The film ‘Don’t Look in the Eyes’ opens this Saturday the 67th edition of Seminci and opens eight days of screenings

Prominent figures of the audiovisual industry will walk the green carpet to support the premiere of the film event in Valladolid

The International Film Week of Valladolid begins its 67th edition this Saturday, October 22, with the premiere of Don’t Look in the Eyes, by the Navarrese director Félix Viscarret, a film that adapts the novel ‘Desde la sombra’, by Juan José Millás, starring Paco León, Leonor Watling and Álex Brendemühl, and with the collaboration of Juan Diego Botto. The film, which competes for the Golden Spike in the Official Selection and opens eight days of cinema, will be screened at the Calderón Theater, Seminci’s headquarters, as part of the opening gala of this edition, which will begin at 7:00 pm.

The festival will screen 273 films -184 feature films and 89 shorts- in eight different venues and distributed in the sections that make up the event and in the three cycles included in this edition: Guest Country: Ireland, Mungiu by Mungiu and Pasolini/Bardem: 100 years. Two beacons of European cinema. In addition, as in previous editions, Seminci will offer part of its online content through the FILMIN platform.

At the premiere of No mires a los ojos¸ Viscarret will be accompanied by the film’s producers and distributors, the film’s stars Paco León, Leonor Watling, Susana Abaitua, María Romanillos and Álex Brendemühl, the singer Amaia and the writer Juan José Millás. Previously, all of them will parade down a green carpet that will begin to feature stars from the world of cinema from 18:00 hours and can be followed live on Canal Seminci. The opening gala, which can also be followed on Canal Seminci, will be presented by Valladolid actress Eva Marciel and Galician actor Javier Veiga and will feature performances by the legendary music group Los Secretos and the band Glass Glassy.

Avelina Prat, director of the film Vasil, producer Miriam Porte and its protagonist, Bulgarian actor Ivan Barnev¸ will also walk the inaugural carpet, along with other figures from the film industry, including Italian Emanuele Crialese, director of L’immensitá, a film that will be screened on Saturday and that will participate out of competition in the Official Selection.

The inaugural green carpet of the 67th Seminci will also have an important presence of Spanish actresses and actors, including the godmother of this edition, Macarena Gómez; and the Spanish Luc Knowles, director of the film Libélulas; Miguel Ángel Muñoz, who presents 100 días con la Tata (both in Spanish Cinema), and the team of O corpo aberto (Cuerpo abierto), a film that premieres on Sunday at the RTVE Gala: the director Ángeles Huerta and the protagonists, Tamar Novas and María Vázquez. The carpet will also welcome two of last year’s Espiga de Honor honorees, actress Mercedes Sampietro and cinematographer José Luis Alcaine, as well as journalist Elena Sánchez, director and presenter of the RTVE program Historia de nuestro cine (History of our cinema).

Irish actress Kate O’Toole, president of the International Jury, will be another of the stars on parade along with those who will accompany her in the task of evaluating the titles in competition: Chilean composer Jorge Arriagada, Argentine film critic and image and sound designer Pablo de Vita, screenwriter and film and television director Patricia Ferreira, Mexican sound designer Martín Hernández, and programmer/curator of the Dublin Irish Film Festival and the East Asia Film Festival of Ireland Marie-Pierre Richard.

The members of the rest of the official juries will also attend the inauguration. From the Punto de Encuentro section, Miriam Allen, producer, co-founder and director of the Galway Film Fleadh festival; actor Rubén Ochandiano, and Nayra Sanz Fuentes, independent filmmaker and producer, will attend. On behalf of Tiempo de Historia, they will be editor and filmmaker Pere Puigbert; the executive director of Doc-A – Documentary Africa, Mohamed Saïd Ouma, and Shoaib Sharifi, co-director of the documentary My Childhood, My Country – Twenty Years in Afghanistan, winner of last year’s section.

The exhibition celebrating the 30th anniversary of the film Jamón, jamón (1992-2022) will also be present on the green carpet, as the film producer and promoter of the show, Celia Orós, will attend, along with the curators Betty Bigas, artist and daughter of the filmmaker, and Vicky Calavia, cultural manager and documentary filmmaker.