22/10/2020 - The 65th Valladolid International Film Festival kicks off this Saturday and will offer a programme brimming with auteurs and highly personal propositions, with Isabel Coixet set to open the gathering

While it could easily rain on one of the days when the Seminci is unspooling – between 24 and 31 October – in Valladolid, a flurry of snowflakes is not overly likely, as opposed to what Isabel Coixet suggests could happen in the titular Mediterranean tourist hotspot in It Snows in Benidorm [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Isabel Coixet
film profile]. Indeed, this, her new film, will have the honour of opening the storied Valladolid International Film Festival this Saturday. The lucky recipient of the recent 2020 National Film Award will present her movie – which was produced by the Almodóvar brothers’ El Deseo outfit, and which stars Timothy Spall, Sarita Choudhury, Carmen Machi and Ana Torrent – in the Calderón Theatre at an edition of the festival that, as is increasingly becoming the norm for this type of event, will go hybrid. It will thus unspool in a physical, on-site format as well as online (a selection of some of the 150 titles that the festival has picked will be watchable on the Filmin platform, while press conferences, master classes and meetings with industry professionals will be rebroadcast live via the Canal Seminci channel).

This year, the event’s patron will be actor Javier Gutiérrez, who is also involved, as the narrator, in the documentary El tiempo robado. Tomás Salvador González, which is taking part in the Time of History section, out of competition. Tribute will be paid to Valladolid-born author Miguel Delibes, in celebration of his 100^th birthday, and two of his favourite features will be screened to mark the occasion: Mon Oncle by Jacques Tati and A Streetcar Named Desire by Elia Kazan. Over the coming days, a number of other important names in Spanish cinema – filmmakers Gracia Querejeta and Julio Medem, and actors Javier Cámara, Charo López and María Galiana – will receive the Honorary Spike at the 65^th Seminci (a trophy that Coixet will also pick up).

As well as leaving room for first-time directors in its Meeting Point strand, the festival, which will draw to a close on 31 October with a showing of the French comedy The Big Hit [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Emmanuel Courcol, will screen a slew of titles in its Official Section that will be duking it out for the Golden Spike: Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lili Horvat
interview: Natasa Stork
film profile] (Hungary) by Lili Horvát, Gaza mon amour [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (a co-production between France, Germany, Portugal, Palestine and Qatar) by Arab Nasser and Tarzan Nasser, Here We Are [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Israel/Italy) by Nir Bergman, the animated film Josep [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aurel
film profile] (France/Spain/Belgium) by Aurel, Nowhere Special [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Uberto Pasolini
film profile] (Italy/Romania/UK) by Uberto Pasolini, Persian Lessons [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Leonie Benesch
film profile] (Russia/Germany/Belarus) by Vadim Perelman, Servants [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivan Ostrochovský
film profile] (Slovakia/Romania/Czech Republic/Ireland) by Ivan Ostrochovský, There Is No Evil [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Germany/Czech Republic/Iran) by Mohammad Rasoulof; The Wasteland (Iran) by Ahmad Bahrami, The Disciple (India) by Chaitanya Tamhane, The Cloud in Her Room (Hong Kong/China) by Zheng Lu Xinyuan, Minari (US) by Lee Isaac Chung, Sweet Thing (US) by Alexandre Rockwell and Puppy Love (Canada/US) by Michael Maxxis.

Among its plethora of activities, the festival boasts the Women Filmmakers’ Forum, this time focusing on film education and literacy; the Distribution Meeting, which will spark discussion on the future of film festivals, and which has invited the heads of gatherings such as the Seville European Film Festival (José Luis Cienfuegos), San Sebastián (José Luis Rebordinos) and Cinema Jove in Valencia (Carlos Madrid), among others; a special screening of Fellini of the Spirits [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Italy/Belgium) by Anselma Dell’Olio, which boasts the involvement of Roberto Begnini, Terry Gilliam, William Friedkin and Damien Chazelle, among many other admirers of the timeless maestro; a special strand reserved for three works about climate change; and a series of events revolving around the Free Cinema movement, with screenings of movies helmed by greats such as John Schlesinger, Tony Richardson, Karel Reisz and Lindsay Anderson.

(Translated from Spanish)