61st Valladolid International Film Festival

Valladolid is a ancient and beautiful city, 200km north-west of Madrid, in the middle of the Castilla y Léon region, with more than 300,000 inhabitants. The terrible inquisitor Torquemada was born in Valladolid and Christopher Columbus died there in 1506. The Semana Internacional de Cinema (Seminci), one of the oldest film festivals in the world, was born as a religious films presentation in 1956 and became, as time went by, an excellent mirror for important international films as yet unreleased in Spain. After San Sebastián Film Festival, Valladolid is the second most important film festival in Spain.

Directed since 2008 by the journalist and film critic Javier Angulo, it is today followed very attentively by Spanish and Latin American press. The main venues of the Festival are two splendid Italian-style theatres, the Teatro Calderon and the Teatro Carrion, but many other places welcome screenings in town.

The inauguration and the closing gala were broadcast live on Spanish National TV Channel TVE. In the main competition this year, 18 feature films were presented but several other interesting sections were followed by thousands of viewers (88,000 spectators have been reported for 2015). A retrospective of Chilean film since 2000, with a conference conducted by international specialists, a Meeting Point section, a Time of History section, a lot of short movies and an homage to Richard Linklater were held this year. Special attention is dedicated to young audiences (16,000 students attended the Seminci last year). The official jury gave the Espiga d’Oro (Golden Spike) to Like Crazy (La pazza gioia), by Paolo Virzì (Italy), who also won the Audience Award. The Espiga de Plata (Silver Spike) was given to The Distinguished Citizen (El ciudadano ilustre), by Gastón Duprat, Mariano Cohn (Spain, Argentina). (René Marx, edited by Amber Wilkinson)

Valladolid International Film Festival: www.seminci.com