Carlos Marques-Marcet’s Toronto-winning musical drama They Will Be Dust, will open the 69th edition of the Valladolid International Film Week, also known as the SEMINCI, on October 18.
The end of life drama starring Alfredo Castro and Angela Molina won the Platform section at TIFF last month.
Valladolid, headed by José Luis Cienfuegos for a second year, is a key launchpad into the Spanish market for local and international films.
There are a total of 22 titles in the running for the festival’s top prize, the Golden Spike that comes with a €70,000 award for the Spanish distributor. The Silver Spike offers a prize of €25,000 for the distributor. Last year’s recipients were Laura Ferrés’ debut feature The Permanent Picture and. Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera respectively.
In addition to Marques-Marcet, the well-known Spanish filmmakers in competition, include Mar Coll with the Locarno premiere Salve Maria, about a young writer becomes obsesses with an infanticide, and Javier Rebollo with Close To The Sultan, a world premiere that is loosely inspired by the life of Gabriel Veyre, an early camera operator who worked with the Lumiere brothers.
Also in competition is actress-turned-director Marta Nieto with the world premiere of her first feature Becoming Ana, an exploration of identity and motherhood.
Another first feature is producer-turned-director Elena Manrique’s The Party’s Over, a satire set in an Andalusian villa where a rich divorcée’s life takes a turn when a young Senegalese immigrant takes refuge in her tool shed. The film premiered in the Discovery section at the Toronto International Film Festival last month. credits as a producer include The Orphanage and Pan’s Labyrinth.
Scroll down for the full competition line up
Actress Paz Vega’s directorial debut Rita is playing out of competition. The family drama debuted at Locarno.
Further Spanish titles at Valladolid include To Our Friends, a second feature by Adrián Orr in the sidebar section Meeting Point, focusing on first and second international features, one of 18 films in the section.
International titles competing for the Golden Spike include Black Dog, by Guan Hu; Bob Trevino Likes It, by Tracie Laymon; Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point, by Tyler Taormina; Grand Tour, by Miguel Gomes; Harvest, by Athina Rachel Tsangari; La Cocina, by Alonso Ruizpalacios; My Favourite Cake, by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha; Misericordia, by Alain Guiraudie (a Spanish co-production); Sex, by Dag Johan Haugerud; and Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist.
The recipients of the honorary awards this year are filmmaker Patricia Ferreira and the president of the Spanish Film Academy, Fernando Méndez Leite. The award to Spanish filmmaker Patricia Ferreira is posthumous. The director of I Know Who You Are died in December 2023.
The festival will also pay tribute to Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof (The Seed Of The Sacred Fig Tree) who was awarded the Honorary Spike in 2018 but could not pick it up because he was in house arrest in Iran.
Distributors, exhibitors and television and platform buyers will gather for the fourth edition of the Independent Film Market (MERCI Valladolid), organised by SEMINCI and the Spanish Association of Independent Film Distributors (Adicine).
The festival runs from October 18 to 26.
International competition 2024
Armand
Dir: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel
Becoming Ana
Dir: Marta Nieto
Black Dog
Dir: Guan Hu
Bob Trevino Likes It
Dir: Tracie Laymon
Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point
Dir: Tyler Taormina
Close To The Sultan
Dir: Javier Rebollo
Grand Tour
Dir: Miguel Gomes
Harvest
Dir: Athina Rachel Tsangari
La Cocina
Dir: Alonso Ruizpalacios
My Favourite Cake
Dir: Maryam Moghaddam, Behtash Sanaeeha
Misericordia
Dir: Alain Guiraudie
Salve Maria
Dir: Mar Coll
September Says
Dir: Ariane Labed
Sex
Dir: Dag Johan Haugerud
Stranger Eyes
Dir: Yeo Siew Hua
Suspended Time
Dir: Olivier Assayas
The Brutalist
Dir: Brady Corbet
Three Kilometres To The End Of The World
Dir: Emanuel Pârvu
The Party’s Over
Dir: Elena Manrique
They Will Be Dust (Opening film)
Dir: Carlos Marques-Marcet
Vermiglio
Dir: Maura Delpero
Wild Diamond
Dir: Agathe Riedinger
Out of competition
Rita
Dir: Paz Vega
Sing Sing (Closing film)
Dir: Greg Kwedar
The Most Precious Of Cargoes
Dir: Michel Hazanavicius
Verano en diciembre
Dir: Carolina África
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