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CANNES 2016 Spain

A return to form for Spain at the world’s greatest festival

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- Selected in the official competition section, Pedro Almodóvar’s Julieta spearheads this year’s varied Spanish representation on the Croisette

A return to form for Spain at the world’s greatest festival
Julieta by Pedro Almodóvar

One year ago, we were grumbling about the almost non-existent presence of Spanish films on the Croisette and at other A-list festivals, but Spanish-made productions and co-productions will be paying a visit to the Cannes Film Festival this May, and will be ready to throw their weight around. Of course, one of the people regularly invited to tread the red carpet at the Palais is His Royal Highness Pedro Almódovar, who will be in competition presenting his new baby, Julieta [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Pedro Almodóvar
film profile
]
(produced by his company, El Deseo), a drama that has really split opinions since it was released in Spain on 8 April.

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In the official section, but in the guise of a special screening, the director of Live Flesh is backed up by Albert Serra, an extremely unique Catalan filmmaker who, after taking part in the Directors’ Fortnight in 2006 with Honour of the Knights (Quixotic) [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
and in 2008 with Birdsong, has now made Last Days of Louis XIV [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Albert Serra
film profile
]
as a French co-production (Capricci Films and Andergraun Films).

Another alternative and incredibly uninhibited auteur who is making his return to Cannes is Óliver Laxe, whose You All Are Captains [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
piqued a great deal of interest (and snagged the Fipresci Prize) six years ago in the Directors’ Fortnight. Now the Critics’ Week is opening its doors to his Mimosas [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Oliver Laxe
film profile
]
, a co-production between Spain (Zeitun Films), France (Rouge International), Qatar and Morocco. It was shot in the latter country, just like You All Are Captains, and to a certain extent, it was even possible to make out its subject matter and look in the film The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile
]
, which starred Laxe himself and was shot in the Atlas Mountains at the same time as his movie.

The Directors’ Fortnight has selected Neruda [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Pablo Larraín (The Club), a co-production between Spain (Setembro Cine, with the involvement of RTVE and Movistar Plus+) and outfits in Chile, the USA, Argentina and France (Funny Balloons), as well as the animated short Decorado by Galician director Alberto Vázquez (Psiconautas [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
).

The Spanish contingent at Cannes 2016 is rounded off by the short film Timecode, directed by Juanjo Giménez, which is in the running for the Palme d’Or for Best Short (read the news).

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(Translated from Spanish)

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