12th London Spanish Film Festival
The London Spanish Film Festival launches its 12th edition with an extraordinary line-up of recent Spanish films, most of them UK premieres and a unique opportunity to watch them in London. From enigmatic thrillers to fresh comedies, from poetic dramas to international co-productions, documentaries and promising shorts, this year's line-up offers an insight into the compelling variety of Spanish cinema and its artists.
We'll open with the much acclaimed La novia, Paula Ortiz's second film, based in Federico García Lorca's classic Bodas de sangre. Our closing film, Endless Night, is Isabel Coixet's international production, which opened last year's Berlin International Film Festival, starring Juliette Binoche and Rinko Kikuchi, a superb, intimate portrayal of the relationship between two women belonging to two opposite worlds.
We are happy to welcome back Ana Rodríguez Rosell, who comes with her second film, Falling, an international production in which she's worked again with Emma Suárez and the German-Turkish Birol Ünel. The three of them will be on stage to present the film. Another co-production we are happy to present is Fernando León de Aranoa's A Perfect Day, featuring an extraordinary international cast challenged by the Balkans war effects in this comedy-drama.
The extraordinary actress Blanca Portillo will join us as well to present Lydia Zimmermann's documentary María conversa and talk with Prof. Maria Delgado about her acting work.
We are proud to present a particularly strong Basque Window this year and are happy to welcome filmmaker Asier Altuna, whose work we have been featuring for several years, to present his female led film Amama. Veteran Imanol Uribe will present Lejos del mar, a film about the absence and vengeance feelings provoked by an ETA act of terrorism, and Bárbara Goenaga will present Pikadero, by the Welsh, Basque Country-based, Ben Sharrock. Model and actor Jon Kortajarena, not exactly a newcomer to film as his debut was in Tom Ford's A Single Man, will present the short 36 Hours and Acantilado.
Our 8th Catalan Window will bring the fresh but solid debut of four film students, Les amigues de l'Àgata, and a drama about the youths who participated in the last big battle of the Spanish Civil War, Ebre, which will be presented by the historian and Hispanist Paul Preston.
Last but not least, we are proud to partner with BFI in the presentation of El Sur, Víctor Erice's masterpiece about loss and memory, which is part of Pedro Almodóvar's carte blanche for their full retrospective.
As last year, some of the films will be in competition. We are honoured that the following Arts, Letters and Films professionals have agreed to be part of the Jury deciding our 2016 Best Film:
DAVINA CATT
London based Davina Catt studied English literature at University College London and has worked as a journalist writing and editing for publications including Vogue.com, British Vogue and Financial Times. She is currently a UK contributing editor at Interview Magazine, as well as new biannual title, Violet, alongside world known film directors and actors. From a family immersed in writing and film, Davina has written/directed an arts based documentary, featuring amongst others Stephen Fry, Bonnie Wright, which launched in UK cinemas earlier in 2016. She regularly gets asked to be part of panels and host talks at venues including Bafta, V&A and Conde Nast College.
ALASDAIR FLIND
Alasdair Flind, a former journalist, has been running independent film and TV production company Cowboy Films alongside producing partner Charles Steel, since 2007. Previous feature film credits include Kevin Macdonald’s adaptation of the best selling novel How I Live Now and BBC Films family comedy Bill. Most recently Alasdair produced Natasha Khan’s (aka Bat for Lashes) first short film as part of MTV’s Madlyanthology feature that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this year. Television credits include two seasons of the RTS and BAFTA award winning Top Boy and the BAFTA winning single film Poppy Shakespeare.
GARETH HARRIS
Gareth Harris is an established freelance arts and culture journalist. He is chief contributing editor at The Art Newspaper, the "art world bible" where he began his journalism career in 2003. He has contributed numerous articles to the Financial Times, and has written for The New York Times, Vogue, The Guardian and The Independent.
MICHAEL ROBINSON
Michael Robinson is a London based producer at MGR Films, which he founded in 2013. Michael's credits include We Need To Talk About Kevin, Mr Nice and The Sea, based on John Banville's Booker Prize winning novel. His upcoming productions include Unqueened - the story of Queen Caroline of Brunswick with Simon Curtis directing; an adaptation of Ed Docx's tragicomic novel The Calligrapher with PJ Hogan writing and directing; a biopic of Vivien Leigh, and an adaptation of Saul Bellow's seminal novel Herzog, as well as co-producing outside projects such as Michael Mann's adaptation of Bernard Cornwell novel Azincourt. Michael lived in Buenos Aires in the 1990s and maintains a passion for Spanish and Latin American cinema and culture.
FEDERICO SPOLETTI
Born and raised in Italy, Federico Spoletti is co-founder and Managing Director of SUB-TI, an international subtitling company based in London, which provides audiovisual translation services all over the world, working with well over 30 languages and international film festivals such as the Venice Film Festival, the Locarno Film Festival, the British Film Institute and the MoMA in New York. He co-founded SUB-TI ACCESS, which works on cultural accessibility for the hearing and visually impaired. In 2011, he launched FRED Film Radio – The Festival Insider, a web-based radio network which boasts 29 channels, broadcasting in 25 languages.
The London Spanish Film Festival is organised by Tristana Media (www.tristanamedia.com) and will take place at Ciné Lumière and theRegent Street Cinema.
For the full programme go to www.londonspanishfilmfestival.com