Newly-installed director of Instituto Cervantes de Manila Franciso Javier Lopez Tapia / ARMIN P. ADINA

For this year’s edition of “Pelicula>Pelikula,” the 23rd installment of the Spanish Film Festival in Manila, 25 films are scheduled to be screened, including two works of Filipino filmmakers.

At the 2024 festival’s launch event held at Red Carpet at Shangri-la in Mandaluyong City on Tuesday, Sept. 24, organizer Instituto Cervantes de Manila shared that a Filipino writer-director will return, while another filmmaker will screen a work that has not been released commercially.

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“We have two films, one of them is by Kyla Romero, ‘Transients.’ And the second one is by Sonny Calvento, ‘Primetime Mother.’ We know Kyla Romero from two years ago, she premiered here ‘Dosena,'” shared Jose Maria Fons Guardiola, Instituto Cervantes’ cultural director.

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Eunice Helera, film pogrammer at Elevated Frames, who helped select the two Filipino films included in the lineup, shared the rationale behind the decision to feature the works.

“We saw that these two films have semblances of Spanish culture. And given that we are promoting them also in the Spanish Film Festival, this is a diplomatic cultural exchange between Spain and the Philippines,” she explained.

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Calvento’s short film “Primetime Mother” has not been commercially released, and Pelicula>Pelikula 2024 may be the first opportunity for many to see it. “Romero is one of the long-time collaborators of Pelicula, as we have screened her films previously,” Helera added.

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“Each year we find a Filipino filmmaker to give the spotlight to, given that they also show semblances of the great relations of Spanish and Filipino culture,” she continued.

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Francisco Javier Lopez Tapia, the newly-installed director of Instituto Cervantes de Manila, said he will always remember the festival’s 23rd edition, as it is his first public and official event since assuming the post.

“Pelicula is not just a festival, it’s a dialogue. It’s a space where countries, languages and cultures connect. Definitely, it’s a celebration of cinema, and it’s a way of exploring new ideas on the big screen, which may be considered like something romantic and unique in this time of streaming, Netflix, HBO and so on,” he said.

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“I’m very surprised because of the amount of questions that were coming from the different media. That means that they have a genuine interest in cinema, and they have a genuine interest in Spanish cinema, and in building bridges between our cultures,” Lopez told INQUIRER.net at the sidelines of the event.

“I was really, really, really surprised and happy because of that, of the success of, you know, like all the people coming, and all the interest that has been generated around the festival,” he continued.

The lineup includes films from Spain, Latin America, and the Philippines, and will be screened in a period of nine days, from Oct. 5 to 13, at Cinema 2 of Shangri-la Plaza. All screenings are free to the public.

Aside from screening movies, the festival will also have a free film workshop for budding directors 6 to 14 years old. Spanish filmmaker Mario Torrecillas will fly to Manila so he can personally conduct the workshop, with the cooperation of film students from different universities in Metro Manila.

“It’s an exciting workshop, and we are sure that it’s going to work perfectly. And see what they have to say about Manila, how they dream it. There will be also some of our teachers with Mario Torrecillas, so they will also use these pedagogical tools that they use in our Spanish language lessons,” Fons shared.

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For more details about the festivalslotvip, and all the events including the workshop, visit the Instituto Cervantes de Manila website at https://manila.cervantes.es or its official Facebook page.

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