08/12/2008

On Friday, the 17th edition of Spanish Cinema Now! (December 5-24) kicked off in New York. The event – which will host a selection of recent Spanish productions and two retrospectives – is organised by the Film and Audiovisual Arts Institute (ICAA) in collaboration with New York’s Cervantes Institute and the Lincoln Center Film Society.

The festival aims to promote Spanish film in the United States and will screen the best recent productions. A total of 16 titles will be presented, including Javier Gutiérrez’s Before the Fall, which won the Golden Biznaga at the Málaga Spanish Film Festival; Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón’s Todos estamos invitados (“We’re All Invited”), about the terrorist group ETA; and two genre films: REC [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza
interview: Julio Fernández
film profile] by Paco Plaza and Jaume Balagueró, and Nacho Vigalondo’s Timecrimes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alejandro Miranda
interview: Nacho Vigalondo
film profile], which will get a US remake.

Further titles are Belén Macías’ My Prison Yard [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which was selected in official competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival; and Silvia Munt’s Pretexts.

Moreover, the event will pay homage to actor Javier Cámara, who has become one of the most versatile performers on the Spanish film scene. One of the films in which he stars – Nacho G. Velilla’s Chef’s Special [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – will open the festival.

The line-up also includes six other titles featuring the actor. Among them are Pedro Almodóvar’s Talk to Her, Pablo Berger’s Torremolinos 73 [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and José Luis Cuerda’s Spanish Oscar hopeful The Blind Sunflowers.

Finally, the second retrospective focuses on Spanish experimental film from 1908-1958 and comprises several shorts and features.

(Translated from Spanish)