05/11/2024 - This year's highlights include 60 Spanish titles, 70 national premieres and the Frame Sevilla event, with meetings and round tables with industry professionals

More than 60 Spanish productions (including feature films, shorts and series) will be screened at the 21st Seville European Film Festival (8-16 November), directed for the first time - after his coordination duties - last year (read more) by producer Manuel Cristóbal.

Competing in the Official Selection for the Golden Giraldillo are Desmontando un elefante [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Aitor Echeverría's début film starring Emma Suárez, Natalia de Molina and Darío Grandinetti; and Raqa, a spy thriller directed by Gerardo Herrero, with Álvaro Morte and Mina El Hammani. Also in the Official Selection but not competing are Laura Hojman's latest documentary, Un hombre libre [+see also:
film review
film profile], which focuses on the Almería writer Agustín Gómez Arcos, and the docuseries El circo de los muchachos, by Elías León Siminiani, about the creation of an educational project for poor children in Franco's Spain.

The Special Screenings section consists of nine Spanish films, including Afternoons of Solitude [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Albert Serra
film profile], which Albert Serra will present in Seville after winning the Golden Shell in San Sebastian; and another documentary recognised at the San Sebastian festival with a special mention in the New Directors section, La guitarra flamenca de Yerai Cortés [+see also:
film review
interview: Antón Álvarez
film profile], the début feature by Antón Álvarez, better known as C. Tangana. Also screening are the comedy Al otro barrio, Mar Olid 's feature film debut with Quim Gutiérrez and Sara Sálamo in the lead; Valeria Roig 's feature film Paisaje épico, telling the story of the odyssey in the Andes of the Catalan high mountain painter Fidel Roig Matóns; Marina Seresesky's Sin instrucciones, with Paco León; the non-fiction film about cinema Los Productores, by Manuel Iborra; and the documentary series El Loco. Los silencios de Quintero, directed by José Rueda and Rocío Cañaveras; and the adaptation of Culpa mía, by the Argentinian novelist Mercedes Ron, written and directed by Domingo González.

A highlight in the New Waves section, Margarita Ledo Andion's documentary I'd Rather Be Condemned [+see also:
film review
film profile], is the love story of a shellfish worker in which desire, disobedience and social class are intertwined during the dictatorship; and other Spanish offering are Os naufragados, by Jorge Peña Martín, and the second feature film from Hermes Paralluelo, Las muertes de Chantyorinti.

The new Rampa section will screen José Manuel Carrasco's latest film, Miocardio [+see also:
film review
film profile], and Sima's Song [+see also:
trailer
film profile], by the Afghan Roya Sadat; while in the Enlightenment section, Javier Barbero and Martín Guerra will present Los Bárbaros. The 3D animated film Norbert, by José Corral Llorente, is part of the Europa Junior section. Finally, Panorama Andaluz will be showing 15 feature films and 23 short films.

Completing the Official Selection are the acclaimed animated film Flow [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gints Zilbalodis
film profile], by Gints Zilbalodis; the Belgian psychological drama Julie Keeps Quiet [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Leonardo van Dijl
film profile], by Leonardo van Dijl; Banzo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Margarida Cardoso
film profile], a reconstruction of colonial traumas by Margarida Cardoso; Paul & Paulette Take a Bath [+see also:
film review
interview: Jethro Massey
film profile], a romantic and black comedy by Jethro Massey; Transamazonia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pia Marais
film profile], an environmental intrigue by Pia Marais; Ernest Cole, Lost and Found [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], a moving tribute to the great photographer by Raoul Peck; A Missing Part [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Guillaume Senez
film profile], a drama about second chances by Guillaume Senez; The Girl With the Needle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Magnus von Horn
film profile], a black and white gothic horror by Denmark's Magnus von Horn; Rusudan Glurjidze's Georgian deportation drama The Antique [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rusudan Glurjidze
film profile]; and Sandhya Suri's Hindi crime drama Secrets of a Crime [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sandhya Suri
film profile].

Also in this section will be the French-Canadian drama Who by Fire [+see also:
film review
interview: Philippe Lesage
film profile] by Philippe Lesage; the autobiographical This Life of Mine [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Sophie Fillières; Meet the Barbarians [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], a choral and political comedy by Julie Delpy; the adaptation by twins Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma And their Children after Them [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]; the Swedish refugee drama Life on Pause [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alexandros Avranas
film profile] by Alexandros Avranas; the Dutch film Alpha [+see also:
film review
interview: Jan-Willem van Ewijk
film profile], by Jan-Willem van Ewijk , [+see also:
film review
interview: Jan-Willem van Ewijk
film profile]about father-and-son tensions in a ski resort; Ramon Zürcher's Swiss film The Sparrow in the Chimney [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ramon and Silvan Zürcher
film profile], about the reunion of two sisters and their respective families; and Fario [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lucie Prost
film profile], in which Lucie Prost addresses the suicides of French farmers through the eyes of a child.

Finally, there will be notable activities as part of Frame Sevilla, an event that brings together professionals from the film industry to share experiences, concerns and knowledge, which will be held between Monday 11 and Friday 15 November.

(Translated from Spanish by Alexandra Stephens)