The Instituto Cervantes presents the 23rd edition of Película Spanish Film Festival hitting the big screen this October 5-13, 2024 at the Shangri-La Plaza's Red Carpet Cinema.
This year's selection includes 25 movies, four of which are filmed ballet/dance and opera productions staged in Teatro Real in Madrid under the Creadores teatrales españoles section. Another section is En corto: Short films from the Philippines, Latin America and Spain, composed of four short films with two coming from the Philippines.
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| Teatro Real |
A notable side event of the Película is Philippines, ¡rick, rack, catacrak!, a film workshop for kids to be conducted by Spanish film maker and screenwriter Mario Torrecillas. The workshop will be held on October 6, 2024, from 10:00 AM-2:00 PM at the Grand Atrium of the Shangri-La Plaza Mall. Torrecillas will also present the film he wrote, Loli Tormenta at the festival.
Película hasn't officially opened yet but What's a festival like you doing in a city like this?! exhibit featuring a selection of posters, videos and graphic material from the various editions of the Festival is already available for viewing at the Intramuros branch of Instituto Cervantes.
Here is the official selection of the 23rd Película Spanish Film Festival.
20.000 especies de Abejas | 20,000 Species of Bees (2023)
Directors: Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren
Cast: Sofía Otero, Patricia López Arnaiz, Ane Gabarain, Itziar Lazkano, Sara Cózar
An eight-year-old is suffering because people keep addressing the child in ways that cause discomfort. They insist on calling the child by the birth name Aitor. And the nickname, Cocó, even if less obviously wrong, does not feel right either. During a summer in the Basque country, the child confides these worries to relatives and friends. But how can a mother handle her child’s quest for identity when she is herself still dealing with her own ambivalent parental legacy?
Benito Pérez Buñuel (2023)
Director: Luis Roca
What unites the writer Benito Pérez Galdós and the filmmaker Luis Buñuel? "Benito Pérez Buñuel" uncovers the connection between the two through a documentary with an animated film that moves across the classic, the fake and the non-fiction approaches.
Casa en llamas | A House on Fire (2024)
Director: Dani de la Orden
Cast: Emma Vilarasau, Enric Auquer, María Rodríguez Soto, Alberto San Juan, Clara Segura, José Pérez-Ocaña, Macarena García
Montse is thrilled about the weekend she gets to spend with the whole family at her house on the Costa Brava. Her divorce was long ago, her ex has a new partner, and her children are all grown up with lives of their own. No one pays much attention to her. But nothing and no one will put a damper on her excitement. She’s been dreaming of this moment for too long. The weekend will be perfect… even if she has to burn everything to the ground to make it so.
Cerrar los ojos | Close Your Eyes (2021)
Director: Victor Erice
Cast: José Coronado, María León, Soledad Villamil, Ana Torrent, Manolo Solo, Ginés Garcia Millán, Petra Martínez, Mario Pardo, Josep Maria Pou, Juan Margallo, Antonio Dechent
Close Your Eyes turns on a famous Spanish actor, Julio Arenas, who disappears while filming a movie. Although his body is never found, the police conclude that he has suffered an accident at a cliff by the sea. Many years later, the mystery is brought up once more by a TV program that tries to evoke the actor, offering as a scoop images of the last scenes in which he participated, shot by his close friend, director Miguel Garay.
Dispararon al pianista | They Shot the Pianist (2023)
Directors: Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal
Cast: Jeff Goldblum
A music journalist from New York sets out on a frantic investigation into the mysterious disappearance of Brazilian pianist Tenorio Jr, regular accompanist of Vinicius de Moraes, among others. This animated thriller moving to the beat of jazz and bossa nova portrays the days immediately before the Latin American continent was enshrouded by totalitarian regimes.
La estrella azul | The Blue Star (2023)
Director: Javier Macipe
Cast: Pepe Lorente, Cuti Carabajal, Bruna Cusí, Marc Rodríguez, Mariela Carabajal, Noelia Verenice Díaz, Catalina Sopelana
The 90s. A famous Spanish rock star travels around Latin America in the endeavour to reconnect with his vocation. There he meets an old musician down on his luck, prompting the birth of an unlikely duo with every chance of becoming an epic commercial failure.
Las hijas | Sister & Sister (2023)
Director: Kattia González
Cast: Ariana Chaves Gavilán, Cala Rossel Campos
Summer vacation. Two sisters, Marina, 17, and Luna, 14, travel from Costa Rica to Panama to search for their absentee father. While dealing with the friction that arises between them, they find the space to explore their desires, new friendships, lovers and skateboarding, on a journey towards emancipation in which they will learn the virtue of simply hanging out.
Hispanoamérica, canto de vida y Esperanza | Latin America, a Song of Life and Hope (2024)
Director: José Luis López-Linares
A documentary traversing the 3 centuries that gave birth to Hispanic America, exploring the history, art, music and religious syncretism that blossomed from the encounter of two worlds into a vibrant and beautiful civilization like no other.
La llegada | Upon Entry (2022)
Directors: Alejandro Rojas, Juan Sebastián Vasquez
Cast: Alberto Ammann, Bruna Cusí, Ben Temple, Laura Gómez
Diego, a Venezuelan urbanist, and Elena, a contemporary dancer from Barcelona, move to the United States with their approved visas to start a new life. Their intention is to boost their professional careers and start a family in 'the land of opportunities'. But upon entering New York airport's immigration area, they are taken to the secondary inspection room, where border officers will subject them to an unpleasant inspection process and a psychologically grueling interrogation.
Loli Tormenta | Stormy Lola (2023)
Director: Agustí Villaronga
Cast: Susi Sánchez, Joel Gálvez, Celso Bugallo, Mor Ngom, Meteora Fontana, Fernando Esteso
Marisa, a modern and chaotic grandmother who lives with her grandchildren Edgar and Robert in a modest house in Cornellá de Llobregat.
El maestro que prometió el mar | The Teacher who Promised the Sea (2023)
Director: Patricia Font
Cast: Laia Costa, Enric Auquer, Luisa Gavasa, Ramón Agirre, Milo Taboada, Eduardo Ferrés, Alba Guilera, Alicia Reyero, Nicolás Calvo, Alba Hermoso
The buried memories of the Spanish Civil War become unearthed as a woman searches for the remains of her grandfather's father and discovers the story of an idealistic young teacher from Tarragona.
Pacarrete (2019)
Director: Allan Deberton
Cast: Marcelia Cartaxo, João Miguel, Soia Lira, Samya De Lavor, Zezita Matos
Pacarrete, a former ballet dancer who lives in northeast Brazil, decides to dust off her tutu slip and her ballet slippers to perform a classic dance for her city’s 200th anniversary celebration, whether the townspeople want it or not. A broad comedy turns increasingly contemplative as the true nature of Pacarrete’s daily life becomes apparent.
Puan (2023)
Directors: María Alché, Benjamín Naishtat
Cast: Marcelo Subiotto, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Julieta Zylberberg, Alejandra Flechner, Andrea Frigerio, Mara Bestelli
Marcelo has devoted his life to teaching philosophy at the Public University of Buenos Aires. When his mentor Professor Caselli dies unexpectedly, Marcelo expects to become the new head of Department. However, his plans turn upside down with the unexpected arrival of Rafael Sujarchuk. Charismatic and seductive, Rafael returns from his pedestal in European universities to claim the vacant position for himself. Marcelo's clumsy efforts to prove he is the right candidate will trigger a philosophical duel, while his life -and the country- enter a spiral of chaos.
Rioja, la tierra de los mil vinos | Rioja, the Land of a Thousand Wines (2023)
Director: José Luis López-Linares
Through the human stories behind the entire value chain that gives life to the Spanish wine with more international projection, "Rioja, the land of a thousand wines" reveals the moment of hatching that is living the wine region, with the talent and contribution of new generations in coexistence with the great historic wineries. The equivalence between territory and product, between wisdom and tradition, tracing a bridge between the origins of Rioja and its future.
Robot Dreams (2023)
Director: Pablo Berger
Based on the popular graphic novel by the North American writer Sara Varon, Robot Dreams tells the adventures and misfortunes of Dog and Robot in NYC during the '80s.
Siete mesas de billar francés | Seven billiard tables (2007)
Director: Gracia Querejeta
Cast: Blanca Portillo, Maribel Verdú, Amparo Baró, José Luis García Pérez, Víctor Valdivia, Enrique Villén, Ramón Barea, Jesús Castejón
Angela and her son Guille travel to the big city to see Leo, her father and the boy's grandfather, when he suddenly takes ill. However, they arrive to discover that he has just passed away. Charo, the dead man's mistress, explains the dire straits suffered by the paternal business: a hall with seven billiard tables. Charo is convinced that the only way to pay off the debts is to sell the place. However, Angela learns that her husband has disappeared in mysterious circumstances. Given this painful reality, Angela resolves to get on and rebuild her life. And the first thing she decides to do is put her savings into getting the old place and its seven tables back up on its feet.
Te estoy amando locamente | Love and Revolution (2023)
Director: Alejandro Marín
Cast: Ana Wagener, Omar Banana, Alba Flores, Jesús Carroza, Lola Buzón, Mari Paz Sayago, La Dani, Pepa Gracia, Carlos Bernardino, Alicia Moruno, Manuel Morón
It follows a mother who is involved in the homosexual movement of the seventies.
Here is the Creadores teatrales españoles, the Teatro Real filmed productions to be screened at the festival.
El amor brujo | Love, the Sorcerer (2014)
Director: Víctor Ullate
Cast: Victor Ullate Ballet, Estrella Morente, Ruben Olmo
The Víctor Ullate Ballet premièred its version of El amor brujo on 28 May 1994 at the Maestranza de Sevilla, with a script by Vicente Molina Foix. The current version brings in a new set design and wardrobe, seeking to give greater prominence to the light, to the will-o’-the-wisp, present throughout the plot. The play, written by Manuel de Falla in 1915 as a piece for cantaora (folk singer) and chamber orchestra, transformed by the composer ten years later into a pantomimic ballet, has a marked Andalusian flavour and delves into gypsy mysticism, approaching love in its most primitive and essential form. It is a story of love and passion, tears and grief, sorcery and seduction, death and dance. Ullate’s choreography contains moments of great beauty, such as the Canción del amor dolido, Romance del pescador, Danza y canción de la bruja fingida, Canción del fuego fatuo or Las campanas del amanecer. One original feature of this version is the inclusion of three folk songs written by Falla: Nana, Polo and Asturiana. It is a new version, then, of El amor brujo, different in its forms, but eternal in its essence.
Carmen (2011)
Directors: Antonio Gades, Carlos Saura
Cast: Companía Antonio Gades; Vanesa Vento, Ángel Gil, Joaquín Mulero, Jairo Rodríguez
Created by Antonio Gades in collaboration with Carlos Saura, this matchless production shows how the explosive power and intensity of feeling in traditional Spanish flamenco can bring vividly to life the sultry passion, earthy emotion, love and rivalry that is Carmen.
Vanesa Vento lives and breathes Carmen, emphasizing the many faces of this character, female, passionate and freedom fighter, but fickle in love as she shamelessly flirts with men she likes, inspiring desire, rivalry and jealousy amongst both the men and other women. But Carmen's gypsy wildness becomes her own downfall when she discards Don José's (Ángel Gil) love for that of the bullfighter (Jairo Rodríguez), as possessed by a piercing despair Don José kills her.
Fuenteovejuna (2011)
Director: Antonio Gades
Cast: Companía Antonio Gades, Cristina Carnero, Ángel Gil, Joaquín Mulero,Alberto Ferrero
Antonio Gades' last choreographed work, Fuenteovejuna, is a signature piece of purity and precision of Spanish dance. Based on a true event that inspired Lope de Vega to write this classic play in 1619, Fuenteovejuna is about the people of a village in Córdoba ruled by a tyrannical commander whose actions of droit de seigneur, violence and abuse engender their intense hatred. Until one day, encouraged by their women, the villagers choose freedom and, armed with farming implements, they take the law into their own hands. When the villagers are interrogated by a magistrate sent by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to establish who was responsible, no one admits to having done anything, each and every inhabitant only saying 'I'. In other words, 'Fuente Ovejuna did it'.
First performed in 1994 in Genoa, Fuenteovejuna is considered as the ultimate work of Spanish dance. Gades highlights the enormous richness of this discipline, the flamenco, the folklore; the stylised dance serves to tell perfectly the story of solidarity through which Gades knew how to make Spanish dance and flamenco become a universal language.
El público | The audience (2015)
Directors: Pablo Heras-Casado, Roberto Castro
Cast: José Antonio López, Thomas Tatzl, Arcángel, Jesús Méndez, Rubén Olmo, Josep Miquel Ramón, Antonio Lozano, Gun-Brit Barkmin, Erin Caves, Isabella Gaudí, José San Antonio, Harold Torres, Antonio Magno, Haizam Fathy, Leonardo Cremaschi, Carlos Rodas, Daniel Kone, Samuel Echardour, Coro Titular del Teatro Real, Klangforum Wien
El público is Lorca’s most difficult and mysterious play, one of the great classics of modern Spanish theatre. Lorca wrote it in Cuba, just after his trip to New York, at a time of intense experimentation in art and life. Homosexuality is addressed openly in El público, and the play is a cry of defiance against bourgeois hypocrisy and a plea for sexual and artistic freedom. It has been transformed into an opera thanks to Gerard Mortier. He commissioned the composer Mauricio Sotelo to create an opera for the Spanish repertoire of the 21st century. This production from Teatro Real de Madrid is the world premiere recording of El público as an opera. Pablo-Heras Casado conducts the Klangforum Wien and the Chorus of the Teatro Real.
Below is the lineup of the En corto: Short films from the Philippines, Latin America and Spain section.
Aunque es de noche | Even though It is Nighttime (2023)
Director: Guillermo García López
Cast: Antonio Fernández, Nasser Rokni
La Cañada, Europe’s largest slum on the outskirts of Madrid, has been without electricity for over a year. In the firelight, Toni, a 13 year-old boy, discovers that his best friend Nasser is leaving forever. Amongst Roma legends of a possible future, Toni looks for a way to stay connected to him.
Primetime Mother (2023)
Director: Sonny Calvento
Cast: Meryll Soriano, Kiki Baento, Marj Lorico, Jorrybell Agoto, Jo Andrew Torlao
Minda, a 45-year-old mother devoted to her sick child, also has a dream for herself: to compete and hopefully win My Amazing Mama, a popular and lucrative television game show in the Philippines. But, in a country where thousands of people rely on television game shows to earn money, Minda will have to overcome a good many obstacles – some hilarious, some humiliatingly exploitative – just to get a chance at winning the daily cash prize. The show becomes the latest test of her fortitude and tenacity in the face of adversity, which earns her the adoration of everyone around her. A bold satire, which uses humour to explore the archetype of the “good mother” in a patriarchal society.
La Sixtina | The Sistine (2022)
Director: Juan Camilo Fonnegra
Vincho, a street dweller, spends his time recycling and classifying waste produced in the city to transform it into the source of his creations. Under a bridge, he works in his masterpiece: The Sistine.
Transients (2023)
Director: Kyla RomeroCast: Ross Pesigan, Elora Espano, Kevin Regalado
After reconnecting through a phone call, Justin, an analog filmmaker, and Grace, a frustrated poet, reminisce about the day they first met --a day that Justin tries to recreate from memory.
Here is the festival schedule.
October 5, 2024
5:00 PM Fuenteovejuna
7:30 PM Robot Dreams
October 6, 2024
2:30 PM Carmen
5:00 PM Siete mesas de billar francés
7:30 PM La llegada
October 7, 2024
2:30 PM Loli Tormenta
5:00 PM 20.000 especies de Abejas
7:30 PM Te estoy amando locamente
October 8, 2024
2:30 PM Benito Pérez Buñuel
5:00 PM Hispanoamérica, canto de vida y esperanza
7:30 PM Las hijas
October 9, 2024
2:30 PM El amor brujo
5:00 PM Cerrar los ojos
7:30 PM Pacarrete
October 10, 2024
2:30 PM El maestro que prometió el mar
5:00 PM Le estrella azul
7:30 PM La llegada
October 11, 2024
2:30 PM El público
5:00 PM Dispararon al pianista
7:30 PM Puan
October 12, 2024
2:30 PM Robot Dreams
5:00 PM Casa en llamas
7:30 PM Rioja, la tierra de los mil vinos
October 13, 2024
2:30 PM En corto
5:00 PM Premio del Público
7:30 PM La estrella azul
Película 2024 is a project of Instituto Cervantes in Manila, presented in collaboration with the Embassy of Spain in the Philippines, the AECID, Shangri-La Plaza, the Embassy of Argentina in the Philippines, the Embassy of Brazil in the Philippines, the Embassy of Colombia in the Philippines, MTRCB, the Film Development Council of the Philippines, De La Salle University--College of Saint Benilde, the UP Film Institute, the Department of European Languages of the University of the Philippines, Far Eastern University, CIIT College of Arts and Technology, Mapúa University, i-Academy, Mint University, Ateneo de Manila University Modern Languages, Kinoise PH, Sinegang PH. Sponsored by Philippine Transmarine Carriers, Arthaland, Ayala Corporation, Fundador, Terminal Six and Boysen.
