With a selection that boasts cinema from Spain, but also co-productions with France, Portugal, Argentina and Italy, this year’s program looks phenomenal. And yours truly is going to be on their Competition Jury for 2025, choosing with my esteemed colleagues our favorites, out of a stellar lineup.
Come the 18th of September, for one whole week, London will possess a lot more “Duende”. The meaning of the Spanish word, often used to describe great Flamenco performers, loosely translates to “the feeling of awe and inspiration had, especially when standing in nature. The overwhelming sense of beauty and magic.”
Magic, that’s what great cinema always creates and with some of the titles included in this year’s London Spanish Film Festival lineup, there will definitely be an atmosphere of perfect alchemy in Old Foggy.
When, a couple of months ago, I was approached by the festival founder, Joana Granero of Fashion & Cinema, to participate in this year’s Competition Jury, I immediately said yes. She’s a constant source of inspiration (I mean, she runs a cultural institution that is called Fashion & Cinema — hello!) and it doesn’t hurt that my fellow jury members are also esteemed colleagues with impressive resumes — marketing maverick Vincent Jaskowski-Prowse and film journalist and video essayist Leigh Singer. I have to admit that I love participating on film juries as it provides me with new eyes to watch cinema, through the viewpoint of other people. I’ve often found more beauty and more inspiration in the works we have discussed on my previous stints on juries — from Abu Dhabi to El Gouna, to Zurich.
This time around I was told we’ll have about 18 films to watch and discuss, but choosing “The Best” is always an impossible task. We do get a special “Jury Mention” prize to hand out too, to our second-best favorite, though two prizes seems about 16 too few, if you ask me. I can imagine a jury room just like the one in Sidney Lumet’s Twelve Angry Men, to be honest, with the lineup we have to work with and decide upon. Hopefully everyone will behave like Henry Fonda throughout the deliberations…
Opinions aside, the lineup for the London Spanish Film Festival, now in its 21st edition, will include the UK premiere of quite a few gems.
Among those, just to mention a few, the Galician title Antes de Nós by Angeles Huerta, which will screen on September 24th at Riverside Studios and will be followed by a Q&A with lead actor Xoan Fórneas; The Sleeper, El Caravaggio Perdido by Alvaro Longoria, which will screen twice on September 24th, first in the afternoon at the National Gallery and then at South Kensington’s Ciné Lumière, both times featuring an on-stage conversation with the film’s director; Morlaix by Jaime Rosales, screening at the Ciné Lumière on the 20th and featuring a Q&A with the filmmaker; and El Jockey (‘Kill the Jockey’, pictured in the header above) by Luis Ortega — the official Argentinian submission to the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards in 2025 — also screening at the Ciné Lumière, on September 25th, and followed by a Q&A TBC. The latter is not a UK premiere of course, as the film already screened at the Glasgow Film Festival in February of this year.
Previous editions of the festival have included films and appearances by Carlos Saura, Geraldine Chaplin, Marisa Paredes, Carlos Areces, Javier Bardem, Victoria Abril and many many more.
For a complete lineup and to buy tickets, check out the festival website.
Top image courtesy of the London Spanish Film Festival, used with permission.