Set in Spain’s green mountainous north and boasting record ticket sales and a lineup which mixes big fest winners and Spanish world premieres, Spain’s Gijón Film Festival (FICX) opens this Friday with Richard Linklater’s Berlin Silver Bear winner “Blue Moon,” starring Ethan Hawke as Richard Rodger’s highly troubled songwriter.
Unspooling Nov. 14-22, Gijón will offer up Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, its favourite son Hong Sangsoo, already a triple winner, this time round with “What Does that Nature Say to You?” The competition is studded by other hallowed auteurs such as Radu Jude and his Berlin contender “Kontinental ’25” and Ira Sachs with his healthily selling “Peter Hujar’s Day.”
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Gijón’s big draws for many, however, lie also elsewhere. One is a competition packed by on-the-rise filmmakers, bidding for more major recognition after prizes or critical applause in major sidebars of big fests, or events just outside A-list events, affording a sense of genuine discovery.
Popular on Variety
Cases in point take in Sven Bresser’s debut “Reedland,” a Cannes Critics’ Week title and a “chilling and thought-provoking drama,” Variety announced; Anna Casanave Cambet’s Un Certain Regard player “Love Me Tender,” an elegant and moving portrait of motherhood, Variety had it, and documentarian Louise Hemon’s fiction feature debut Alps-set “The Girl in the Snow,” a Chicago News Directors winner.
Gijón will unveil Spanish world premieres or almost global bows. Two are already on the radar: Javier Marco’s “Face to Face” (“A la cara”), the spin-off from a 2021 Goya winning short, in which a TV presenter confronts an internet troll, sneak-peeked at December’s RECLab as a work in progress, and Luis Miñarro’s “Emergency Exit,” a vintage culture-sluiced homage to ‘70s cinema. Bowing at Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival on Thursday, it plays like Luis Buñuel’s “The Exterminating Angel” on wheels, as 14 disparate individuals board a coach which they never leave, as iconic Tenerife mountains screen in back projection outside. It features one of the last performances of Almodóvar star Marisa Paredes.
Also playing Gijón, after a Nov. 14 world premiere at Tallinn, Anxos Fazáns, “Dashed Lines,” co-written by Ian de la Rosa, a writer on “Veneno,” charts the friendship between Bea, 50, a soon-to-become divorcee, and Denis, 28, a trans man desperately seeking secure employment. With Anxos, we tried to developing the type of cinema that excites us: European cinema with a markedly arthouse feel, but capable of reaching audiences,” Fuentes said when the project was selected for the ECAM Madrid Film School Incubator.
Offering Spaniards the chance to catch up with some of the most impactful titles at the San Sebastián Film Festival, the biggest film event in the Spanish-speaking world, in Crossroads, a not-so-common strategic alliance, a clutch of titles will segue from San Sebastián to Gijón: Kaouther Ben Hania’s ““The Voice of Hind Rajab,” Alice Winocour’s “Couture” starring Angelina Jolie, Clare Denis’s “The Fence,” Lucrecia Martel’s “Nuestra Tierra” and Simón Mesa Soto’s “A Poet.”
“Our idea is to consolidate last year’s record-breaking ticket sales whose revenues were the highest in history,” said Gijón Festival director Alejandro Díaz. “The festival deeply connects with local audiences, ticket sales prove that.”
Gijón also aim to develop regional industry and talent across programs, developed in partnership with Asturias Paraíso Natural Film Commission.
“Our idea is to generate community, trying to connect both local and regional professionals and festival guests,” Díaz added.
Industry strand Semilleru workshops and panels focused on local art-house productions.
FICX Semilleru Lab, the festival development initiative, targets local works-in-progress titles, showcasing five projects and five pix in post, whose creators and producers will benefit from festival panels, Semilleru events and targeted workshops.
63rd Gijón Film Festival Lineup:
Albar Main Competition
“Blue Moon” (U.S., Richard Linklater)
“The Great Arch” (France, Stéphane Demoustier)
“Anemone” (U.K., Ronan Day-Lewis)
“What Marielle Knows” (Germany, Frédéric Hambalek)
“What Does that Nature Say to You” (Republic of Korea, Hong Sangsoo)
“Reedland” (Belgium/Netherlands, Sven Bresser)
“Omaha” (U.S., Cole Webley)
“Love Me Tender” (France, Anna Cazenave Cambet)
“L’ Intérêt D’Adam” (Belgium/France, Laura Wandel)
“Divine Comedy” (France/Germany/Iran/Italy/Turkey, Ali Asgari)
“Ari” (Belgium/France, Léonor Serraille)
“Á Pied D’Œuvre” (France, Valérie Donzelli)
“Al Oeste, en Zapata” (Cuba/Spain, David Bim)
“Las Líneas Discontinuas” (Spain, Anxious Fazáns)
“Así Llego la Noche” (Spain, Ángel Santos)
“A la Cara” (Belgium/Spain, Javier Marco)
“Emergency Exit” (Spain Lluís Miñarro)
“Kontinental ’25” (Romania, Radu Jude)
“Peter Hujar’s Day” (Germany/U.S., Ira Sachs)
“The Girl in the Snow” (France, Louise Hérmon)
FICX Premiere
“A Árvore do Conhecimento” ( France/Portugal, Eugéne Green)
“The Assistant” (Poland/UK, Anka Seasonal and Wilhelm Sasnal)
“ Paul” (Canada, Denis Côté)
“Los Bobos” (Argentina, Basovih Marinaro and Sofía Jallinsky)
“L’Aventura” (France, Sophie Letourneur)
“Barking in the Dark” ( France, Marie Losier)
“Back to the Family” (France/Latvia/Lithuania/Poland, Sharunas Bartas)
“Slackers” (Germany , Sorina Gajewski)
“Ma Frère” (France, Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret)
“Made in EU” (Germany/Bulgary/Czech Republic, Stephan Komandarev)
“Fuck the Polis” (Portugal , Rita Azevedo)
“Mare’s Nest” (France/UK , Ben Rivers)
Retueyos
“Wind, Talk to Me” (Croatia/Serbia/Slovenia, Stefan Djordjevíc)
“White Snail” (Austria, Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter)
“Sugarland” (Austria, Isabella Brunäcker)
“Six Weeks On” (Germany, Jacqueline Jansen)
“Love Letters” (France, Alice Douard)
“Follies” (Canada, Erik K. Boulianne)
“Brother Verses Brother” (U.S., Ari Gold)
“A Light that Never Goes Out” (Finland/Norway, Lauri-Matti Parppei)
“Skiff” (Belgium/Netherlands/Sweden, Cecilia Verheyden and Ingride Santos)
“Stereo Girls” (Canada/France, Caroline Deruas)
“Plaza Mayor” (Spain, Marcos M. Merino)
“Caravan” (Czech Republic/Italy/Slovakia, Zuzana Kirchnerová)
“Magic Farm” (Argentina/US, Amalia Ulman)
“Sorella Di Clausura” (Italy/Romania/Serbia/Spain, Ivana Mladenovíc)
