From 19-25 October, Granada will play host to the 31st Jóvenes Realizadores – Granada Film Fest, presenting a carefully curated line-up of today’s most daring and surprising cinema, and reaching out to new audiences by embracing other formats such as podcasts. Headed up by Antonio Miguel Arenas, Idoia Virdozola and Julio Bolívar, the event will close with the Andalusian premiere of Flores para Antonio, a documentary by Elena Molina and Isaki Lacuesta that bowed at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, in which actress Alba Flores sets out to reclaim the voice and story of her late father, Antonio Flores, asking her family and friends about him for the first time.

True to the gathering's mission to spotlight new talent, two debut features stand out within the International Competition (which is rounded off by 21 short films): Aro Berria [+lire aussi :
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In addition, during the festival, prominent filmmaker Isaki Lacuesta will receive the Sin Fin Award and will lead the Filmmakers’ Encounter organised by the Culture and Education Department of the Granada Provincial Council; German director Helena Wittmann (Drift [+lire aussi :
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interview : Helena Wittmann et Theresa…
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interview : Belén Funes
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interview : Belén Funes
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At the opening, Andalusian short films will take centre stage with the first session of the Vibraciones Competition, held in collaboration with the SGAE Foundation. Alongside the International Competition and the Aguaespejo Competition, promoted by the AguaGranada Foundation, the festival’s official competitive sections will hand out more than €5,000 in prizes. In total, over 90 titles from 27 countries will be screened, encompassing both shorts and features. With 12 world and five Spanish premieres on the cards, it's worth noting that the Pantalla Film in Granada section broadens its scope to include works by students from training centres across the province.

Among its special screenings, the festival has scheduled a showcase of Palestinian short films highlighting the talent of a new generation of filmmakers who have addressed the massacre in Gaza through fiction, animation and documentary. It also brings back masterpieces that are turning 100, such as The Gold Rush by Charlie Chaplin, Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein and Seven Chances by Buster Keaton, the latter accompanied by live music from pianist José Ignacio Hernández. The cycle will culminate in an event where local artist Chico Blanco, who fuses dance music with other genres, will provide a live score to Rupert Julian’s The Phantom of the Opera.