San Sebastian Festival (with the working title of Mannequins). The movie, premiered in the Panorama section of the Berlinale, tells the tale of a woman factory worker who falls for a colleague.

Also returning to the Festival’s most open zone is the filmmaker Izibene Oñederra (Azkoitia, 1979), whose animated short film Etorriko da (Eta zure begiak izango ditu) / When It Comes (It Will Have Your Eyes) follows the disintegration of a community brought about by an environmental crisis. Oñederra, a regular in the Kimuak short film catalogue, has shown works in Zabaltegi-Tabakalera including Hotzanak, for Your Own Safety (2013) and Lursaguak. Escenas de vida (2019), as well as having participated in several omnibus films.

The series ‘Celeste’, at the Velodrome

The Anoeta Velodrome will host the complete screening of Celeste, a 6-episode series created by Diego San José (Irun,1978) and directed by Elena Trapé (Barcelona, 1976). Actress Carmen Machi plays a soon-to-retire Tax Inspector given the task of proving that a Latin music star has committed tax fraud. As well as creating the trilogy Vota Juan, Vamos Juan and Venga Juan, San José has co-written Pagafantas / The Friend Zone (Made in Spain, 2009), No controles / Love Storming (Made in Spain, 2011), Negociador / Negotiator (Zabaltegi, Irizar Basque Film Award, 2014) and Fe de etarras / Bomb Scared (Velodrome, 2017).

Source: San Sebastian Festival