SPANISH CINEMA NOW 2011

Quim Gutierrez, Raúl Arévalo (Counsinhood)

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has organized this year again Spanish Cinema Now, the annual exhibition series of the  Spanish film industry in the Walter Reade Theater of New York from 8th to 22nd of December. The event, that has the support of the Instituto Cervantes New York, the Spanish Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts and the Institut Ramon Llull of Catalan Language and Culture, exhibits in this year's series around 20 new Spanish films and a retrospective on the Spanish director that recently passed away, Luis García Berlanga.

Yon González, Santiago Segura (Torrente)

The series, that has been running since 1992, presented this year films from directors such as Santiago Segura, Daniel Sánchez-Arévalo, Mireia Ros, Nacho Vigalondo, Chema de la Peña, Esteban and José Miguel Ibarretxe, Agustí Villaronga, Enrique Otero, Montxo Armendáriz, José Luis Garcia Sánchez, Isaki Lacuesta, Jonas Trueba, Carlos Iglesias, Miguel Gonçalves Mendes or Ventura Pons.

J. Merino,J. Ariño & Emilia Uutinen (An Almost Perfect World)

We would most warmly recommend some pretty good pieces seen at this year's edition such as the comedies from Daniel Sánchez Arévalo "Cousinhood" (Primos), starring Quim Gutiérrez, Raúl Arévalo, Adrián Lastra, Inma Cuesta and Antonio de la Torre, Santiago Segura's "Torrente 4: Lethal Crisis" with this crazy policeman, starring Santiago Segura, Carlos Areces, Kiko Rivera, Tony Leblanc, Enrique Villén, Francisco González and Emma Ozores, and Esteban and José Miguel Ibarretxe's "An Almost Perfect World" (Un Mundo Casi Perfecto), another crazy comedy, starring Javier Merino, Antonio Dechent, Álex Angulo, Velilla Valbuena, Mairim Pérez, Jon Ariño, Emilia Uutinen, Leire Berrocal, Jon Inciarte and Javivi.

We really liked some of the dramas screened this year, like the Carlos Iglesias' beautiful "Ispansi", starring Isabel Blanco, Esther Regina, Carlos Iglesias, Eloisa Vargas, Iñaki Guevara and Bruto Pomeroy, Agustí Villaronga's impressive "Black Bread", starring Francesc Colomer, Nora Navas, Roger Casamajor, Marina Comas, Marina Gatell, Laia Marull,  Eduard Fernández and Sergi López, or Montxo Armendáriz's "Don´t be Afraid", starring Belén Rueda, Lluis Homar and Michelle Jenner.

Marina Comas, Francesc Colomer, Nora Navas  (Black Bread)

The Jonas Trueba's "Every Song Talks About Me" offered a nice fresh spirit and Miguel Gonçalves Mendes' documentary "José and Pilar" a beautiful  portrait of the Nobel-winning writer José Saramago.

In general the spanish films, specially the comical ones, often seem to turn out quite different and exotic to the U.S. spectators. The Spanish film industry always has  something new and exciting to offer and we are sure this year's Spanish Cinema Now was a real pleasure to all the New York spectators who could attend the series.

Here is the list of all the movies programmed this year:

23-F
Chema de la Peña, 2011

An Almost Perfect World
Esteban Ibarretxe, José Miguel Ibarretxe, 2011

Barcelona Before
Mireia Ros, 2011

Black Bread
Agustí Villaronga, 2010

Contacts
Paulino Viota, 1970

Cousinhood
Daniel Sanchez Arevalo, 2011

Crebinsky
Enrique Otero, 2011

Don’t Be Afraid
Montxo Armendáriz, 2011

Don’t Touch the Dead, Kid
Jose Luis Garcia Sánchez, 2011

Double Steps
Isaki Lacuesta, 2011

Every Song Talks About Me
Jonás Trueba, 2011

Everyone Off to Jail
Luis García Berlanga, 1993

Extraterrestrial
Nacho Vigalondo, 2011

Ispansi
Carlos Iglesias, 2011

José y Pilar
Miguel Gonçalves Mendes, 2011

Life Size
Luis García Berlanga, 1976

Long Live the Bride and Groom
Luis García Berlanga, 1970

Plácido
Luis García Berlanga, 1961

Shortmetraje

That Happy Couple
Juan Antonio Bardem, Luis García Berlanga, 1953

The Executioner
Luis García Berlanga, 1963

The Heifer
Luis García Berlanga, 1985

The National Shotgun
Luis García Berlanga, 1978

The Rocket from Calabuch
Luis García Berlanga, 1956

The Waves
Alberto Morais, 2011

Torrente 4: Lethal Crisis
Santiago Segura, 2011

Welcome Mr. Marshall!
Luis García Berlanga, 1953

Year of Grace
Ventura Pons, 2011

THE SKIN I LIVE IN: Golden Globe Nominee 2011

Pedro Almodóvar's last film "The Skin I Live In" has received a Golden Globe Nomination this year in the Foreign Language Film - category.

The film will be competing together with the chinese "The Flowers of War", the american "In The Land of Blood and Honey", the belgian "Yhe Kid With a Bike" and the iranian film  "A Separation".

We hope all the luck to the Spanish representation  in this year's Golden Globes, which also include the nominations of the partially Spanish produced films "Midnight in Paris" by Woody Allen and "Carnage" by Roman Polanski.  The awards will be presented on January 15th 2012 in Los Angeles.

SPANISH PREMIERES for the month of December 2011

The month of December offers a bunch of new premieres from the Spanish film industry.

On one hand the directors and actors Vladimir Cruz and Jorge Perugorría open the month  with their "Affinities", a story based on the novel "" by Reinaldo Montero that presents characters who face the rational problems of the today's society by escaping to the irrational world of the pleasure. Finally their solution to life doesn´t seem to be so simple and ephimeral. This Spanish-Cuban co-production is sterred by Vladimir Cruz, Cuca Escribano, Gabriela Griffith and Jorge Perugorría and produced by Esther Pou and Roberto Barrachina.

Premiere: 2 of December.

On the other hand Paco Arango opens his first feature film "Maktub", a christmas comedy that tells the story of how a family father's life changes from a chaos to something better when he meets a 15 year-old boy with cancer and happier than anyone. Starring Diego Peretti, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Goya Toledo, Rosa Maria Sardà, Enrique Villén, Jorge García Laura Esquivel and Amparo Baró.

Premiere: 16th of December.

"The Door of No Return" by Santiago Zannou, athough opened in November is worth emphasizing in this post, is an interesting  documentary about the director's father Alphonse Zannou who left his African home country Benin 40 years ago with the promise to return. Until now he hadn' gone back, and in this journey after his roots and the peace of mind, he will face all the fears that kept him away so long, see the family that still is alive and see how Africa has changed in all these years he passed in Europe. Produced by Víctor Martí and Benjamín Arraou.

Premiere: 25th of November

The SPANISH FILM ACADEMY screens the Latin American films candidates for the GOYA AWARDS

The poster of "Violeta Went to Heaven"

The Spanish Film Academy screens from 16th of December until the 22nd of December the Latin American films that are presented as candidates for the every year Spanish Goya film awards. The various movies from countries such as Cuba, Uruguay, Columbia, Peru, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina and Chile will be screened in open sessions to the public.

The movies to be exhibited are:

"Artigas-La redota" (URUGUAY), by César Charlone

"Ticket to Paradise" (CUBA) by Gerardo Chijona

"The Squad" (COLUMBIA) by Jaime Osorio Márquez

"The Bad Intentions" (PERU), by Rosario García-Montero

"Miss Bullet" (MÉJICO) by Gerardo Naranjo

"Reveron" (VENEZUELA) by Diego Rísquez

"A Chinese Tale" (ARGENTINA) by Ricardo Darín

"Violeta went to Heaven" (CHILE) by Andrés Wood