05/11/2020 - Come hell or high water, the 17th edition of the Spanish gathering will kick off this Friday, offering some choice cuts of European cinema and 28 world premieres

The team behind the Seville European Film Festival, headed up by José Luis Cienfuegos, is organising the 17^th edition of the event with all the resilience and energy it can muster, despite the unfavourable conditions for the seventh art all around the globe. Limiting itself to local guests and various online activities, theatrical screenings are still going ahead for more than 150 titles, with all the necessary measures in place to avoid health-and-safety complications. In addition, as has become customary, it will serve as the venue for the unveiling – at midday on Tuesday 10 November – of the nominees for the 33^rd awards set to be handed out by the European Film Academy. Plus, French actress Emmanuelle Béart will pick up her City of Seville Award for her work while at the same time bringing the festival (which unspools from 6-14 November) to a close with her turn in Margaux Hartmann [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ludovic Bergery
film profile], directed by Ludovic Bergery.

Given that European cinema is very much at the heart of the gathering, the team has selected a rich and varied batch of titles that, once again, will bring the most outstanding examples of the continent’s recent film output to the banks of the River Guadalquivir. Audiences will thus be able to enjoy 28 world premieres scattered across all its myriad sections. Standing out among them are two Spanish efforts: That Was Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Damián París and Rosa Garcí…
interview: David Martín de los Santos
film profile], the feature debut by David Martín de los Santos, starring Petra Martínez, flanked by Anna Castillo and Ramón Barea; and Karen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: María Pérez Sanz
film profile], which is also – just like the former title – competing in the official section. The latter is the portrait that Extremaduran helmer María Pérez Sanz has painted of author Isaak Dinesen, who is brought to life by singer-songwriter Christina Rosenvinge, her fifth effort as an actress after titles such as Todo es mentira and La pistola de mi hermano.

The official section also includes the story of forbidden love between Saoirse Ronan and Kate Winslet, Ammonite [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which is the new outing by Brit Francis Lee (God’s Own Country [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Francis Lee
film profile]); Delete History [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], a comedy about our addiction to technology, helmed by Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern, which will be screened on Sunday 8 November to mark European Arthouse Cinema Day; the award-winning and courageous documentary by Murcian Luis López Carrasco, The Year of the Discovery [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]; February [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the compelling film by Bulgaria’s Kamen Kalev; Sweat [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Magnus von Horn
film profile], a feature about loneliness that just cannot be concealed, no matter how many thousand “likes” you get online, by Sweden’s Magnus von Horn; Dear Comrades [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the latest gem – and the winner of the Special Jury Prize at Venice – by Russia’s Andrey Konchalovskiy; Quo Vadis, Aida? [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jasmila Žbanić
film profile] by Bosnia’s Jasmila Zbanic; Siberia [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the latest fever dream by the tireless Abel Ferrara, again toplined by Willem Dafoe; and Undine [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christian Petzold
film profile], an intense story of underwater love helmed by Germany’s Christian Petzold, which will have the honour of opening the festival.

Also vying for the Golden Giraldillo – the gathering’s top prize – are a number of auteurs with their own undeniable hallmark, such as Gianfranco Rosi, with his most recent documentary, Notturno [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gianfranco Rosi
film profile]; Romania’s Cristi Puiu, with what some consider a masterpiece, Malmkrog [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cristi Puiu
film profile]; Poland’s Malgorzata Szumowska, who together with Michal Englert directed Never Gonna Snow Again [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Małgorzata Szumowska and Mi…
film profile], a film that is already heading for the Oscars; Brit Thomas Clay, with his surprising Fanny Lye Deliver’d [+see also:
film review
film profile]; French first-timers Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh, who offer up a galactic daydream in Gagarin [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Tr…
film profile]; and another duo – Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel – with their controversial and colossal experiment of a movie DAU. Natasha [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ilya Khrzhanovskiy
film profile].

The festival has also announced that, thanks to a collaboration with Filmin, a selection of titles will be watchable online in Spain for a limited time, spearheaded by part of The New Waves parallel section, with titles of the likes of Greece’s Apples [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christos Nikou
film profile] by Christos Nikou and Kosovo’s Exile [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Visar Morina
film profile] by Visar Morina, both of which are representing their home countries in the 2021 Oscars race.

Lastly, the gathering’s industry activities will also take place this year, albeit almost entirely online. Standing out among them are the European Co-production Forum, this year dedicated to Portugal, with an unrestricted live broadcast (read news), and the regular rendezvous the Europa Cinemas Lab, intended for professionals who have already registered in advance.

All of the information and the detailed programme for the various sections and activities of the festival are available on its website.

(Translated from Spanish)