Huelva for Spanish-American cinema

by Valeria Chiari

07/11/2003 - Tomorrow sees the start of the 29th edition of the Festival of Spanish-American films in Huelva. The event goes on until November 15, and apart from the usual competition, there’ll be a wide-ranging selection of the most recent productions filmed in Spanish and Portuguese.
There are 12 films in competition and the jury, led by the Argentinean actor, Sergio Renàn, has to choose the best work to be given the traditional City of Huelva Prize. Those in competition include the Portuguese A Talking Picture by Manoel de Oliveira, the Spanish El coche a pedales by Ramòn Barea, the Argentinean El fin, el mar by Jorge Dyszel and the film from Uruguay El viaje hacia el mar by Guillermo Casanova.
There will be a tribute to the Bolivian director Jorge Ruiz and there’s a section dedicated to the big hits of 2003 like My Life Without Me [trailer] by Isabel Coixet, Life Marks by Enrique Urbizu and The Hours of the Day by Jaime Rosales. In addition there’s a “Panorama of Bolivia Cinema” and a section dedicated to children’s films with a screening of the first animation film made in Spain, El hotel electrico, from 1903, as well as some Made in the USA blockbusters like Sinbad, the legend of the Seven Seas and Spirit.
The festival will also be devoting a part of its programme to documentaries and short films, with particular emphasis on Andalusian productions, with films like The End of a Mystery by Miguel Hermoso and South from Granada by Fernando Colomo. This year, the festival will once again be awarding the ‘Luis Bunuel’ prize. The films competing are Mondays in the Sun [trailer], Historias Minimas and El crimen de Padre Amaro.

(Translated from Italian)