The Valladolid International Film Week (Seminci) will grant a posthumous peak of honor to the director and screenwriter Patricia Ferreirawho died at the end of last year and whom the director of the competition, José Luis Cienfuegos, named as one of the filmmakers who paved the way for future generations of filmmakers, speaking of “telling stories from a female perspective. . In its 69th edition, the festival will grant this recognition to the director of the Film Academy, Fernando Méndez-Leitefor his work “always for the benefit” of the seventh art “which he loves so much”. Likewise, he will present the prize awarded in 2018 to Mohammad Rasoulof, which the Iranian director was unable to receive due to his house arrest.
These are some of the new features announced by Cienfuegos during the press conference presenting the Valladolid festival. In this document, he stressed that the competition will screen a total of 210 films, including 68 in competitive sectionsand also highlighted that of the 144 feature films that will be screened, 30 are Spanish. “The question is not whether more or less Spanish cinema is programmed, but how”, underlined the director of Seminci, pointing out that two films, the last National Film Award, producer Ana Zamora, will compete in the official section.
“For nine days we will offer a broad overview of auteur cinema,” added Cienfuegos, who described the program of this edition as “ambitious”, but also “optimistic, conciliatory and continuous”, and stressed that the programmed titles aim to “open dialogue on social and human issues.
Among the new features, we also announced the meeting of women filmmakers around the theme “What happens when they speak?” », in collaboration with the University of Valladolid; the “Thinking about Cinema” cycle “to promote knowledge of cinematographic art and bring together the voices of key filmmakers” and the “Traces and Escapes” exhibition. Spanish cinema at Seminci’, in which, as he details, “the creative processes of the Spanish films presented at the festival” will be presented. Thus, this event will bring together “documents, costumes, posters, storyboards and other objects related to the production and filming of titles such as ‘Salve María’, by Mar Coll, or ‘Polvo estar’, by Carlos Marques-Marcet”.
The press conference also served to present the new music of the festival, which will accompany each of the screenings, signed by Javier Vielba from Valladolid. “I tried to open my heart and soul as a movie buff,” said the protagonist about the process of creating this “kind of sonic logo” for which he turned to electronic music because it seemed to be “a good tool to condense this abstraction”. . ” and the excitement that accompanies entering a movie theater.
Cienfuegos also spoke about special screenings. To those already announced, such as “El llanto”, by Pedro Martín-Calero de Valladolid, recent Silver Conque for best direction, he added titles like “The flamenco guitar of Yerai Cortés”, the first film by C. Tangana, who will be in Valladolid, and the world premiere of ‘Colita sinfilters’ signed by Hortensia Vélez and Elisabeth Anglarill, belonging to the RTVE series ‘Imprescindibles’. He announced that the festival will welcome a new non-competitive section called “Constellations”, which aims to “further enrich the quality of the international titles screened and provide a space for filmmakers involved in the festival”. This year, place for the latest creations of three Spike of Honor winners from previous editions: Costa-Gavras, Mike Leigh and Jacques Audiard.
