19/06/2024 - Held from 20-29 June, the Valencia International Film Festival will once again focus on the concerns and hopes of the new generations

The 39th Valencia International Film Festival – Cinema Jove (20-29 June) will screen ten feature films, 58 short films, eight series and four experimental films in competition.

Two local films will compete in the Official Feature Film Section: Lo carga el diablo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Guillermo Polo
film profile], a crazed road movie directed by Guillermo Polo and starring Pablo Molinero, Antonia San Juan, Isak Férriz and the young Mero González; and Jordi Núñez directs the adaptation of Jordi Casanovas' play Valenciana [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a drama set in the nineties where the death throes of La Ruta del Bakalao are connected with Spanish progress and reality TV.

Other European films in the section include 78 Days [+see also:
film review
interview: Emilija Gašić
film profile], a mockumentary diary by Emilija Gašić, which portrays the everyday life of a Serbian family during the NATO bombing in 1999; Excursion [+see also:
film review
interview: Una Gunjak
film profile] by the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Una Gunjak, which received a special mention at Locarno Film Festival and reflects on the meaning of becoming a woman in the post-truth era; El paraíso [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Enrico Maria Artale
film profile] by Enrico Maria Artale, Best Screenplay and Actress in Venice's Orizzonti section, deals with complex mother-child relationships in a context of marginality; and Of Living Without Illusion [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Switzerland’s Katharina Lüdin,  which depicts a middle-aged theatre actress who suffers rejection by her partner.

The Official Series section features the Norwegian Dates in Real Life [+see also:
series review
series profile] by Jakob Rørvik, about love in virtual environments; the German Push by Luisa Hardenberg and starring midwives; the French Extra. [+see also:
series review
series profile], by Jonathan Hazan and Matthieu Bernard; and Ignorant, a documentary by Mar Castel about the precariousness young people dedicated to culture experience. And out of competition, the excellent Nos vemos en otra vida [+see also:
interview: Jorge and Alberto Sánchez-C…
series profile] will be screened, an adaptation of Manuel Jabois' book by the Sánchez-Cabezudo brothers, now available on Disney+.

The Órbites Official Selection, dedicated to new visual languages, includes four Spanish titles: El arte de los analfabetos, by Kevin Castellano and Eduardo Hirscheld León, which reproduces the journey on foot from Valencia to the Pyrenees that the former’s grandfather made with his father during the post-war period; My Sextortion Diary [+see also:
film review
film profile], by Patricia Franquesa, about the blackmail she experienced by cybercriminals; the ethnographic docufiction by Alberto Martín Menacho Nights Gone By [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alberto Martín Menacho
film profile]; and the non-fiction medium-length film Elogio del horizonte by Rafa Alberola.

The special screenings also include the Spanish  films  L'avia i el foraster, a dramatic comedy by Sergi Miralles, about a young man who emigrated to Manchester and now returns to his village; Tú no eres yo, the feature film debut of Marisa Crespo and Moisés Romera, nominated for a Goya for their short film 9 pasos; and two film adaptations of literary works: Werewolf [+see also:
film review
interview: Pau Calpe Rufat
film profile], a contemporary recreation of the werewolf myth based on the novel by Ginés Sánchez by Pau Calpe; and Escanyapobres, the second feature film by Ibai Abad based on the book by Narcís Oller, starring Àlex Brendemühl and Mireia Vilapuig.

Finally, the film festival, organised by the First Vice-Presidency and Regional Ministry of Culture and Sport through the Institut Valencià de Cultura (IVC), will present the A Future of Cinema Award to the singer Amaia Romero, seen in the series La Mesías [+see also:
series review
trailer
series profile].

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)