Malaga extends its red carpet to welcome Spanish cinema

From March 21 to 29, Malaga will dress up one more year of Spanish cinema with a festival to which 1,605 films have been submitted

The Malaga Spanish Film Festival celebrates its seventeenth edition. From March 21 to 29, Malaga will dress up one more year of Spanish cinema with a festival to which 1,605 films have been submitted, of which 109 feature-length films, 832 shorts, 439 documentaries and 123 Latin American feature-length films.

The 17th edition presents an Official Feature Film Section that maintains the model of the last edition, combining names with an important career, with experience and well recognized in our country, with other younger directors, with a different and more contemporary look, which, according to the organization, represents the snapshot of Spanish cinema of the moment.

As for the Jury of the Official Section of the 17th edition, it will be made up of the director Manuel Gómez Pereira, as President; the actresses Najwa Nimri and María Barranco; the actor Ernesto Alterio; the director Xavi Puebla; the writer José Antonio Garriga Vela; and the director of the Marseille CineHorizontes Festival, Jocelyne Faessel.

One of the new features for this edition is the increase in the number of days at the Festival, since, in addition to starting on Friday, Sunday the 30th will be part of the Festival with a film marathon in which the public will be able to watch the winning films in the different categories.

Another novelty will be this year's concert that will focus on the music of Pablo Cervantes, composer of almost the majority of José Luis Garci's recent films and also of Wild children, winner of the 15th edition of the Festival.

In the international section, Argentina will be the guest country for the 17th edition of the Festival. Furthermore, for the first time, the Malaga Festival will be included within the Plan for the Internationalization of Spanish Culture (PICE), which will allow directors and programmers from six important international festivals to visit Malaga to view and select films for the future programming of their festivals. These festivals are Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), Internationale Trickfilm – Festival Stuttgart (ITFS), Chicago International Children’s Film Festival (CICFF), Miami International Film Festival (MIFF) and Viva! Spanish and Latin American Film Festival of Manchester.

Tributes

The 17th edition of the Malaga Festival. This year, Spanish Cinema recognizes the career of actress Maribel Verdú by awarding her the Málaga Prize, which will be awarded on Monday, March 24. The Eloy de la Iglesia Award, awarded to filmmaker Pablo Berger, will be presented on Saturday the 22nd. For his part, actor José Sacristán will receive the Retrospective Award. For this reason, a documentary about his life and career will be screened and a tribute will be paid to him on Friday the 28th at 8:30 p.m. at the Teatro Cervantes.

The Ricardo Franco Prize, awarded in collaboration with the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain, will be presented to artistic director Gil Parrondo on Thursday the 27th at 10:00 p.m. at the Teatro Cervantes.

For his part, Carlos Saura will receive the Golden Film for La prima Angélica (1973) at the Cervantes Theater on Sunday the 23rd (10:00 p.m.), a drama with political implications in which the Aragonese director once again delved into the human tragedy of an individual who during his childhood was subjected to the anguish caused by the wounds of the Civil War. Ninth feature film by Carlos Saura and co-written with Rafael Azcona, La prima Angélica was one of the high points of his relationship with Elías Querejeta. It stars José Luis López Vázquez and Lina Canalejas, among others. The film will be screened on Sunday the 23rd at 7:00 p.m. at the Albéniz Cinema.

Finally, the Cervantes Theater will host on Tuesday the 25th (7:00 p.m.) the Tribute Concert to Pablo Cervantes, performed by the Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra and directed by Claudio Ianni, with Guillermo Alonso Iriarte on piano and with José María Nieto on electric guitar. Pablo Cervantes (Seville, 1977) is a composer of music for film and television and has created the soundtracks for 25 feature films and more than 50 tunes for television. Among other awards, he has been nominated three times (2004, 2006 and 2013) for the Goya Awards and was awarded for the best soundtrack at the V Malaga Film Festival (2002).