The 61st Gijón International Film Festival (FICX), which runs from 17-25 November, is about to get under way. The Spanish gathering is once again asserting its support for the best of independent cinema, be it national or international. The festival will open on Friday 17 November with a gala where FICX will honour the careers of director Miguel Gomes and cinematographer Agnès Godard with Awards of Honor, and that of Asturian actress Lilián de Celis with the Isaac del Rivero Award. The ceremony will be followed by the world premiere of Lobo by Alfonso Cortés-Cavanillas, co-written by and starring Marian Álvarez.

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The festival’s official selection is divided into three parts: Retueyos, for first, second and third films; Albar, which includes established names; and Tierres en Trance, for Ibero-American flicks. A total of 76 Spanish movies will be screened at this year’s event, ten of them in the Official Selection. Three Asturian titles will have their world premieres at Gijón: the post-industrial memory film El Cine, 5 [+lire aussi :
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interview : Elisa Cepedal
fiche film] by Elisa Cepedal; Los últimos pastores [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], where director Samu Fuentes tackles life and extinction (both showing in Retueyos); and Celia Viada Caso’s Gregoria, in the Official Short Film Section. Another world premiere in competition is Los restos del pasar [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Luis Soto Muñoz and Alfredo Picazo, in Tierres en Trance.

The Albar strand, for established names in contemporary cinema, includes festival favourites such as the new works by Gijón regular Hong Sang-soo (In Our Day and In Water), Radu Jude’s Locarno Special Jury Prize winner Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World [+lire aussi :
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interview : Radu Jude
fiche film], Lisandro Alonso’s tripartite feat Eureka [+lire aussi :
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interview : Lisandro Alonso
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interview : Catherine Breillat
fiche film]. Also representing France is Catherine Corsini, who scooped a Special Jury Mention at the festival’s 59th edition for The Divide [+lire aussi :
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interview : Catherine Corsini
fiche film], and is now back with her latest, Homecoming [+lire aussi :
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interview : Catherine Corsini
interview : Suzy Bemba
fiche film]. Additionally, Philippe Garrel’s The Plough [+lire aussi :
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interview : Fien Troch
fiche film], a supernatural story about a young woman and her suspected magical powers. Bulgarian filmmaker Stefan Komandarev will also show his three-fold Karlovy Vary winner, Blaga’s Lessons [+lire aussi :
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interview : Stephan Komandarev
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Playing out of competition in the Albar selection is Baltimore [+lire aussi :
interview : Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor
fiche film], the latest outing by Irish filmmakers Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor. The works of Molloy and Lawlor are also part of the festival’s Focus this year, together with those of Spanish actress and director Elena Martín Gimeno.

For Retueyos, in addition to Los últimos pastores and El Cine, 5, French filmmaker of Georgian descent Marie Amachoukeli will present her solo directorial debut, Àma Gloria [+lire aussi :
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interview : Marie Amachoukeli
fiche film], which opened this year’s Critics’ Week. Joining this touching story is another feature exploring one’s origins, A House for Wandering Souls, the debut by Galicia’s Pablo Lago Dantas. Some films in the competition present a political outlook on life, such as De Facto [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Selma Doborac and Andrei Tănase’s Day of the Tiger [+lire aussi :
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interview : Andrei Tănase
fiche film]. Other titles that have eagerly been awaiting their Spanish premieres after a successful festival run are Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry [+lire aussi :
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interview : Elene Naveriani
fiche film] by Elene Naveriani, the dazzling animation Chicken for Linda! [+lire aussi :
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As part of Tierres en Trance, Venezuela’s Iván Andrés Simonovis Pertíñez will show his debut film, a documentary-thriller named La prisión de mi padre. Other debuts in this strand include Á Procura da Estrela by Carlos Martínez-Peñalver Mas, a film about a Galician sound recordist in search of sounds of the past, and Calls from Moscow [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], a story about four queer exiles seeking political asylum by Luis Alejandro Yero. Argentinian filmmaker María Aparicio will present her third feature, Las Cosas Indefinidas, previously screened at FIDMarseille, alongside Légua [+lire aussi :
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interview : Filipa Reis, João Miller G…
fiche film] by Filipa Reis and João Miller Guerra, Las demás by Alexandra Hyland and Muertes y maravillas by Diego Soto.

You can find the full festival programme here.