"Dao" Wins the Golden Spike at Valladolid, "La Gradiva" Takes Three Prizes

Alain Gomis's film Dao has won the Golden Spike, the top award for best film at the 71st Valladolid International Film Festival, known as Seminci. Seminci announced the winner.

The Spanish festival handed out its prizes over the weekend of 31 October. The biggest haul went to Marine Atlan's La Gradiva, which won the Silver Spike, the festival's second-highest film prize. It also took the José Salcedo editing prize, awarded to Guillaume Lillo, and the Rainbow Spike, according to Variety.

Acting honours went to Alba Rohrwacher for A Good Little Soldier and to Swann Arlaud for A Man of His Time. Lisandro Alonso won the Ribera del Duero award for best director for Double Freedom.

Each of the winning films had already travelled a long way before reaching Spain. Dao had its world premiere in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival. La Gradiva opened at the Critics' Week section of the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix.

Seminci's competition also included films by May el-Toukhy, Lili Horvát, Emmanuel Marre and Sandra Wollner, Cineuropa reported in October, when the line-up was announced. Atlan's film was one of that group, so the festival has now given its Silver Spike to a film it had already selected.

For readers new to the festival circuit, Seminci is one of several events where films are first shown to the public and to the industry. Sales agents, who sell films to cinemas and streaming services, and distributors attend these festivals to find titles. The prizes do not decide which films reach a cinema near you. They do help a film's makers and sellers talk to buyers, and they can shape how a film is marketed.

Seminci is a public event in the Castilian city of Valladolid, and its prizes are announced at the close of the festival. The awards list is now set. The films will move on to their next screenings and sales meetings, with their release plans set by the companies that own them.