Valladolid International Film Festival Seminci will be held for the 69th time this fall, running from October 18th to 26th.
In preparation, we looked through the festival catalog to find 10 standout titles that attendees won’t want to miss at this year’s event. Below, we’ll explain why each is a must-see proposition at this year’s Semicni.
“They will turn to dust” Carlos Marquez Marcet (Spain)
Opening this year’s festival is Carlos Marquez Marcet’s Toronto Platform winner They Will Be Dust. In this tragic musical, a woman diagnosed with a terminal illness decides to go to Switzerland with her partner of 40 years, Flavio, to end her life. Seminchi organizers hail the film as “an unexpected celebration of life itself and the unconditional love of those who accompany us.”
“Vermiglio” Maura Delperro (Italy, France, Belgium)
Director Maura Del Perro’s intimate masterpiece “Vermiglio”, which was submitted from Italy to the next international feature Oscar race and won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival, is set in the Italian Alps at the end of World War II. The story is set in a village. The soldier causes a commotion between the three sisters. After debuting in Venice, the film was also shown in Toronto. Seminci makes his debut in Spain.
“Stranger Eyes” Yeo Siew Hua (Singapore, Taiwan, France, USA)
Another Venice masterpiece, “Stranger Eyes,” is about a couple who arrive in their mailbox three months after their two-year-old daughter disappears, when an unbranded DVD arrives in their mailbox, containing footage of their daily life. It was This intimate mystery unfolds into a much larger story about the state of modern surveillance. of variety Guy Lodge called it “a moving and moody reflection on social isolation and alienation”.
“The Most Valuable of Cargo” Michel Hazanavicius (France, Belgium)
Based on Jean-Claude Grunberg’s novel of the same name and featuring a graphic novel aesthetic, The Most Precious of Cargoes is a rarity among Semminch’s major competition animated features. in him variety Peter De Bruges called Cargo “an unusual film (the first animated feature to compete for the Palme d’Or since 2007’s Persepolis) and one of the best of all the films screened at this year’s festival. It has a high chance of becoming a classic.” Cannes.
“Black Dog” Guan Fu (China)
Winner of the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, Black Dog follows an ex-convict who returns to his abandoned hometown and embarks on an epic motorcycle adventure across the Gobi Desert with a potentially ferocious black dog. This is a story about embarking on a journey. According to Jessica Kiang, “A wonderfully filmed, moody and moving fable” variety Review at Cannes.
“Drunk Marseillaise” Pablo Gil Rituerto (Spain, France, Italy)
World premiere of Seminchi. In this debut feature-length documentary, a film crew travels through northern Spain to retrace the secret journey undertaken by the Cantacronnaque music group to collect popular songs of resistance during the summer of 1961. Through parallel journeys, the emotional and political geography of a region that still bears the scars of its past is gradually revealed.
“The Wailing” Pedro Martin Carrero (Spain, Argentina, France)
This transatlantic thriller, which had its world premiere in San Sebastian and received rave reviews from the international press, is likely to join Spain’s unforgettable horror movie classics. In this film, three young women, decades and thousands of miles apart, are terrorized by the same spiritual threat that no one, not even them, can see properly. But they all hear a skin-tingling scream in its presence.
“The New Years” Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Sara Cano, Paula Fabra (Spain)
The latest original Sorgoyen from Movistar Plus+ in partnership with Arte France, following “The Beasts”, which won the 2023 French Cesar Best Foreign Film Award. Sorogoyen said the film is a 10-part series, or 449 minutes in two parts, that sees Ana and Oscar reunite on New Year’s Eve 2015, and then returns to the scene on the same day every year for the next 10 years. He claims to be observing the situation. . The episodes vary in tone, from romantic comedies to family dramas to near-horror nightmares, and “start with a couple’s story and end with a life story,” says Sorogoyen. A bidding fair to be one of the most talked about Spanish series, or films, of the year.
“Salve Maria” Mar Col (Spain)
Salve Maria, which will have its world premiere in Locarno, is considered a launching pad for Coll’s career, a genre-bending psychological thriller, but an inveterate iconoclast, Coll is determined to make every woman a mother. There are taboos regarding whether or not it is suitable for Maria, a promising novelist and new mother, is increasingly troubled by the threat of monsters: herself and her infanticide. Buoyed by Zeltia Montes’ driving orchestral score, this is an unsettling film that takes Maria to the High Pyrenees as she tries to understand her emotions. Coll suggests that while that sentiment is outside of our ethical standards, it is far more common than we might imagine.
“Iray Cortés’ Fremenco Guitar” Anton Alvarez (Spain)
This is an auspicious documentary debut for Alvarez. Álvarez, better known by his stage name singer-songwriter C. Tangana, co-wrote Rosalía’s “Antes de Morirme” before gaining worldwide fame with “El Madrileño.” The film, which won a special award at San Sebastian’s New Directors Awards, features Cortés, a rising star on Spain’s flamenco scene, performing spectacular scenes such as strumming the bulería in Alicante’s Plaza de Alger, where he grew up, accompanied by family and friends. Equipped with stage equipment. . But what Cortez wants to tell with his music is a touchingly tragic family story, and it’s the chops Alvarez has in telling it that make his first feature stand out.
