03/10/2014 - Seven Spanish titles as yet unreleased in France are competing for the Golden Violet in Toulouse, in a cinematic landscape that has proven to be very creative in the face of adversity

Spain’s contender for the upcoming Oscar for Best Foreign-language Film, Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by David Trueba (read the review), will tonight be the opening film for the 19th edition of Cinespaña, the Spanish film festival in Toulouse. Running until 12 October, the event will be presenting the brightest stars of a “film industry rich in fresh talent – people who, in the face of adversity, succeed in making original films with a strong degree of creativity”, as highlighted by Françoise Palmerio-Vielmas and Patrick Bernabé, who run the festival.

Seven feature films that have not yet been released in France will be battling it out for the Golden Violet 2014, which will be awarded by a jury chaired by director Denys Granier-Deferre. The line-up for the competition includes Beautiful Youth [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jaime Rosales
film profile] by Jaime Rosales (revealed in Un Certain Regard at Cannes), Los tontos y los estúpidos [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Roberto Castón (which turned a lot of heads at the recent San Sebastián Film Festival in the New Directors section), Carlos Marqués-Marcet’s Long Distance [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carlos Marques-Marcet
film profile] (which was victorious last spring at Malaga and was on the shortlist of Spanish Oscar candidates), Ärtico [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile] by Gabriel Velazquez (Special Mention in the Generation14plus section of the Berlinale – read the review), Manuel Martín Cuenca’s Cannibal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Manuel Martín Cuenca
film profile] (read the review and the interview), We All Want What's Best for Her [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Mar Coll and Falling Star [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Luis Miñarro ­
film profile] by Lluis Miñarro (read the interview).

Out of competition, an array of eight fiction features will allow local audiences to discover Emilio Martínez Lázaro’s Spanish Affair [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (the biggest national box-office smash in Spain’s history), Carmina y amén [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Paco León (read the review), El futuro [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Luis López Carrasco (screened at Locarno – read the review), The Unexpected Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jorge Torregrossa
film profile] by Jorge Torregrossa, Manolo Vázquez’s La maniobra de Heimlich, Los amigos raros by Roberto Pérez Toledo, Todos tus secretos by Manuel Bartual and Zip & Zap and the Marble Gang [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Oskar Santos (presented last year at Toronto and San Sebastián).

The Cinespaña programme is rounded off by a number of screenings (both in and out of competition) of documentaries and short films, a “Sex, Gender and Identities” sidebar, a selection of fantastic films, a section entitled “Memory and Politics”, a thematic carte blanche for Luis E Parés, and a meeting with actress Lola Dueñas, among other events.

(Translated from French)