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Manila Bulletin devider Lifestyle devider Pelicula Spanish Film Festival to screen regionally, Manila included!

Pelicula Spanish Film Festival to screen regionally, Manila included!

Published Sep 19, 2022 07:14 pm

Celebrating its 21st Edition since its inceptionOne of the highlights of this year’s Pelicula Spanish Film Festival besides its return to the theaters in the Philippines is its expansion regionally with online screenings happening in Malaysia and Australia.

Celebrating its 21st edition since its inception

A frame from the film "Bertsolari"

Owing to the success of the festival since its first run in 2002 by Instituto Cervantes de Manila, Pelicula has been an annual attraction in Philippine theaters. Since then, countless films have been screened in theaters in the Philippines and have grown a steady following among Filipino film fans. With this success, Instituto Cervantes Manila now expands its program to other neighboring countries including Malaysia and Australia.

Beyond the promotion of Spanish cinema, the festival is committed to and strives to be a catalyst in the promotion of regional understanding through cultural means where we can all feast on masterpieces of Spanish cinema.

Poster of "Official Competition" starring Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas, and Oscar Martínez

With the Covid-19 crisis, which forced countries to tightly close borders and caused tragic effects on our social and cultural life, the festival can be a good opportunity and a good platform to ease the impacts of the pandemic as we slowly return to normalcy. Furthermore, films always have the potential to bring people together and ease our cultural differences, and linguistic divides, and allow us to experience our shared humanity.

Pelicula has been an annual attraction in Philippine theatres. After the Covid-19 crisis, which forced cinemas to close worldwide and caused audiences of PELÍCULA to migrate online, the festival returns to the big screen, on a first-come, first-served free admission basis. Furthermore, the Festival will be hosting face-to-face online screenings in Malaysia and Australia.

Now on its 21st Edition, the Pelicula Spanish Film Festival is one of the most successful film festivals of Instituto Cervantes globally showcasing a variety of acclaimed Spanish films while fostering better communication between cultures through the art of filmmaking, cinema, and cultural exchange. Its goal is to connect both Spanish and Filipino cultures and audiences through this choice selection of award-winning films. This year, the festival will run from Oct.5 to 16, and it will screen around 20 movies in three venues of Metro-Manila -–Shangri-La Plaza, Cine Adarna at UP Diliman, and Instituto Cervantes Intramuros branch.

PELíCULA 2022 Official Poster

In the Philippines, the Festival will open with El Buen Patrón by Fernando León de Aranoa, a comedy starring Javier Bardem. Other comedies in the line-up include El Test by Dani de la Orden and Con Quién Viajas by Martín Cuervo. The official entries also include documentaries such as A Las Mujeres de España. María Lejárraga by Laura Hojman, dramas such as Maixabel by Icíar Bollaín or El Olvido Que Seremos by Fernando Trueba, and thrillers like La Hija by Manuel Martín Cuenca.

PELÍCULA will also feature Latin American films such as the Colombian documentary Jinetes del Paraíso by Talia Osorio Cardona, the Panamenian comedy Algo Azul by Mariel García Spooner, and Competencia Oficial, a Spanish-Argentinean comedy directed in 2021 by Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn, featuring Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas, and Oscar Martínez.

To celebrate the 21st edition of the cinematographic showcase, there will be a special selection of classic Spanish films. These include Esa Pareja Feliz by Juan Antonio Bardem & Luis García Berlanga (1951), Muerte de un Ciclista by Juan Antonio Bardem (1953), Mamá Cumple Cien Años by Carlos Saura (1979), and El Sur by Víctor Erice (1983).

All the movies are in Spanish (or their original language) with English subtitles.

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