Seminci Opens Its 71st Edition With 30 World Premieres
Spain's Valladolid International Film Festival, known as Seminci, opens its 71st edition today, Friday 23 October, and runs through 31 October. The programme lists 208 titles, made up of 137 features and 71 shorts. Variety reports that 30 of them are world premieres, meaning each is screening publicly for the first time anywhere.
Just over half of those 30 world premieres are Spanish productions or co-productions. The festival also includes 121 premieres in total, and 22 films are competing in the official competition.
Among the contenders for the Golden Spike, the festival's top prize, are May el-Toukhy's Woman Unknown and Ilker Catak's Yellow Letters. The opening film is My Notes on Mars, directed by Lili Horvat and starring Mackenzie Davis. Horvat won the Golden Spike in 2020 with an earlier film.
The closing film is Hombre al agua, by Gael García Bernal. It is his third feature as a director. Actors who direct often choose the closing slot for a film they feel close to, and this year it gives Seminci a well-known name to end on.
The festival comes with a change at the top. Festival director Jose Luis Cienfuegos died in December, and the event is now run by two interim co-directors, Mariona Viader and Javier H. Estrada. Viader was previously the festival's general coordinator. Estrada was formerly head of programming, the person who decides which films get selected.
Why does a regional festival in Valladolid matter beyond its own city? Festivals like this one are also marketplaces. Sales agents and distributors attend to see films early, and a premiere can be the first step toward a film reaching cinemas or streaming services, sometimes a year or more later.
For audiences in Valladolid and beyond, the next eight days bring a crowded schedule. Many of the 30 world premieres will screen only once or a few times here before anyone else sees them. That makes this edition a rare chance to watch new work at its very first showing.
