After the success of the pilot programme last year, we are once again proud to present NEW SPANISH DIRECTORS, the place to discover the Spanish Filmmakers of tomorrow!
Following our famously fierce defense and passion for short film, we select the early shorts of key Spanish filmmakers whose work has already attracted international interest and who are about to release their first feature film. In doing so, we gather the aesthetic and directorial reasons to make us (and you too!) believe that anything coming from these filmmakers in the future is bound to be something exciting.
This September, our Directors in Focus will be Elena López Riera, Álvaro Gago and Javier Marco.
We are premiering this edition in the heart of Edinburgh. Worry not though, you can catch these cinematic gems wherever you are with an online pass!
IN-PERSON SCREENING
Join us in the heart of the city for a magical movie night.
Where Old St Paul’s Church (63 Jeffrey St, Edinburgh)
When Friday 10th September, doors open at 19:30
Get your tickets here
ONLINE SCREENING
Watch the festival from the comfort of your home by purchasing an online pass valid for 9 days!
Where Worldwide!
When From 10th – 19th September
Get your tickets here
16 DE DECEMBRO
Year: 2019
Duration: 14 min
Language: Galician and Spanish
Synopsis: Saturday. Nightfall. The ball travels quickly across the court as the players try to find gaps in the defense. Lucía, twenty-five, leaves handball training and sets off to pick up her brother under the lights of a city she thinks she knows.
Festivals & Awards:
2021 Goya Awards, Best Short Fiction Film, Nominee
Locarno Film Festival
Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival
Festival de Cine de L’Alfàs del Pi, Best Director, Winner
MATRIA
Year: 2017
Duration: 21 min
Language: Galician
Synopsis: Ramona lives with her husband, with whom she barely communicates, and works in a canning factory run by a tyrant manager. Faced with the challenges presented by her daily routine, Ramona tries to take refuge in the relationship that unites her to her daughter and granddaughter.
Festivals & Awards:
2019 Goya Awards, Best Short Fiction Film, Nominee
Sundance Film Festival, Grand Jury Prize, Winner
IndieLisboa Independent Film Festival, Best Fiction, Winner
CURRICÁN
Year: 2014
Duration: 15 min
Language: Galician
Synopsis: Xan Curricán guides us through the streets of Vilanova de Arousa, a village full of picturesque portraits and endless epiphanies.
Festivals & Awards:
Málaga Spanish Film Festival
Festival de Cans, Jury Award, Winner
IBAFF Film Festival
BOMBOLLES (Bubbles)
Year: 2015
Duration: 03 min
Language: Catalan
Synopsis: On a sunny Sunday afternoon, a group of kids play with bubbles in the park.
Festivals & Awards:
Festival Fenêtre sur l’Europe, Audience Award, Winner
Wolves Independent Film Festival
Fajr Film Festival
ELO
Year: 2017
Duration: 30 min
Language: Galician
Synopsis: A film ‘in media res’ that begins and ends in the middle. There is only the in between. There is no beginning or end. There are no empty sets. The space will be filled again with life.
LOS QUE DESEAN (Those Who Lust)
Year: 2018
Duration: 24 min
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: In Southern Spain, a peculiar pigeon’s race with hand painted colors, will award not the fastest one, but the one who will seduce a pigeon female, and fly the longest possible at her side.
Festivals & Awards:
European Film Awards, Best Short Film, Nominee
San Sebastián Film Festival, Special Mention, Winner
Locarno Film Festival, Leopards of Tomorrow, Winner
LAS VISCERAS (The Entrails)
Year: 2016
Duration: 16 min
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: A village in southern Spain. On a hot summer afternoon, a woman grabs a rabbit, strokes it, then kills it with her bare hands before skinning it. Her grandchildren witness this rite of death.
Festivals & Awards:
Locarno Film Festival
Valencia Film Festival
PUEBLO
Year: 2015
Duration: 28 min
Language: Spanish and Catalan
Synopsis: After some time passed on the exile, Rafa returns to his village confronting everything he left in the past. Immersed in the fantastic atmospheres of the processions, Rafa and his childhood friend, Lucas, will set out on an escape through the end of a night.
Festivals & Awards:
Cannes Film Festival
Festival de Málaga
Festival de Cine Europeo de Sevilla
PAS À GENÈVE (Not in Geneva)
Year: 2014
Duration: 66 min
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: In July 2011, in the midst of the “indignados” movement in Spain, we were invited to spend a few days in Geneva. Being so far away from everything we cared for, and feeling overwhelmed by the situation we were living, we wound up defying ourselves with a titanic, perhaps absurd challenge: To film everything. Absolutely everything. Pas à Genève is the hallucinated tale of what we lived those days.
Festivals & Awards:
D’A Film Festival
AMIANTO (Asbestos)
Year: 2020
Duration: 18 min
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: A surreal and poetic story about a couple that finds a hedgehog costume covered with asbestos at a scrapyard. The odd outfit introduces an element of a puzzle to their world.
Festivals & Awards:
Krakow Film Festival
Odense Film Festival
A LA CARA
Year: 2020
Duration: 14 min
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: Lina doesn’t mind people insulting her. But if they do, they should do it face to face.
Festivals & Awards:
2021 Goya Awards, Best Short Fiction Film, Winner
Málaga Spanish Film Festival, Best Actress & Best Actor, Winner
Almería Short Film Festival, Best Actor, Winner
MUERO POR VOLVER
Year: 2019
Duration: 15 min
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: At 78 years old, Manuela buys a camera and augmented reality glasses..
Festivals & Awards:
Medina Film Festival, Best Screenplay, Winner
Reykjavik Film Festival, Best Short Film, Winner
Valencia International Film Festival
UNO (One)
Year: 2017
Duration: 11 min
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: Far out at sea, a cell phone floating inside an air-tight bag starts to ring.
Festivals & Awards:
Athens Film and Video Festival
EL VESTIDO (The Dress)
Year: 2014
Duration: 14 min
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: Every day, on her way to work, Sara’s mother sees a dress in a store window.
Festivals & Awards:
Valencia Film Festival
CLASSMATE
Year: 2016
Duration: 10 min
Language: English
Synopsis: A man and a woman meet on a bus. She’s an engineer and she’s married. He’s homeless..
Festivals & Awards:
Hermosillo Film Festival
NEW SPANISH DIRECTORS is a project supported by Instituto Cervantes London, Screen Scotland, Film Hub Scotland and Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) through the PICE’s grants programme for the Internationalization of Spanish Culture.