07/11/2024 - The festival launches its Acento section, focusing on recent Spanish films, and welcomes thirteen productions and co-productions from both sides of the Atlantic in the official section

Memories of a Burning Body by Antonella Sudasassi Furniss

The Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival, which will celebrate its 50th edition from 15th to 23rd November, is strengthening its commitment to Spanish film with a new competitive section, Acento, a selection of the most outstanding feature films of the year by Spanish film makers, such as Afternoons of Solitude [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Albert Serra
film profile], by Albert Serra, winner of the Golden Shell at San Sebastian, and La guitarra flamenca by Yerai Cortés [+see also:
film review
interview: Antón Álvarez
film profile], the directorial début of Antón Álvarez (C. Tangana), special mention of the New Directors jury, which will be screened outside of the competitive category.

Competing for the Acento Award for Best Director are Catalan Carlos Marques-Marcet with his musical They will be dust [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carlos Marqués-Marcet
film profile], winner of the Platform Award in Toronto and the Silver Spike at Seminci; Jon Garaño and Aitor Arregi with Marco [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño
film profile], which featured at the Orizzonti in Venice; and the actress Paz Vega with her first project as a Director, the drama about domestic violence Rita [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which premièred at the Piazza Grande in Locarno. Alexis Morantewill also be contending for this new prize awarded by the public, with his second fiction film, May I Speak with the Enemy? [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] , an anti-war story centred on the youthful experiences of the acclaimed Spanish comedian Miguel Gila, which was screened in San Sebastian; Sandra Romero, with her début feature film As Silence Passes By [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sandra Romero
film profile], seen in the New Directors category in San Sebastian; Paula Palacios, with My brother Ali [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a non-fiction feature film recently screened at Seminci; and Laura Hojman, with Un hombre libre [+see also:
film review
interview: Laura Hojman
film profile], a documentary about the exiled Spanish playwright and novelist Agustín Gómez Arcos.

In addition to this new section, thirteen films will compete for the Colón de Oro in the Official Feature Film Section, with a representative sample of the current Ibero-American film scene: Memories of a Burning Body [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Antonella Sudasassi Furniss
film profile], by Antonella Sudasassi, winner of the Berlinale Panorama Audience Award for his work on the sex lives of 70-year-old women; Manas [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marianna Brennand
film profile], by Brazilian newcomer Marianna Brennand, a story of coming-of-age at the mouth of the Amazon and winner of the Giornate degli Autori in Venice; El cuento del lobo [+see also:
trailer
film profile], by Spanish director Norberto López Amado, in its world première, a thriller that delves into violence and ethical responsibility, starring Daniel Grao, Lucía Jiménez and Paco Tous; Baby [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], by Brazilian director Marcelo Caetano, about the reality of his homeland embroiled in love, male prostitution and plenty of street vogue, premièred at the Cannes Critics' Week; Mexico 86 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: César Díaz
film profile], by César Díaz, presented at the Piazza Grande in Locarno, about a courageous mother played by Bérénice Bejo, torn between her political ideals and her family instincts; Linda [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Argentinian Mariana Wainstein 's first work, première in Toronto, about a maid who uncovers a family's most intimate erotic secrets and fantasies; Portrait of a Certain Orient [+see also:
film review
interview: Marcelo Gomes
film profile], by Brazilian director Marcelo Gomes, an adaptation of Milton Hatoumque 's novel of the same name, presented in the Big Screen competition at the IFFR; Uruguay's Agárrame fuerte, by Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge, winner of the Nora Ephron Award at Tribeca, a story of contemporary sorority between young people trying to overcome grief over the loss of one of their best friends; La bachata de Biónico, by Dominican Yoel Morales, winner of the Audience Award at the South by Southwest Festival, a version of Romeo and Juliet under the effects of psychotropic substances; Betânia, the début feature by Brazilian director Marcelo Botta, also selected for the Berlin Panorama, about a matriarch who returns to a tourist paradise in her country; Sariri, the début feature film by Chilean Laura Donoso, the story of two sisters confronted with the rigid masculine norms that prevail in their mining town; Pierre Saint Martín's Mexican film No nos moverán, about a lawyer who conceives revenge after discovering the soldier who killed her brother in the 1968 student massacre in Tlatelolco; and Igualada, a documentary by Colombian Juan Mejía Botero about his country's first African descended vice-president.

(Translated from Spanish by Alexandra Stephens)