Spanish films – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

LA BOLA NEGRA – Review by Jennifer Green

October 14, 2026October 14, 2026 Jennifer Green Federico García Lorca, glenn close, Guitarricadelafuente, Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo, La Bola Negra, Los Javis, Miguel Bernardeau, Milo Quifes, penelope cruz, Spanish films

The film is a sweeping three-tale epic weaving together stories from different time periods. Viewers—particularly those with spotty knowledge of Spanish history—might feel a little lost at points early on, but the piece comes together by the end in surprising and poignant ways. Despite some less nuanced elements, Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo have made an epic and visually impacting film that blends reality and fiction together into a single poignant melodrama. There’s plenty here to interest, inspire and move audiences, and the fact that it’s playing well with viewers and critics from diverse countries and cultures says a lot about directors Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo’s ability to convey universal themes within a distinctively Spanish story.

Festivals Reviews

AMARGA NAVIDAD/BITTER CHRISTMAS (NYFF 2026) – Review by Diane Carson

September 30, 2026October 12, 2026 Diane Carson Amarga Navidad/Bitter Christmas, Bárbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Milena Smit, NYFF 2026, Patrick Criado, pedro almodovar, Spanish films

Noted Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar is at heart an experimental filmmaker working in a narrative world, often seamlessly integrating his dual impulses with occasional bumps here and there (Parallel Mothers, 2021, a case in point.) However, in Amarga Navidad/Bitter Christmas, Almodóvar blends both appetites masterfully in a semi-autobiographical, nonchronological exploration of creativity. In it, to overcome his writer’s block, celebrated film director Raúl Rossetti (Leonardo Sbaraglia) borrows surreptitiously and invasively from closest friends’ lives in order to develop his future film’s screenplay, also titled Amarga Navidad/Bitter Christmas. Exploring the interplay between fictitious and derivative stories, Almodóvar presents parallel accounts, the actual events occurring over a long weekend in December 2004 in Madrid with Raúl’s assembled version written in the summer of 2026.

Reviews

ROMERIA – Review by Sarah Ward

June 23, 2026 Sarah Ward carla simon, catalan films, Hélène Louvart, Llúcia Garcia, Romería, Spanish films

Carla Simón has done it again — made a marvel of a movie, that is, and one so teeming with insight and spirit that its personal ties are always evident, as was the case with both Summer 1993 and Alcarràs. The Spanish writer/director may prefer to stay in semi-autobiographical territory again with the richly evocative and resonant Romería; however, as she keeps amassing a resume enviable for its intimacy and intelligence, her work is no less affecting for fictionalising some of the specifics.

Reviews

SATURN RETURN – Review by Nadine Whitney

December 2, 2024December 8, 2024 Nadine Whitney Grenada, international oscars, Isaki Lacuesta, Los Planetas, Pol Rodríguez, Saturn Return, shoegaze band, Spanish films, Stéphanie Magnin, Takuro Takeuchi

Spain’s entry to the Academy Awards Saturn Return by Isaki Lacuesta is an imagined ‘biography’ of famed Grenadian indie and shoegaze band Los Planetas. The director is clear in his intention of fiction – using the lyrics of the band to construct the mood and feelings they might have experienced as they were recording their third album in the late 1990s. Few of the characters are given names. They are simply ‘The singer’ (Daniel Ibáñez) or ‘The guitarist’ (Cristalino) or ‘The drummer’ (Mafo): and although they stand in as obvious avatars for their real-life models, the director is crafting a concept film, not a factual one.

Reviews

YOU ARE NOT ME – Review by Justina Walford

November 29, 2024December 1, 2024 Justina Walford Christmas horror, Marisa Crespo, Moisés Romera, Pilar Almería, Spanish films, You Are Not Me

You Are Not Me is a Christmas horror film from Spain. I jokingly told a friend that it’s The Wicker Man meets Home for the Holidays. While not an entirely accurate description, it feels true in a horror holiday sense. The film has the eerie feel of The Wicker Man, with a supernatural unease that sets in the moment Aitana makes an unexpected visit to her parents with her wife and baby. And at its core, the film is a story about a woman who feels alienated in her own home among her own flesh and blood.

Reviews

SATURN RETURN (SEGUNDO PREMIO) – Review by Jennifer Green

September 23, 2024September 23, 2024 Jennifer Green Cristalino, Daniel Ibañez, Granada, International Oscar, Isaki Lacuesta, Los Planetas, Pol Rodríguez, Saturn Return, Segundo Premio, Spanish films, Stéphanie Magnin

Spain’s International Oscar nominee Saturn Return (Segundo Premio) picked up Best Film and Directing awards at the leading Spanish Film Festival of Málaga last May and has been widely praised by Spanish critics. It’s a film packed with local references and a dedication to its city of origin, Granada, and one that also pulls from a long tradition of on-screen representations of rock-n-rollers from well beyond Spain’s borders.

Festivals Reviews

THE PARTY’S OVER (TIFF 2024) – Review by Jennifer Green

September 16, 2024September 15, 2024 Jennifer Green Beatriz Arjona, Edith Martínez Val, Elena Manrique, Fin de Fiesta, Sonia Barba, Spanish films, The Party’s Over, TIFF 2024

Spanish writer-director Elena Manrique shows great potential in her feature debut, The Party’s Over (Fin de Fiesta), screening at TIFF as part of its Discovery section. Manrique’s well-constructed script and eye for memorable shots is on display in the film, even while the story’s attempts to spotlight harsh realities of southern Spain aren’t entirely successful.

Reviews

CLOSE YOUR EYES – Review by Diane Carson

September 9, 2024September 11, 2024 Diane Carson Ana Torrent as Ana Arenas, catalan films, Jose Coronado, Manolo Solo, Spanish films, Victor Erice

In Close Your Eyes, Spanish director Víctor Erice poses a tantalizing mystery for his central character and his audience. As veteran filmmaker Miguel Garay’s production of the appropriately titled The Farewell Gaze progresses, his close friend and lead actor Julio Arenas disappears without any warning, clues, or reason.

Festivals Reviews

CLOSE YOUR EYES (Melbourne IFF 2024) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

August 20, 2024August 19, 2024 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Ana Torrent, Close Your Eyes, Jose Coronado, Manolo Solo, Melbourne IFF 2024, Spanish films, Victor Erice

To say there has been some time between Spanish cinema giant Victor Erice’s films is somewhat of an understatement. Erice’s most recent film Close Your Eyes sees him joyously return to once again work with cinema icon Ana Torrent – who was a mere 7 years old when she starred in The Spirit of the Beehive – his latest movie is similarly also a meditation on the ways that cinema and history can entwine in often profoundly personal ways. Close Your Eyes is a dazzling return to fictional feature filmmaking by one of cinema’s greatest giants.

Reviews

SOCIETY OF THE SNOW – Review by Susan Granger

January 23, 2024January 24, 2024 Susan Granger airplane crash, cannibalism, Enzo Vogrincic Roldan, J.A. Bayona, netflix, Numa Turcatti, oscar nominated, Society of the Snow, Spanish films, truth-based

Oscar-nominated Society of the Snow is Spain’s entry for Best International Film at this year’s Academy Awards. J.A Bayona’s true-life survival tale centers on the 19 members of a Uruguayan rugby team that set off from Montevideo for Santiago, Chile, and was stranded in the snow-covered Andes for 72 days. Told primarily from the perspective of rugby player Numa Turcatti (Enzo Vogrincic Roldan), their ordeal begins on October 13, 1972, when poor weather conditions forced Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 to land in Mendoza, Argentina, overnight.

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