06/06/2024 - The festival presents eight films in its Official Section and various European standouts in the Smart7 strand, alongside special screenings of titles by Lisandro Alonso and Pedro Almodóvar

This year, from 11-16 June, the Filmadrid International Film Festival is celebrating its tenth edition: the starting pistol will be fired by a screening of Critical Zone [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Iranian director Ali Ahmadzadeh, the winner of the Golden Leopard at the most recent Locarno Film Festival, which is the opening film and part of the Official Section (out of competition).

Eight titles will be locking horns in this strand, reflecting the diverse array of voices that the festival champions, encompassing works of all lengths that build up a potent political discourse. This year’s European representatives are the feature The Garden Cadences by Dane Komljen and the short Two Giants That Exist Here: A German Fairytale by Gianna Scholten, both hailing from Germany, and the Irish medium-length film Few Can See by Frank Sweeney. Of note among the other movies are the medium-length film Familiar Phantoms, a UK-Palestinian co-production by Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind, and The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire, by the USA’s Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, starring French thesp Zita Hanrot. Furthermore, as is customary at this event, the movies in competition will be accompanied by their corresponding Espejos, or “Mirrors”: prior works by their auteurs that will be shown alongside them.

Once again this year, the Filmadrid  programme includes several parallel sections, such as the second edition of the competitive film programme organised by the SMART 7 network (see the news), which is the result of a partnership involving seven prominent European film festivals, with support from Creative Europe – MEDIA. The titles included are Spain’s On the Go [+see also:
film review
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interview: María Gisèle Royo, Julia de…
film profile] by María Royo and Julia de Castro, which was premiered at Locarno last year; Greece’s The Summer with Carmen [+see also:
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interview: Zacharias Mavroeidis
film profile] by Zacharias Mavroidis, presented in the most recent Giornate degli Autori at Venice; Iceland’s Natatorium [+see also:
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film profile] by Helena Stefánsdottir and the Brazilian-Portuguese co-production by Greice Leonardo Mouramateus, both of which were shown at IFFR; Lithuania’s Five and a Half Love Stories in an Apartment in Vilnius [+see also:
film review
interview: Tomas Vengris
film profile] by Tomas Vengris; Romania’s Where Elephants Go [+see also:
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interview: Gabi Virginia Şarga and Căt…
film profile] by Gabi Virginia Sarga and Catalin Rotaru; and Poland’s It’s Not My Film by Maria Zbaska.

Nuevos Pasajes/Nuevas Visiones (or “New Passageways/New Visions”), comprising a programme of short films by European female directors that seeks to highlight emerging women’s voices, and The Video Essay, a new collaboration with MUBI that shines a spotlight on the specific language of the video essay in order to show different approaches to this format, round off the parallel sections.

In celebration of its tenth birthday, the festival programme includes special events and special screenings. Standing out particularly is a Spanish Session, a screening of Tale of Shepherds [+see also:
film review
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interview: Jaime Puertas Castillo
film profile], the feature debut by Jaime Puertas Castillo, which was premiered in the Bright Future section of IFFR and which tops off the Official Section (out of competition); and a Relaxed Session, adapted to the needs of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), in the spirit of promoting the inclusion of diverse audiences – they will get to see An Inhabited Volcano [+see also:
film review
film profile] by David Pantaleón and José Víctor Fuentes.

The gathering will also play host to a Madrid preview screening of Eureka [+see also:
film review
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interview: Lisandro Alonso
film profile] by Lisandro Alonso, starring Viggo Mortensen, and to top it all off, a Vanguardias Live event will bring the festival to a close: the film What Have I Done to Deserve This? by Pedro Almodóvar, which turns 40 this year, will be given a live soundtrack by Madrid-based duo Ombligo.

(Translated from Spanish)