The 19th edition of Pelicula, Spanish Film Festival, will feature the best of contemporary Spanish cinema from Oct. 3 to 11, 2020.
Presented by Instituto Cervantes and the Embassies of Spain in the Philippines, Thailand, and Australia, the 2020 Spanish Film Festival screens online eight feature films and four short films.
Since its first run in 2002 organized by Instituto Cervantes de Manila, the Spanish Film Festival has been an annual attraction in Philippine cinemas.
The Covid19 pandemic has posed the greatest challenge in the history of the festival, which prompted Pelicula to offer online screenings and webinars.
This year, Pelicula is expanding to two other countries, now covering the Philippines, Thailand, and Australia.
Each movie will be available for viewing for free at http://www.pelikula.es for 24 hours, starting at 6 pm (in the Philippines and Thailand) and 8 pm (in Australia), on the programmed screening date.
Pelicula opens today, Oct. 3, with La filla d’algú (2019), a film directed by 11 students from the Escuela Superior de Cine y Audiovisuales de Cataluña.
Other movies in the line-up are: El increíble finde menguante (Jon Mikel Caballero, 2019), the comedy Asamblea (Alex Montoya, 2019), and dramas like Jaulas (Nicolás Pacheco, 2018), and Arima (Jaione Camborda, 2019).
Likewise, there will be documentaries such as Mudar la piel (Ana Schulz and Cristóbal Fernández, 2018), and El cuadro (Andrés Sanz, 2019).
The festival also features Latin American cinema, with the screening of Costa Rica’s El despertar de las hormigas (Antonella Sudassasi, 2019).
Aside from online screenings, webinars, and online discussions are also programmed.
Within Cineclub Pelicula, directors of the movies screened during the festival will participate in several online discussions.
On Oct. 5, a round-table discussion about “Marketing Asian Cinema in Europe and Spanish Cinema in Asia,” will be held. On Oct. 9, the directors of Spanish, Thai, and Filipino major film festivals will discuss the issue of “Any Future for Film Festivals?”
These events may be accessed free of charge through the site http://www.pelikula.es.
Encounters through short films
The Tagalog word “pelikula” comes from the Spanish “película” (film), which is proof of the deep cultural ties shared between the Philippines and Spain.
With this spirit in mind, Pelicula had among its main objectives to organize joint Spanish-Filipino programs which foster dialogue and joint projects between filmmakers from the Philippines and the Spanish-speaking world.
On Oct. 10, Pelicula offers “En corto: Short Films from the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, and Spain” in which four short films, one from each country, will be featured. Directors of each film will join an online discussion after the screening.
Audience Choice Award
Last but not least, film buffs should not miss the yearly “Audience Choice” Award.”
Established in 2004, the Premio del Público (Audience Choice Award) recognizes annually the film voted by the audience as their “best of the festival.” It is a very popular feature of Pelicula.
Adapting it to the new condition of online festival, viewers will rate the movie they have seen online. The winning movie will be screened again on Oct. 11, 6 pm, at the festival’s platform http://www.pelikula.es .
Pelicula is presented by Instituto Cervantes through Instituto Cervantes in Manila and Instituto Cervantes in Sydney, the Embassies of Spain in the Philippines, Thailand, and Australia, and AECID, with the collaboration of the ICAA, the Málaga Film Festival, the Thai Film Archive, the Sydney Film Festival, the Travelling Film Festival, Intramuros Administration, the Film Development Council of the Philippines, and the UP Film Institute.
For the schedule, film details and further information on the festival, please visit http://www.pelikula.es, or https://manila.cervantes.es , or the Facebook page of Instituto Cervantes: http://www.facebook.com/InstitutoCervantesManila
Instituto Cervantes in Manila Images
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