10/11/2022 - The Spanish festival celebrates its anniversary with a selection that gives a voice to debut directors, reaffirms established names and supports Ibero-American filmmakers

With an Official Section of 33 feature films, divided into three parts – Retueyos, for first-time filmmakers; Albar, which includes known filmmakers; and Tierres en Trance, with directors from Ibero-America –, the 60th edition of the Gijón International Film Festival opens on Friday 11 November with the Spanish premiere of Armageddon Time, by US director James Gray (a film competing in Albar), and closes on 19 Saturday with the French-Belgium production The Green Perfume [+see also:
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Two world premieres also feature in the Retueyos section: Mission to Mars [+see also:
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interview: Damian Kocur
film profile], the award-winning debut at Venice's Orizzonti by Polish director Damian Kocur. Metronom [+see also:
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interview: Alexandru Belc
film profile] by Alexandru Belc takes us back to Romania in 1972. With Ordinary Failures [+see also:
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interview: Cristina Grosan
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interview: Andrea Pallaoro
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interview: Floor van der Meulen
film profile], the Dutch Floor van der Meulen addresses euthanasia. See You Friday Robinson [+see also:
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film profile], by the French-based Iranian Mitra Farahani will be screened out of competition in the section, which is completed by the Palestinian Jumana Manna with Foragers, and US filmmakers Daniel Goldhaber (with How to Blow Up a Pipeline), Michael Morris (with To Leslie) and Owen Kline (with Funny Pages).

In Albar, the FICX will host the world premiere of Clorindo Testa, by the Argentinian Mariano Llinás. Alongside this film, the German Isabelle Stever presents Grand Jeté [+see also:
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interview: Isabelle Stever
film profile], on the taboo of incest, the Austrian Ulrich Seidl brings Rimini [+see also:
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interview: Ulrich Seidl
film profile] his approach to (dark) comedy, while the master Werner Herzog screens The Fire Within: Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft [+see also:
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film profile], a documentary that plays with the personal archives of some passionate volcanologists engulfed by Mount Unzen. French Emmanuel Mouret directs Diary of a Fleeting Affair [+see also:
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interview: Emmanuel Mouret
film profile], and Russian Kirill Serebrennikov, brings the Russian-European co-production Tchaikovsky’s Wife [+see also:
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film profile], while out of competition SERVIAM – I Will Serve [+see also:
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interview: Ruth Mader
film profile], by Austrian Ruth Mader, a mystical thriller which received acclaim at Locarno. The section is completed with Tales of the Purple House [+see also:
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film profile], in which the Iraqi-French Abbas Fahdel and the painter Nour Ballouk explore the complexity of Lebanon on the brink of the abyss, The Novelist's Film, by the genius Hong Sang-soo, and That Kind of Summer, by the Canadian Denis Côté.

Cinema from Spain, Portugal and South America are represented in the Tierres en Trance section. Promoted by the previous FICXPro awards are the medium-length film Puerperio, by the Spanish Pilar Álvarez, and Sobre las nubes, by the Argentinean María Aparicio. And in the documentary Al otro lado del mar, which has its world premiere here, Eloy Domínguez Serén (Hamada [+see also:
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interview: Eloy Domínguez Serén
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interview: Theo Montoya
film profile], the spectacular debut feature film by the Colombian Theo Montoya, EAMI [+see also:
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film profile], the IFFR winner by Paraguayan Paz Encina and Soy niño, by the Chilean Lorena Zilleruelo, along with Camuflaje, by the Argentinian Jonathan Perel, El reino de Dios, by the Mexican Claudia Sainte-Luce and, out of competition, the short film Circe, in which María Abenia builds a bridge between myth and reality in the volcanic lands of Tenerife.

You can view the rest of the festival programme here.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)