21/06/2023 - The Valencian festival, which can be enjoyed between 22 June and 1 July, celebrates its 38th edition with fresh energy, its usual sections and a new one (Òrbites)

The 38th Valencia International Cinema Jove Film Festival  (22 June – 1 July) will screen nine feature films in competition in its official section, including four European films. Presented in the Encounters sections of this year’s Berlinale, the Finnish film Family Time [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tia Kouvo
film profile], directed by Tia Kouvo, tells the story of a family falling apart. LGBTI+ love features in The Lost Boys [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Zeno Graton
film profile], by Zeno Graton, a French-Belgian production set in a juvenile correction facility. The Dutch road movie directed by Zara Dwinger Kiddo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Zara Dwinger
film profile] follows a girl who lives in a children’s home until her mother unexpectedly turns up and whisks her away on a wild trip to Poland. And Sons of Ramses [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Clément Cogitore
film profile], by Clément Cogitore, which screened at last year's Cannes Critics' Week, is an unsettling French crime drama set in the multicultural Parisian neighbourhood La Goutte d'Or.

Thapanee Loosuwan's Thai film Blue Again follows a young woman trying to save her family's textile business. Director Amr Gamal will present The Burdened, a drama addressing the social implications and economic constraints of abortion in Yemen. Another taboo, homosexuality, is portrayed in Babatunde Apalowo's Nigerian film All the Colours of the World are Between Black and White, winner of the Teddy Award at this year's Berlinale. Alena Lodkina's Australian drama Petrol shows the journey of self-discovery for a Russian-born film student who falls for the charms of an enigmatic actress. Almost Entirely a Slight Disaster (Turkey), starring four twenty-somethings in contemporary Istanbul, where Umut Subasi analyses the anguish faced by the millennial generation. A tense drama enclosed within four walls - in this case, those of a rented apartment - in This Closeness, by Kit Zauhar, a new voice in American independent cinema. And Starring Jerry as Himself (also from the US), written and directed by Law Chen, documents how his father, an immigrant in Florida, was recruited by the Chinese police to work as an undercover agent.

In addition, a special session will include the film Olvido, by Inés París, a thriller set in the floods that devastated Valencia in 1957; a return to fiction set in high school classrooms, and in the powerful universe of the gods of anime. There will also be no shortage of short films and series (including four world premieres) and in honour of Valencia being named European Green Capital 2024, the French documentary La Belle Ville, by Manin Turina and François Marques has been programmed.

Finally, the Luna de Valencia award will go to the North American filmmaker Sean Baker, a selection of films dedicated to the early works of the Canadian David Cronenberg, and another called True Crime: The New Fascination. The new competitive section Òrbites is dedicated to new languages with four Spanish films: the feature films Bull Run [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], by Ana Ramón Rubio; Soc filla de ma mare [+see also:
film review
film profile], by Laura Pérez García; and València, t’estime, by Carlos Giménez; plus the medium-length film Sóc vertical, però m´agradaria ser horitzontal, by María Antón Cabot.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)