The most anticipated titles in contemporary auteur film-making to be premiered in the Official Section of Seminci

The latest works by Park Chan-wook, Jafar Panahi, Tarik Saleh and Jerzy Skolimowsk will be competing for awards in Seminci, while the works of Emanuele Crialese and Martin McDonagh will be screened out of competition

The festival offers one of the most diverse selections of films in recent years, with filmmakers of 18 different nationalities, 8 first and 6 second films, and 7 works directed by women

Park Chan-wook, Jafar Panahi, Tarik Saleh, Jerzy Skolimowski, Emanuele Crialese and Martin McDonagh are a few of the authors whose new feature-length films will be participating in the Official Section of the 67th edition of the International Film Festival of Valladolid. Alongside them, the films of some of the emerging talents of international cinema, whose offerings have been commended at major film festivals around the world, will also be competing for awards. These include Colm Bairéad from Ireland, Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson from Iceland, and the Argentinians Constanza Feldman and Agustín Mendilaharzu.

The Official Section will allow Spanish audiences to see some of the most eagerly awaited films of the year, with some important names behind the cameras participating in Seminci for the first time. The South Korean film-maker Park Chan-wook, for example, will compete for the Golden Spike with Decision to Leave, a work for which he won the Best Director award at Cannes. Likewise, Kamila Andini from Indonesia brings to the Official Section her work titled Before, Now & Then, her fourth feature film. For her interpretation in this film, Laura Basuki won the Best Supporting Actress award at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Also to be screened is the latest work of the Belgian filmmaker Felix van Groeningen, co-directed with the actress Charlotte Vandermeersch in her debut behind the camera: Le otto montagne (The Eight Mountains), winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The French film-maker Mikhaël Hers will be competing for awards with his fourth feature film Les Passagers de la nuit (The Passengers of the Night). That film was selected at the Berlinale, where Return to Dust, the fourth film by the Chines film-maker Li Ruijun, also participated and which will also be screened in the Official Section of Seminci.

Two much anticipated feature films that will be screened out of competition are The Banshees of Inisherin and L’immensità (Immensity). The first of these is the work of Martin McDonagh a British director of Irish descent who was also responsible for the award-winning Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, for which Colin Farrell won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the last Venice Film Festival. L’immensità, starring Penelope Cruz, is the latest offering of the Italian Emanuele Crialese. It will be screened on the opening day of the 67th Seminci along with the Spanish production No mires a los ojos, by Félix Viscarret.

Pilar Miró Prize for Best New Director

The Official Section of the 67th Seminci reflects the festival’s commitment to the potent gaze of new international filmmakers. A total of eight films will compete for the Pilar Miró Award for Best New Director. These include: Alma Viva (Living Soul), the debut feature of the French director of Portuguese origin Cristèle Alves Meira, which premiered at the Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival; The Quiet Girl, the first feature film by Irish filmmaker Colm Bairéad, winner of the Grand Prix of the Generation K Plus International Jury for Best Film at the Berlinale and of the Audience Award at the Dublin and Taipei festivals; and Beautiful Beings, the second film by Icelandic director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson, which won the Europa Cinemas Label at the Berlinale.

Also scheduled to be screened are the following films: Clementina, the European premiere of the first feature film by the Argentinians Constanza Feldman and Agustín Mendilaharzu, the big winner at the last edition of Bafici, where it won the Audience Award and Best Feature Film; Falcon Lake, the debut work of the Canadian Charlotte Le Bon, selected for the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes; Nothing, by Trine Piil (second film) and Seamus McNally (first film), a cinematic adaptation of the Danish author Janne Teller’s best-seller of the same name; Pamfir, the first feature-length film by the Ukrainian Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, which premiered in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes, and Le bleu du caftan, the second work of the Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani.

Seminci award-winning filmmakers

The Official Section will also screen the latest works of filmmakers who have won wards at previous editions of Seminci. These include Tarik Saleh from Sweden, winner of the Golden Spike and Best Screenplay at the 62nd Seminci for The Nile Hilton Incident, who will compete this time with Boy from Heaven, Best Screenplay winner at the Cannes Film Festival, and the Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, winner of the Golden Spike at the 48th Seminci for Crimson Gold. This time round at Seminci, Panahi’s latest work is No Bears, winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

Also participating again at Siminci are the veteran Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski, winner of the Special Prize at the 13th edition for Barrier, who this time round will present EO, for which he won the Cannes Jury Prize, as well as the aforementioned Maryam Touzani, who competed in the 64th Seminci with her first feature film, Adam.

Spanish participation

The inaugural film, No mires a los ojos, will be the only Spanish feature film in competition. This new feature film by the Navarrese screenwriter and director Félix Viscarret, is an adaptation of the novel “Desde la sombra”, by Juan José Millás, and stars Paco León, Leonor Watling and Álex Brendemühl with a special guest appearance by Juan Diego Botto.

An abundance of nationalities and female directors

Seminci offers one of the most diverse Official Sections of recent years, with works by filmmakers of 18 different nationalities, including many from Europe: Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Poland, United Kingdom, Sweden and Ukraine. The other countries represented are Argentina, Canada, China, South Korea, Indonesia, Iran and Morocco. Of the feature films selected eight are first or second films and will compete for the Pilar Miró Award for Best New Director, while seven are directed or co-directed by women.

The Official Section also includes the Oscar nominees for Best International Feature Film from Ireland (The Quiet Girl), Iceland (Beautiful Beings), Poland (EO), Portugal (Alma Viva) and Sweden (Boy from Heaven). Four of these have also been also selected for the European Film Awards: Beautiful Beings, Boy from Heaven, EO and The Quiet Girl.

Official Section of Short Films

A total of fourteen Short Films will be screened in the Official Section, including various award winners at different international events such as The Headhunter’s Daughter, by Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan (Philippines) –winner of Best Short at the Sundance Film Festival–; Ice Merchants, by João Gonzalez (Portugal) –International Critics’ Week winner at Cannes-; Lake of Fire, by Neozoon (Germany) –selected for the Locarno Film Festival–, and Potemkinistii, by Radu Jude (Rumania) –selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival and Vila do Conde Short Film nominee for the European Film Awards–.
 
Also screened will be the short films By Flávio, by Pedro Cabeleira (Portugal); Cherries, by Vytautas Katkus (Lithuania), The Flying Sailor, by Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis (Canada); Hardly Working, by Total Refusal (Austria); Ida, by Ignacio Ragone (Argentina); Regular Rabbit, by Eoin Duffy (Ireland/Canada), and Warsha, by Dania Bdeir (Lebanon/France). Three Spanish offerings will complete the Short Films section: Arquitectura emocional 1959, by León Siminiani; Por la pista vacía, by Pablo García Canga, and Son, the debut work of the actress Marta Nieto.