Fourteenth Toulouse and Midi Pyrénées Spanish Film Festival

From October 2 to 11, 2009, Cinespaña 2009 will take place in Toulouse (France), a festival that shows unreleased films, premieres, cinema-concerts and masterpieces of Spanish cinema.

For 14 years and during the month of October, the venues of Toulouse and the Midi-Pyrénées region live for a few days to the Spanish rhythm with Cinespaña… This year, from October 2 to 11, 2009, in collaboration with the Toulouse Cinematheque, the Cervantes Institute, the Casa de España, l’ESAV (Toulouse Higher School of Audiovisual Arts), as well as the ABC, UGC, Utopia and other theaters spread throughout the region, the Cinespaña Festival offers the best Spanish production to the French public.

Unreleased films, premieres, cinema-concerts and masterpieces of Spanish cinema will be accompanied by numerous guests, including Jorge Semprún, a Spanish cultural figure very close to the neighboring country.

On October 2 during the opening gala, two films will be screened: Make it look like an accident, by Gerardo Herrero with Carmen Maura and Federico Luppi, and The anarchist's wife, by Marie Noelle and Meter Sehr, with María Valverde and Juan Diego Botto. In the official competition, eight recent feature films will compete for the Golden Violet. The Panorama Section brings together a large selection of recent feature films and short films that will make us discover the richness and quality of Spanish productions, while the documentary series proposes a dozen feature films about current Spanish society.

This year, Cinespaña'09 will pay tribute to the Spanish actress Emma Suárez, known in France thanks to the first films of Julio Medem, and the Catalan director Marc Recha. In collaboration with the Arte Arte television network and the UGG cinemas, Cinespaña has planned the preview of its latest film, He asked the Indians (with Sergi López and Eduardo Noriega). Two other films complete the tribute: August days (2006) y Pau and his brother (2001).

Tribute to the Barcelona School

Within the framework of the programming dedicated to European New Waves (September 5 – October 29), the Toulouse Cinematheque will propose, in collaboration with Cinespaña'09, a tribute to the Barcelona School. The Barcelona School was an ephemeral cinematographic movement of the 60s. Strongly influenced by the French New Wave, it was born as a response to plateau (centralist) cinema and the new Spanish cinema. The movement brought together an informal group of young filmmakers who, under an anti-Franco position and prioritizing artistic will over everything else, decided to free themselves from the administrative and aesthetic pressures that weighed on Spanish cinema at that time.

Six notable films will allow us to rediscover some of the jewels of the Barcelona School: Dante is not only severe by Joaquim Jordà and Jacinto Esteva, the movement's manifesto film; The Morgana girl by Vicente Aranda; Every time… by Carles Durán; Squizo by Ricardo Bofill; Far from the trees by Jacinto Esteva and Tomorrow, by José María Nunes.