Instituto Cervantes’ 19th PELÍCULA Spanish Film Festival Goes Online
From October 3 to 11, 2020, the 19th edition of PELÍCULA Spanish Film Festival will feature the best of contemporary Spanish cinema. Presented by Instituto Cervantes and the Embassies of Spain in the Philippines, Thailand, and Australia, the 2020 Spanish Film Festival will screen online eight feature films and four short films.
Since its conception in 2002 by Instituto Cervantes de Manila, the Spanish Film Festival has been an annual attraction in Philippine cinemas. The COVID-19 crisis has posed the greatest challenge in the history of the Festival, and PELíCULA responds by offering online screenings and webinars.
Even better, PELíCULA is expanding to two other countries, thus covering three countries in the region: the Philippines, Thailand and Australia.
Each movie will be available for viewing for free at pelikula.es for 24 hours, starting at 6 pm in the Philippines and Thailand and 8 pm in Australia, on the programmed screening date.
La filla d’algú (2019)
The Festival will open on October 3 with La filla d’algú (2019), a film directed by eleven students from the Escuela Superior de Cine y Audiovisuales de Cataluña.
Other movies in this year’s 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).
El increíble finde menguante (Jon Mikel Caballero, 2019)
Likewise, there will be documentaries such as Mudar la piel (Ana Schulz and Cristóbal Fernández, 2018), and El cuadro (Andrés Sanz, 2019). PELÍCULA will also feature Latin American cinema, with one film from Costa Rica, El despertar de las hormigas (Antonella Sudassasi, 2019).
Aside from online screenings, webinars and online discussions are also programmed. Within Cineclub PELíCULA, Jessica Zafra will moderate several online discussions about films screened in the Festival, with the participation of the directors of the movies.
On October 5 there will be a round-table discussion about “Marketing Asian Cinema in Europe and Spanish Cinema in Asia”; and on October 9, the directors of Spanish, Thai, and Filipino major film festivals will hold a discussion to answer the question: “Any Future for Film Festivals?”.
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, since its first editions, PELÍCULA had among its main objectives to organize joint Spanish-Filipino programs that could foster dialogue and joint projects between filmmakers from the Philippines and the Spanish-speaking world.
Under a similar approach, on October 10, PELÍCULA will offer “En corto: Short Films from the Philippines, Thailand, Australia and Spain”, in which four recent short films, one from each country, will be featured, and their directors will take part in an online discussion afterward.
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 in each edition the film that PELíCULA viewers have voted as the best of the Festival. A popular feature of the Festival among the attending public, it will still remain in 2020, adapting it to the new condition of online festival.
Viewers will be given stubs where they can rate the movie they have seen online. The winning movie will be screened once again on October 11, 6 pm, at the Festival’s platform pelikula.es.
PELÍCULA 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, visit the Festival’s website at pelikula.es or manila.cervantes.es, or the Facebook page of Instituto Cervantes.
Details
What: PELÍCULA Spanish Film Festival 2020
Where: pelikula.es
When: October 3 to 11, 2020
Admission: Free
Website: manila.cervantes.es
Facebook: facebook.com/InstitutoCervantesManila
This is press release. Minor edits were made prior to publishing.
Photos courtesy of Instituto Cervantes
