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.

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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Elisa Cepedal
scheda film] by Elisa Cepedal; Los últimos pastores [+leggi anche:
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scheda 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 [+leggi anche:
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scheda 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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Radu Jude
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intervista: Lisandro Alonso
scheda film] and French filmmaker Catherine Breillat’s Cannes offering Last Summer [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Catherine Breillat
scheda film]. Also representing France is Catherine Corsini, who scooped a Special Jury Mention at the festival’s 59th edition for The Divide [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Catherine Corsini
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intervista: Catherine Corsini
intervista: Suzy Bemba
scheda film]. Additionally, Philippe Garrel’s The Plough [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Fien Troch
scheda 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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Stephan Komandarev
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Playing out of competition in the Albar selection is Baltimore [+leggi anche:
intervista: Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor
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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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Marie Amachoukeli
scheda 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 [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Selma Doborac and Andrei Tănase’s Day of the Tiger [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Andrei Tănase
scheda film]. Other titles that have eagerly been awaiting their Spanish premieres after a successful festival run are Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Elene Naveriani
scheda film] by Elene Naveriani, the dazzling animation Chicken for Linda! [+leggi anche:
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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 [+leggi anche:
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scheda 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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Filipa Reis, João Miller G…
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You can find the full festival programme here.