The Pelikula Film Festival offers you the best of Spanish cinema on-site and online.
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After two editions of being in digital format, the 21st Pelikula Spanish Film Festival is back to being a physical cultural event. Launched in 2002 as a project by the cultural institution Instituto Cervantes de Manila, this year’s edition boasts a 25-film lineup with 31 physical screening and seven online screenings. In collaboration with the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) and the Embassy of Spain in the Philippines, the Pelikula Spanish Film Festival will hold face-to-face screenings at Shangri-La Plaza Red Carpet Cinema in Mandaluyong, Instituto Cervantes de Manila in Intramuros, and UPFI Film Center in Quezon city. And get this, it’s all for free.
CELEBRATING THE BEST OF SPANISH CINEMA
On October 5, the festival successfully held its opening night at Shangri-La with a screening of the award-winning film El Buen Patrón (The Good Boss) starring Oscar winner Javier Bardem. Meanwhile, part of its special sections is the celebration of the Día del cine español (Spanish Film Day) on October 6, which will screen the classic International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) winner Muerte De Un Ciclista (Death Of A Cyclist, 1955) and two recent comedies, El Test (The Test, 2022) and Con Quién Viajas (Carpoolers, 2021).
In another special section called Clásicos del Cine Español, viewers will rediscover the work of four legendary Spanish filmmakers in the names of Juan Antonio Bardem, Luis García Berlanga, Carlos Saura, and Víctor Erice with their films, Muerte De Un Ciclista (Death Of A Cyclist, 1955), Mamá Cumple Cien Años (Mama Turns 100, 1979), El Sur (The South, 1983), and Esa Pareja Feliz (The Happy Couple, 1951).
Their documentary section is called Walang Tsismis: Tres Miradas a la Historia (Three Looks at History). “We are not ruled by the Past, but by the idea we have of it,” says the festival’s slogan for the section. The interesting lineup includes Laura Hojman’s A Las Mujeres De España. María Lejárraga (To The Woman of Spain. María Lejárraga, 2022) which tells the story of María Lejárraga, a writer and pioneer of feminism in Spain during the 1920s.
Miguel Ángel Calvo Buttini’s 2020 film El Siglo De Galdós (The Century Of Galdós) narrated the story of writer and politician Benito Pérez Galdós who was nominated for Nobel Prize but never won one. Lastly, José Luis López-Linares’s España, La Primera Globalización (Spain: The First Globalization, 2021) chronicles the reign of the Catholic Monarchs and the discovery of America in 15thcentury. “Through these films, which may be watched in person or online, we invite the viewer to look at history with a critical perspective…because history is not a mere string of tsismis.”
Apart from feature films, the festival also offers Encounters in the cinema: Shorts, which will screen a Filipino short film Dosena by Kyla Romero and Totem Loba’s She Wolf. Films from South America like Mariel Garcia Spooner’s comedy Algo Azul (Something Blue, 2021) from Panama, Fernando Trueba’s drama El Olvido Que Seremos (Forgotten We’ll Be,2020) and Carolina Osorio Cardona’s documentary Jinetes Del Paraíso (Horsemen Of Paradise, 2020) from Colombia are also part of Spanish film festival’s lineup.
“This year 2022, we celebrate the 21st edition of our film festival, faithful to our commitment, from its onset, to quality cinema. The PELIKULA Film Festival has grown, year after year, challenge after challenge, to become the showcase of Spanish-language cinema in Southeast Asia,” says Instituto Cervantes de Manila’s director Javier Galván Guijo. The festival will also screen in Malaysia and Australia.
Pelikula Film Festival will run until October 16. To know more about the schedule, you can check their calendar here. Now go and watch some movies for free!
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