MANILA, PHILIPPINES — From October 5 to 16, the 21st edition of PELÍCULA-Spanish Film Festival will return to face-to-face screenings. After two years of having a virtual festival, PELÍCULA will screen around 20 movies in three venues of Metro Manila — Shangri-La Plaza, Cine Adarna at UP Diliman, and Instituto Cervantes Intramuros branch.
Since its creation in 2002 by Instituto Cervantes de Manila, PELíCULA has been an annual attraction in Philippine theatres. After the Covid-19 crisis, which forced cinemas to close worldwide and caused audiences of PELíCULA to migrate online, the festival returns to the big screen, on a first-come, first-served free admission basis. Furthermore, the Festival will also host face-to-face online screenings in Malaysia and Australia.
In the Philippines, the Festival will open on October 5 with El buen patrón (Fernando León de Aranoa, 2021), a comedy starring Javier Bardem. Other comedies in the line-up include El test (Dani de la Orden, 2022), Con quién viajas (Martín Cuervo, 2021). The official entries also include documentaries such as A las mujeres de España. María Lejárraga (Laura Hojman, 2022), dramas such as Maixabel (Icíar Bollaín, 2021) or El olvido que seremos (Fernando Trueba, 2020), and thrillers like La hija (Manuel Martín Cuenca, 2021).
PELÍCULA will also feature Latin American films such as the Colombian documentary Jinetes del Paraíso (Talia Osorio Cardona, 2020), the Panamenian comedy Algo azul (Mariel García Spooner, 2021), and Competencia oficial, a Spanish-Argentinean comedy directed in 2021 by Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn, and featuring Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas, and Oscar Martínez.
To celebrate the 21st edition of the cinematographic showcase, there will be a special selection of classic Spanish films. These films are Esa pareja feliz (Juan Antonio Bardem & Luis García Berlanga, 1951), Muerte de un ciclista (Juan Antonio Bardem, 1953), Mamá cumple cien años (Carlos Saura, 1979) and El sur (Víctor Erice, 1983).
PELíCULA 2022 is an initiative of Instituto Cervantes in Manila and Sydney, the Embassies of Spain in the Philippines, Malaysia and Australia, and the AECID, in collaboration with the Film Development Council of the Philippines, ICAA, the Embassy of Colombia in the Philippines, the Embassy of Panama in the Philippines, the UP Film Institute, the University of the Philippines and Intramuros Administration.
All the movies are in Spanish (or their original language) with English subtitles. For updates on the Festival, please visit the Facebook page of Instituto Cervantes.
