OBSERVER: Spanish Film Festival
The 2025 HSBC Spanish Film Festival will be presented in Melbourne at Palace Cinemas, Palace Nova and Luna Palace Cinemas from June 13-July 2.
The Festival includes a curated selection of 30 films from Spain and Latin America, starting with Opening Night comedy Samana Sunrise (Amanece en Samaná), featuring an all-star cast including Luis Zahera, María Luisa Mayol, Luis Tosar and Bárbara Santa-Cruz.
The story follows two Spanish couples celebrating their 20-year friendship with a trip to a beachside resort in the Dominican Republic, where a confession about the past leads to a reality-shifting ‘Sliding Doors’ moment.
The Centrepiece of the Festival is the highly acclaimed EL 47, which won five Goya Awards including the coveted Best Film.
Inspired by a true story, from writer/director Marcel Barrena (Mediterraneo: The Law of the Sea), this biographical drama starring Eduard Fernández follows a bus driver in an act of peaceful dissidence that transformed modern Barcelona during the city’s boom in the 1970s.
A 2025 Special Presentation is Undercover (La infiltrada), co-winner of Best Film at the 2025 Goya Awards (sharing it with EL 47).
This gripping crime thriller set in the Basque Country is based on the real-life story of Aranzazu Berradre Marín, the pseudonym for the only police officer in Spanish history to infiltrate the terrorist organisation ETA.
For full details of Spanish Film Festival dates, times and the full program, visit spanishfilmfestival.com/
Cheryl Threadgold

