2015 Spanish Film Festival

The Spanish Film Festival can finally reveal its full program of 38 features that will screen nationally from April 21 until May 20, exclusively at Palace Cinemas around Australia. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and winner of the Goya for Best Foreign Film, the Closing Night film WILD TALES is out to prove that there is an animal in all of us. Director Damián Szifrón has achieved a banquet of bad behaviour from everyday people that are pushed to their limits in a wicked anthology of six standalone shorts that are unified by a theme of vengeance. This film has won the hearts of critics and audiences alike and the crowd is sure to go wild for this film on Closing Night.

Rafael Bonachela (Artistic Director, Sydney Dance Company) will continue as Festival Patron for the Spanish Film Festival in 2015 and joins us in the excitement of welcoming international guest Elena Anaya to Sydney and Melbourne for the Opening Night film SPANISH AFFAIR and for a special event Q&A in Sydney and Melbourne following the screening of her film THEY ARE ALL DEAD, which sees her play a washed up 90s pop star who is estranged from her son and haunted by her dead brother. Currently filming a movie alongside Bryan Cranston, Anaya is best known for her Goya Award winning role in Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In. Anaya will be available for advanced phone interviews and on-ground opportunities while in Sydney and Melbourne

Those in the market for a feel-good glossy Hollywood romance need not look further than the love triangle that is GET MARRIED IF YOU CAN, INSTRUCTIONS NOT INCLUDED and SORRY IF I CALL YOU LOVE. Get lost in the jungle with the glamorous Ana (Martha Higareda) in GET MARRIED IF YOU CAN; expect a lot of heart and humour and perhaps even tears from dad-daughter tale INSTRUCTIONS NOT INCLUDED and for the third time Federico Moccia’s wildly successful teen novels have been adapted into a film, this time with a Spanish twist, to tell the story of forbidden love between a young woman and an older advertising exec in SORRY IF I CALL YOU LOVE. From Hollywood to Bollywood, TRACES OF SANDALWOOD journeys through the universal themes of love and hope when Mina (Nandita Das), a famous Indian actress in Mumbai, goes in search of her long-lost sister who was taken to Spain for adoption and is now living as Paula (Catalan actress Aina Clotet). Striking Bollywood musical sequences and picturesque vistas of Barcelona provide the backdrop to a budding romance that develops between Paula and a handsome Indian immigrant.

Paco León has returned to directing his mother, cult figure and matriarchal tour-de-force Carmina Barrios, and sister Maria León, in CARMINA AND AMEN. This time Carmina works furiously to conceal the surprise death of her husband from family and friends in order to allow enough time for his bonus pay cheque to clear. The predecessor to this film, Carmina or Blow Up, became an unexpected comedic hit throughout Spain (and at our festival in 2013) and now Carmina and Paco have re-teamed with a hysterical sequel that upgrades the low-budget original with a more mature, polished film that still feels fresh and very Spanish but takes Carmina’s outrageous, larger-than-life personality to the next level.

From the Spanish Consulate in Canberra, director César Espada has created what is all at once an engrossing, disturbing and twistedly comedic story of deliberate cruelty with SPOT. After a break-up pushes Daniel to drink two bottles of Vanish stain remover in front of his camera for YouTube, we travel on a flashback to Madrid with Daniel and his girlfriend Natalia to find out the cause of their relationship’s demise. Along the way we meet bizarre characters like Natalia’s mother (Eulalia Ramón), a compulsive liar with a perverse influence over her daughter, and Oriol de Michelis (Miguel Oriola), a photographer who claims to take pictures of God. Director César Espada and actress Eulalia Ramón are both available for media opportunities.

As previously announced, Spain’s biggest ever box office hit SPANISH AFFAIR, which was seen by over two million people in the fortnight following its release in Spain, will open the festival in each state across Australia. This comedic tale mischievously pokes fun at cultural differences as it tracks a young southerner who tenaciously seeks to win the heart of a Basque girl, making it a very Spanish affair indeed.

Special fiestas to look out for include a cooking demonstration with lovable Spaniard chef and Freixenet spokesperson Miguel Maestre (as seen on Channel Ten’s The Living Room) at Palace Norton St before FINDING GASTON, which follows the prolific and inspiring Chef Gastón Acurio who has a hunger for change and uses the power of food to try to transform Peru for the better; and a tango performance will help everyone find their rhythm before the Argentinian TANGO GLORIES, which explores the nostalgic memories of 85-year-old tango veteran Fermín Turdero, who expresses himself through the lyrics of tango songs.

What: 2015 Spanish Film Festival

When: Tuesday 21 April to Sunday 10 May

Where: Palace Norton St & Palace Verona

To browse the full program and purchase tickets head to www.palacecinemas.com.au

To find out more go to www.spanishfilmfestival.com