22/04/2025 - A hundred titles, many of them award winners at other film festivals, will be featured across competitive sections and tributes, along with screenings that connect past cinema with its present

Sergei Eisenstein's masterpiece, Battleship Potemkin, turns 100 and will take centre stage (starting with the festival poster itself) at the 24th edition of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, which will be held from 25 April-4 May on the beautiful island of Gran Canaria. This exciting edition also includes a special tribute to the recently deceased David Lynch, with screenings of his feature films, several short films and episodes of Twin Peaks. The festival will also remember the late actors Gena Rowlands, Gene Hackman and Donald Sutherland.

Its Official Competition Section will include ten features, all of which have won awards at international film festivals: Holy Electricity [+see also:
film review
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interview: Tato Kotetishvili
film profile] by Tato Kotetishvili (Georgia) won the Filmmakers of the Present - Golden Leopard Award at Locarno 2024, Lesson Learned [+see also:
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interview: Bálint Szimler
film profile] by Bálint Szimler (Hungary) received a Special Mention for Best Performance at the same festival, Cactus Pears [+see also:
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interview: Rohan Parashuram Kanawade
film profile] by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade (India/UK/Canada), Grand Jury Prize winner for Best Film in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the last Sundance Film Festival, One of Those Days When Hemme Dies [+see also:
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film profile] by Murat Fıratoğlu (Turkey) won the Orizzonti Special Jury Prize at Venice 2024, the US film Seeds by Brittany Shyne won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at Sundance this year, the Canadian flick Two Women by Chloé Robichaud won the Special Jury Prize in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the same event, the Spanish movie Gods of Stone by Iván Castiñeiras Gallego was featured in the Bright Future section of the latest IFFR, Yunan [+see also:
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film profile] by Ameer Fakher Eldin (Germany/Canada/Italy/Palestine/Qatar/Jordan/Saudi Arabia), was screened in the Official Selection at Berlin 2025, Blind Love by Julian Chou (Taiwan) was screened in the Official Selection at Rotterdam 2025, and La Quinta by Silvina Shnicer (Argentina/Spain/Chile/Brazil) won the Special Jury Prize at Marrakech 2024.

The Panorama España section offers a showcase of independent, different and refined cinema through six feature films: The Exiles [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], directed by Belén Funes, which recently won several awards at the Malaga Film Festival (more information here); La revolución de las musas by Mar Nantas, Juno Álvarez and Yaiza de Lamo; Invasión pequeña by Miguel Ángel Blanca and Jesús Manresa Puche; Jone, Sometimes by Sara Fantova, winner of the Un Impulso Colectivo award at the latest D'A Film Festival in Barcelona; Te separas mucho by Paula Veleiro; and Rains over Babel [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Gala del Sol, a co-production between Colombia, the USA and Spain, which was screened at Sundance, among other film festivals.

In the Canarias Cinema section, the following films are competing: To Our Friends, a documentary by Adrián Orr; Black Butterflies (winner of a Goya Award; read more here), an animated film by David Baute; My Dearest Friend by Paula Cons; and Sugar Island [+see also:
film review
interview: Johanné Gómez Terrero
film profile] by Johanné Gómez Terrero, a film that not only won the Best Cinematography Award at the Malaga Film Festival but has also been screened at film festivals in Venice, London, São Paulo and Thessaloniki. 

The last of the competitive sections, Banda Aparte, will feature several European (co)productions, among other titles: Sirens Call [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], directed by Miri Ian Gossing and Lina Sieckmann (Netherlands/Germany); Cast of Shadows by Sami van Ingen (Finland); My Armenian Phantoms by Tamara Stepanyan (France/Armenia/Qatar); and The Prado and the Moon by Spanish director Cayetana H Cuyás.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)