06/11/2006

Jose Luis Cuerda's The Education of Fairies officially opens the Spanish and Latin-American Film Festival of Brussels (FestCEAL) tonight, which through November 21 will offer Belgian film lovers the chance to catch up on some of the most recent Ibero-American productions.

Cuerda's adaptation of Didier Van Cauwelaert's popular novel – which is among the ten most seen Spanish features of the year, having attracted nearly 350,000 moviegoers since its premiere back in June (see news) – is one of the most anticipated titles in the Films from Spain section, which also includes other nine films that have made a splash over the last year, either on the festival circuit or in the local box office.

These films are: Santiago Segura's Torrente 3 (the most successful local title of 2005); Alberto Rodríguez's Seven Virgins [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which gave his lead actor Juan José Ballesta the Silver Shell at the San Sebastian Film Festival; Jaime Chávarri's Camarón with Goya winner Óscar Jaenada in the role of the legendary Flamenco singer; Malaga 2006 winner Rough Winds by Gerardo Herrero (see news); box office hit The Two Sides of the Bed [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Álvaro Curiel
interview: Emilio Martínez Lázaro
film profile] by Emilio Martínez Lázaro (see focus); San Sebastian title Hard Times by Manuel Martín Cuenca (news); Karlovy Vary's competition entry My Quick Way Out by Miguel Albadalejo (news); Marcos Carnevale's Elsa and Fred [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; and the immigration tale 1 Franco, 14 Pesetas by Carlos Iglesias, who will be attending the festival to present his film and participate in a collateral debate on film and literature as elements of promotion of Spanish culture.

These 10 titles will compete for three awards: Best Spanish Film, a €3,000 award for distribution support and the Audience Award.

Presented out of competition are Miguel Courtois's El Lobo, starring Eduardo Noriega, Manuel Gómez Pereira's comedy Reinas [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Carlos Saura's documentary Iberia and Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (see news).

From November 13-17, the festival will also organise the Enifilm – Audiovisual Industry Market, supported by the Al-Invest Programme which brings together audiovisual companies from South America and Europe to promote the links between both continents when it comes to co-production projects and the circulation of audiovisual works.