Seminci Unveils 30 World Premieres as Valladolid Festival Opens Oct. 23

By Grace Kim

Spain's Valladolid International Film Festival, Seminci, opens Friday, Oct. 23 with 30 world premieres and runs through Oct. 31. Its 71st edition presents 208 titles overall — 137 features and 71 shorts — including 121 premieres and 22 films in official competition for the Golden Spike, the festival's top prize.

Two longtime team members are steering the event. Mariona Viader, previously general coordinator, and Javier H. Estrada, formerly head of programming, serve as interim co-directors after festival director José Luis Cienfuegos died in December. They've kept the programming vision he introduced in 2023.

"What matters about Seminci is that our programming allows us to explore what auteur cinema means," Estrada says.

The lineup spans formally experimental work and accessible independent productions, exploring political upheaval, memory, exile and intimate family relationships.

Who's competing for the Golden Spike?

The competition brings major festival winners to Valladolid. May el-Toukhy's "Woman Unknown," winner of Venice's Golden Lion, and İlker Çatak's "Yellow Letters," which took Berlin's Golden Bear, both contend for the Spike.

"When we selected the films for Seminci, we had no idea 'Woman Unknown' would win the Golden Lion," Estrada says.

Other competition titles include:

• Alain Gomis' "Dao," connecting a wedding in France with a memorial ceremony in Guinea-Bissau
• Lisandro Alonso's "Double Freedom," returning to the world of his breakthrough "La libertad" 25 years later
• Markus Schleinzer's "Rose," with Berlin best performance winner Sandra Hüller as a woman passing herself off as a man in 17th-century Europe
• Lance Hammer's "Queen at Sea," starring Juliette Binoche and Tom Courtenay
• Andrea Pallaoro's "The Echo Chamber," built on Bernardo Bertolucci's final co-written screenplay, with Alicia Vikander and Susan Sarandon
• Helena Girón and Samuel Delgado's "Las islas afortunadas," which premiered in Toronto

The opening and closing films pair auteur voices with star power. Lili Horvát, who won the 2020 Golden Spike, opens with "My Notes on Mars," starring Mackenzie Davis. Gael García Bernal closes with "Hombre al agua," his third directorial feature.

What do 30 world premieres mean for Spanish cinema?

Just over half of the 30 world premieres are Spanish productions or co-productions. Estrada frames that as both burden and privilege: "A world premiere always entails a certain vulnerability for filmmakers. The fact that so many films choose Seminci for their world premieres is a great responsibility. We have to take care of each film. But it's also a cause of celebration. The moment audiences see a film for the first time is truly exciting."

Family is the thread running through the Spanish slate. "Rethinking the concept of family is one of the central themes of this year's Seminci," Estrada says.

Out of competition, Daniel Calparsoro's "El confidente" — set during the final years of Basque terrorist group ETA, starring Javier Gutiérrez and Miguel Herrán and produced by Bowfinger International Pictures — screens alongside David Martín de los Santos' Spanish-Peruvian co-production "Un hombre en un puente," involving Vértigo Films. Actor Ricardo Gómez directs his debut "Una familia," distributed in Spain by Filmax, about secrets and unresolved wounds between parents and children.

In competition, Ione Hernández Sáenz's feature debut "Hermanas," starring Elena Anaya and Emma Suárez, follows two sisters tested by a family crisis. The Meeting Point competition adds Sandra Sánchez's "A nadadora," about a teenager with a troubled family background, and Ledicia Sola's "As augas," on redefining family through friendship. Both premiere in Valladolid, as does Marc Ferrer's black-and-white satire "Cinemanía," previously seen at ECAM Forum's Last Push.

Claudia Estrada Tarascó's debut "Salen las lobas," inspired by her sister's experiences in a juvenile justice facility, arrives via producer Alba Sotorra's Oceanika. "Seminci is a strategic place to present Claudia Estrada's first film, both because of its international reach and its standing in Spain," Sotorra says.

Animation enters the Spike race too: Ervin Han and Raúl García's "The Violinist," a Singapore-led co-production from Robot Playground Media, Spain's TV ON Producciones and Italy's Altri Occhi, won Annecy's best feature Cristal and the SACEM music prize before its Nov. 13 Spanish release through Wanda Visión.

Selection doesn't guarantee distribution, but it can "give negotiations the push they sometimes need," says Luis Renart, CEO of Bendita Film Sales, which handles "Las islas afortunadas." Its producers are in talks with several distributors for a Spanish theatrical release.

Premieres extend to television: Movistar Plus unveils the first three episodes of crime thriller "Killing a Bear" ("Matar a un oso"), created by Jorge and Alberto Sánchez-Cabezudo, starring Eduard Fernández and co-produced with Arte France. The El Terrat documentary "SerYo," co-directed by Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Marta Solaz and Verónica Díaz Pérez, explores artistic creation during Peris-Mencheta's illness.

Iran, restorations and a sound retrospective

Five Iranian filmmakers appear across the lineup — Ali Asgari's "A Bit of Light," Pegah Ahangarani's documentary "Essays for a Revolution" and films by Mani Haghighi, Mahsa Karampour and Karim Lakzadeh — exploring war, repression, exile and cultural identity. "It was the quality of the films themselves, and above all how different they are from one another," Estrada says. "Each filmmaker, in their own style, demonstrates the creative strength of Iranian cinema."

The Alchemies section, a 10-film competition launched in 2023 for works challenging conventional storytelling, includes João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata's "13 Pins," Ted Fendt's Berlin-set "Foreign Travel," Lakzadeh's dark comedy "Living Twice, Dying Thrice," David Baute's "Benigno" and Sebastián Uría's "Adiós, ríos."

The non-competitive Memory & Utopia section screens 14 films spanning seven decades, headlined by the world premiere of the restored "Occidente y sabotaje," Ana Mariscal's 1962 Franco-era spy thriller, plus 4K restorations of Buñuel's "Un chien andalou" and "L'Age d'Or" and Yoshiaki Kawajiri's "Ninja Scroll." Works by Věra Chytilová, Andrzej Wajda and Ildikó Enyedi round out the section.

Sound takes center stage in a retrospective running from Fritz Lang's "M" and Jacques Tati's "Playtime" to Jonathan Glazer's "The Zone of Interest." "The narrative power of sound often takes a back seat, and this year we wanted to bring it to the forefront," Viader says. An exhibition, publication and professional encounters with the European Film Academy's Sound Chapter accompany the screenings.

Honorary Golden Spikes go to Valladolid-born Goya-winning actress Elvira Mínguez, Chilean filmmaker Valeria Sarmiento — presenting "Behind the Rain," announced as her final film — and eight-time Oscar-nominated production sound mixer Willie D. Burton, a two-time winner for "Bird" and "Dreamgirls." Barcelona's Pompeu Fabra University receives an Academic Honorary Golden Spike for its documentary filmmaking master's program.

The festival also hosts the sixth Merci independent film market and the La Meseta labs, supporting theatrical distribution and short-film development. With a first-time leadership team holding Cienfuegos' vision in place, this edition tests whether Seminci's premiere-heavy, debut-friendly model can keep consolidating Valladolid as a launchpad for Spanish cinema.