Seminci will bring together in its competitive sections the largest participation of Spanish cinema in its history with some of the most personal voices of Spanish cinematography

The Official Section will include the films El amor de Andrea, by Manuel Martín Cuenca; Que nadie duerma, by Antonio Méndez Esparza; Samsara, by Lois Patiño; Foremost by Night, by Víctor Iriarte, and The Pemanent Picture, by Laura Ferrés.

Out of competition will be presented Teresa, by Paula Ortiz; Mamacruz, by Patricia Ortega; El maestro que prometió el mar, by Patricia Font, and the already announced opening film, The Movie Teller, by Lone Scherfig.

In the Meeting Point competition, the films On the Go, by María Gisèle Royo and Julia de Castro; Negu hurbilak, by Colectivo Negu, and Muyeres, by Marta Lallana are selected

Time of History will premiere the feature films La estafa del amor, by Virginia García del Pino; An Inhabited Volcano, co-directed by David Pantaleón and Jose Víctor Fuentes, and Zinzindurrumkarratz, by Oskar Alegria.

The 68th edition of the Valladolid International Film Festival will be an essential date for the most personal voices of the new Spanish cinema, whose presence in the different competitive sections will be the largest in the history of Seminci. The Spanish film program includes 15 productions, with five world premieres, two European premieres and eight national premieres, highlighting the diversity and originality of filmmaking in our country.

The numerous presence of the new visions of Spanish cinema will be a constant in all the competitive sections, in addition to the Official section, so that the Seminci program will allow the viewer to have an overview of the new sensibilities, themes and aesthetic approaches of the most daring creators of the new Spanish cinema.

The Official Selection opens up to the gazes of established filmmakers such as the latest works by Manuel Martín Cuenca, El amor de Andrea; and Antonio Méndez Esparza, Que nadie duerma; together with the highly anticipated third feature by Lois Patiño, Samsara; and the striking fiction debuts of Víctor Iriarte with Sobre todo de noche, and Laura Ferrés with The Permanent Picture. All of them will compete for the Golden Spike at Seminci.

El amor de Andrea tells the story of a girl’s quest to recover the love of an absent father, in Martín Cuenca‘s most intimate and personal film to date, which will have its world premiere at Seminci. With music by Vetusta Morla, it features a debut cast headed by Lupe Mateo Barredo.

Que nadie duerma, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Juan José Millás directed by Antonio Méndez Esparza, a filmmaker who has won awards at international festivals such as Cannes and San Sebastián. In his first film shot in Spain, whose world premiere will take place at Seminci, the cast is headed by Malena Alterio, in a register in which we have never seen her before, and Aitana Sánchez-Gijón.

In Foremost by Night (Sobre todo de noche), Víctor Iriarte narrates an emotional encounter around the maternity of three characters searching for their place in the world and starring actresses Lola Dueñas and Ana Torrent, who play two women who share the experience of having been mothers, biological and adoptive respectively of the same child.

Recognized and awarded at major international festivals, Galician director Lois Patiño’s third feature Samsara is a story about reincarnation that takes place between Nepal and Zanzibar, and which supports the Galician filmmaker to deepen his formal exploration of film language by exploring the representation of the invisible in cinema.

The Permanent Picture is a long-awaited step for Laura Ferrés, who won the Goya, the Gaudí and the Critics’ Week award with her documentary short The Disinherited (2017), premiered in the Official Section of the 62nd Seminci. The Permanent Picture is a “depressing comedy” and “a drama sprinkled with dry humor”, with non-professional actors with touches of absurd humor, that the filmmaker co-wrote with Carlos Vermut and Ulises Porra.

Also in the Official Selection but out of competition, the premieres of four directors as different as they are stimulating will be programmed: Paula Ortiz, Patricia Ortega, Lone Scherfig (all of them awarded in different editions of Seminci) and Patricia Font. Their films, four different and powerful stories, will allow viewers to enjoy authentic acting recitals by some of the most outstanding Spanish actors and actresses: Blanca Portillo, Asier Etxeandía, Kiti Mánver, Enric Auquer, Laia Costa and Antonio de la Torre, who shine probably with their best performances to date.

Paula Ortiz, winner of the Pilar Miró Award at the 56th edition, premieres her film Teresa, anadaptation of the play La lengua en pedazos by Juan Mayorga, starring Blanca Portillo and Asier Etxeandía; Patricia Ortega, Rainbow Spike of the 63rd edition, premieres Mamacruz, with Kity Mánver as the protagonist of a story about the rediscovery of desire; and the winner of the Goya for best short film Patricia Font, who directs El maestro que prometió el mar, a film inspired by the life of master Antoni Benaiges and starring Goya winners Laia Costa and Enric Auquer. The film will have its world premiere at the RTVE Gala. Lone Scherfig (Golden Spike of the 46th edition of the festival) will open the 68th edition with The Movie Teller (La contadora de películas).

Meeting Point, a section with a renewed spirit that will be one of the great revelations of Seminci, will offer the works of young Spanish filmmakers who are starting their careers in a resounding way: Colectivo Negu (Negu hurbilak, Special Mention at the Locarno Festival, addresses isolation and expectancy through the story of an escape in the context of the end of terrorism in the Basque Country in 2011, with Jone Laspiur, winner of the Goya for Best New Actress for Ane, as the protagonist); María Gisèle Royo and Julia de Castro (On the Go, a provocative, punk, independent and LGTBI-supportive road movie about friendship and heartbreak, starring Omar Ayuso and Chacha Huang, and inspired by the cult film Corridas de alegría (1982), by Sevillan Gonzalo García Pelayo); and Marta Lallana (Muyeres, a film about the memory and traditions in the Asturian mountains of Somiedo, with music signed by Raül Refree, that has just won the Grand Jury Prize at the Shanghai Festival).

Time of History, a reference section created in 1984 and project a pioneer in the field of film festivals dedicated exclusively to non-fiction films, will show the suggestive proposals of Oskar Alegria (Zinzindurrunkarratz, on the reconstruction of memory through the reconstruction of the memory through the reconstruction of the memory through the reconstruction of the memory of sounds), David Pantaleón and Jose Víctor Fuentes (Un volcán habitado, which describes the impact on the population of the eruption of the volcano on the island of La Palma through those who lived through it and how they kept in touch) and Virginia García del Pino (La estafa del amor, a film-performance that deconstructs the idea of romantic love through the irruption of people of different creeds, sexual options and ideologies who explain the influence (not always positive) of this conception of love in their lives). The participation of Spanish cinema in the 68th edition of Seminci will be more extensive, with the incorporation of several feature films to the rest of the sections, as well as short films in all the competitive sections. The pending titles will be announced in the near future.

LIST OF ANNOUNCED TITLES:

Official Section

• El amor de Andrea, by Manuel Martín Cuenca – World Premiere
• The Permanent Picture, by Laura Ferrés – National Premiere
• Que nadie duerma, by Antonio Méndez Esparza – World Premiere
• Samsara, by Lois Patiño – National Premiere
• Foremost by Night, by Víctor Iriarte – National Premiere

Official Section Out of competition

• The Movie Teller – European Premiere
• El maestro que prometió el mar, by Patricia Font – World Premiere
• Mamacruz, by Patricia Ortega – National Premiere
• Teresa, by Paula Ortiz – World Premiere

Meeting Point

• Muyeres, by Marta Lallana – National Premiere
• Negu hurbilak, by Colectivo Negu – National premiere
• On the Go, by María Gisèle Royo and Julia de Castro – National Premiere

Time of History

• La estafa del amor, by Virginia García del Pino – World Premiere
• An Inhabited Volcano, by David Pantaleón and Jose Víctor Fuentes – National Premiere
• Zinzindurrunkarratz, by Oskar Alegria – European Premiere