05/06/2023 - The ninth edition of the gathering unspools from 6-11 June and, besides its official section and its “mirror titles”, includes a new section dubbed Smart7

The ninth edition of Filmadrid, Madrid International Film Festival is poised to take place from 6-11 June in three different Madrilenian movie theatres – La Casa Encendida, Cine Doré Filmoteca Española and Cineteca Matadero – screening pictures with a pronounced arthouse bent, thus championing a kind of international film scene that is relatively unknown in Spain.

At this edition, the competitive sections will be the official one and, for the first time, a strand called Las revelaciones del cine europeo. Smart7 (lit. “The Revelations of European Cinema. Smart7”), an initiative created by various festivals that trains the spotlight on European works (see the news). What’s more, once again this year, the movies in the official competition will be accompanied by their Espejos, or “Mirrors”: morning sessions during which previous works by the same auteurs, or by other creators who have influenced them, will be shown. And so, The Face of the Jellyfish by Argentinian director Melisa Liebenthal, which will have the honour of opening the festival after originally being presented in the Berlinale Forum, will be accompanied by a screening of the iconic 24 Hour Party People [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by British helmer Michael Winterbottom.

Among the rest of the titles that make up the official competition are movies such as the DocLisboa winner A Date in Minsk by Nikita Lavretski, together with its respective “mirror” Cool (News from Belarus), the first issue of the self-released cinematic fanzine by the Belarusian Cinema Konchenyy movement, which sees the participation of the director himself as well as others such as Radu Jude and Pierre Léon; the unusual medium-length thriller Pátio do Carrasco by Portugal’s André Gil Mata, which will be compared and contrasted with the Yugoslavian classic Breza (1967) by Ante Babaja; and the new work by Spanish-German filmmaker Salka Tiziana, the short film All Sounds Within, which will be contextualised by the Italian shorts La canta delle marane by Cecilia Mangini and A Day in Barbagia by Vittorio de Seta.

Also on the agenda is the world premiere of the analogue short film Lúa, techno y lo que queda de él by young Spanish creator Carlos Baixauli, which will be accompanied by his previous opus Al encuentro de un fuego fallero. This section will also boast, among other titles, I Am Here! [+see also:
trailer
film profile], to be joined by Departure [+see also:
trailer
film profile], both by Austria’s Ludwig Wüst; the Swedish film The Wild Duck by Nadja Ericsson, which will be mirrored by the shorts A Wine-colored Sea and Notes on a Pine Forest, by the same director; The Temple Woods Gang [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], in which French-Algerian helmer Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche pays tribute to film noir, exhibited alongside his previous movie The Story of Judas [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; and the medium-length film Taxibol by Italy’s Tommaso Santambrogio, starring Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz, which will be linked to his short film The Oceans Are the Real Continents.

Furthermore, as mentioned above, since the start of the year, Filmadrid has been part of Smart7, an association of seven European festivals that share similar objectives and visions. The project has established a competitive section in which all of the gatherings in the network are taking part. Thus, this competition will boast the films Black Stone [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Spiros Jacovides (Greece), Bread and Salt [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Damian Kocur
film profile] by Damian Kocur (Poland), India by Telmo Churro (Portugal), Mammalia [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Sebastian Mihailescu (Romania), Mannvirki [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Gustav Geir Bollason (Iceland), Remember to Blink [+see also:
film review
interview: Austėja Urbaitė
film profile] by Austeja Urbaite (Lithuania) and Tobacco Barns [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rocío Mesa
film profile] by Rocío Mesa (Spain).

(Translated from Spanish)