Valladolid International Film Week gears up as crucial gateway into Spanish market

The 68th edition of the Seminci, the Valladolid International Film Week opens this weekend (October 21) with a screening of The Movie Teller, directed by Lone Scherfig, starring Bérénice Béjo, Antonio de la Torre and Daniel Brühl and written by Walter Salles, Isabel Coixet and Rafa Russo.

For what is a vital launchpad into the Spanish market, new festival director José Luis Cienfuegos has programmed a series of international festival favourites from 2023 alongside new films by Spanish directors Antonio Méndez Esparza and Manuel Martín Cuenca in the Golden Spike competition. There is also a raft of fresh Spanish films from directors including Paula Ortiz, Patricia Ortega and Lois Patiño screening throughout the festival.

In the Golden Spike competition, Esparza’s Something Is About To Happen is an adaptation of a Spanish novel by Juan José Millás about an IT specialist who reinvents herself as a taxi driver, played by Malena Alterio. The screenplay was cowritten with Clara Roquet.

It is the fourth feature film from Esparza and marks a return to Spain for the director after he went to the US to shoot Courtroom 3H and Life And Nothing More and Aquí y Allá in Mexico.

Cuenca’s Andrea’s Love is a drama about a 15 -year-old daughter in search of the father who disappeared from her life after divorcing her mother. Filmax is handling international sales. It is Cuenca’s third film following The Motive, that won the Fipresci award in Toronto in 2017 and The Daughter in 2021.

Scroll down for the full Golden Spike line-up

The world premieres of Ortiz’s Teresa, Carlota Nelson’s Eyes Of The Soul and Patricia Font’s The Teacher Who Promised The Sea are screening out of competition.

Teresa is Ortiz’s third film following The Bride and Across The River And Into The Trees, and is about the Spanish mystic and writer Saint Teresa of Jesus. It is based on a play by Juan Mayorga that portrays a dialectic duel between Saint Teresa and the inquisitor interrogating her. BTeam pictures is distributing Teresa in Spain, with Filmax handling international rights. It is going on to screen in competition at Tallin Black Nights Film Festival in November.

The cast is led by Blanca Portillo, who has also appeared in films including Volver and Maixabel. Portillo will receive an honorary award in Valladolid.

Nelson’s Eyes Of The Soul is a documentary about the work of photographer Cristina García Rodero, who joined the prestigious Magnum agency in 2005 and photographed pagan and religious festivals around the world.

Further Spanish titles in the official selection are Patricia Ortega’s Mamacruz which premiered at Sundance in January, Lois Patiño’s Samsara, that won the Special Jury Prize of Berlin’s Encounters competition, Víctor Iriarte’s Foremost The Night, selected for Giornate degli Autore in Venice and The Permanent Picture by Laura Ferrés.

Rising filmmakers

Meeting Point is a competitive section of the festival focusing on first and second international features. Out of the 15 titles, 11 are directed by women, including Joanna Arnow’s The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed, Luna Carmoon’s Hoard and Maryna Vroda’s Stepne.  

The Spanish films in this section are Muyeres, by Marta Lallana; Negu Hurbilak, by Colectivo Negu, and On the Go directed by María Giséle Royo and Julia De Castro.

The festival will pay tribute to the careers of actresses Charlotte Rampling, Nathalie Baye and Kiti Mánver, and Spanish photographer Cristina García Rodero, the subject of Nelson’s Eyes Of The Soul.

Industry activities

Valladolid is hosting host the third edition of the Independent Film Market (MERCI Valladolid), an initiative organised by the Seminci and the Spanish Association of Independent Film Distributors (Adicine), gathering distributors, exhibitors and television and platform buyers.

Exhibition will be in the spotlight with the Europa Cinemas Innovation and Audience Development Lab. Headlined Reaching new audiences: rethinking and diversifying practices and resources, this event will bring together European professionals with the aim of seeking common strategies for the future to improve and expand the theatrical experience. Exhibitors from around 20 countries are expected to attend.

A talks series that will also consider the future of the distribution of independent films and the restoration and dissemination of film heritage.

Golden Spike competition 2023

Something Is About To Happen 
Dir: Antonio Méndez Esparza

Andrea’s Love
Dir: Manuel Martín Cuenca

Samsara
Dir: Loïs Patiño

Foremost The Night
Dir: Víctor Iriarte

The Permanent Picture
Dir: Laura Ferrés

La Chimera
Dir: Alice Rohrwacher

The Beast
Dir: Bertrand Bonello

Kidnapped
Dir:  Marco Belocchio

Dear Jassi
Dir: Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’

All Of Us Strangers
Dir: Andrew Haigh

The Old Oak
Dir: Ken Loach

Green Border
Dir: Agnieszka Holland

How To Have Sex
Dir: Molly Manning Walker 

Four Daughters
Dir:  Kaouther Ben Hania

Music
Dir: Angela Schanelec

The Shadowless Tower
Dir: Zhang Lu

The Teachers’ Lounge
Dir: Ilker Catak.

The Sweet East
Dir: Sean Prince William

Out of competiiton 

The Movie Teller
Dir: Lone Scherfig

Teresa
Dir: Paula Ortiz

Eyes Of The Soul
Dir: Carlota Nelson

The Teacher Who Promised The Sea
Dir: Patricia Font

Mamacruz
Dir: Patricia Ortega

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