Planet SEMINCI begins to orbit around the best auteur cinema

• Journalist Mara Torres presented the Opening Gala at the Teatro Calderón, during which the president of the Film Academy and filmmaker, Fernando Méndez-Leite, received the Honorary Spike.

Valladolid, October 18, 2024. The journalist Mara Torres has presented the Opening Gala of the 69th edition of the Valladolid International Film Week (SEMINCI), a gala full of art, featuring performances by the singer María Arnal and the dancers Ariadna Montfort and Lorena Nogal; emotions and nostalgia (those of Fernando Méndez-Leite when he received his honorary spike), and, above all, a lot of cinema, which will fill the theaters until October 26th.

More than 200 titles will be screened in this edition of SEMINCI, including the Official Section of feature and short films; the retrospectives of American independent filmmaker Nathan Silver and German cinema, the guest country; the sections Meeting Point, Alchemy, Constellations, Time of History and Memory & Utopia ; the special screenings and the rest of the titles of Gourmet Cinema, Castile & Leon or aimed at children, youth and family audiences. This is an edition with a large presence of Spanish films, some of them world premieres and many of them in the Official Section.

Films are not only enjoyed at SEMINCI, they are also produced and talked about at important events such as the Meeting of Women Filmmakers and a new edition of MERCI Valladolid, to be held during these dates in the city during a Festival that, in the words of the member of the International Jury, Luis López Carrasco, “ is devoted to cinema as a cultural fact”. The director and writer has been in charge of representing the group of filmmakers who will elect the Spikes: the Spanish actress Aida Folch, the producer Ingmar Trost, the director Sofia Excarchou and the critic Devika Girish.

The Honorary Spike is in the possession of the critic, filmmaker and disseminator Fernando Méndez-Leite, current president of the Spanish Film Academy: “All you have to do is turn 80 and the Spikes start raining down on you”, he joked on stage. During the presentation of the award to the man “thanks to whom Spanish cinema is better”, as producer Gerardo Herrero said when presenting him with the award, with the audience on its feet, together with his daughter, Clara Méndez-Leite, who recalled the “cowboy movie naps and the eternal nights of Hitchcock lived as the daughter of a film father”.

Speaking with nostalgia, the filmmaker recalled the first year he came to SEMINCI, in 1968, and its origin as a religious and value-oriented film festival, as well as some of the films he saw then: The Passion of Joan of Arc, by Dreyer, and Nazarin, by Luis Buñuel. He has continued to attend almost every year since then.

Also on stage were filmmaker Nathan Silver, who admitted that he did not know that Valladolid was the birthplace of his admired Cervantes, and the crews of the opening film, Polvo serán, by Carlos Marques-Marcet, and the TV series Los años nuevos, co-created by Rodrigo Sorogoyen.

To close the gala, the audience was treated to a unique and unrepeatable moment: the performance of the song Negro infinito, included in the soundtrack of the film Polvo serán, by the composer and singer María Arnal, along with the dancers of the company La Veronal Ariadna Montfort and Lorena Nogal, winner of the 2024 National Dance Award.

In addition to the performers, directors and filmmakers who will present their latest works at the Festival, the Opening Gala was attended by Mayor Jesús Julio Carnero, Mayor of Valladolid; Blanca Jiménez, Councillor for Tourism, Events and Branding, and Irene Carvajal, Councillor for Culture of Valladolid City Council, the organising institution of SEMINCI. In addition, on behalf of the Regional Government of Castilla y León, the Vice-President and Regional Minister of Family and Equal Opportunities, María Isabel Blanco, and the Regional Minister of Culture, Tourism and Sport, Gonzalo Santonj; Rocío Juanes de Toledo, Secretary General of the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA); Camilo Vázquez, Deputy Director General of Promotion and Institutional Relations of the ICAA, and the Festival Director, José Luis Cienfuegos.

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