2019 Ottawa Spanish Film Festival

The 2019 Spanish Film Festival features a representative selection of films from 2018 and 2019 that will give Canadian audiences a taste of all the creativity, history, and talent of today’s Spanish cinema.

Since 2012, ByTowne Cinema, in conjunction with the Embassy of Spain, has presented a festival of new films from Spain that do not have commercial distribution in Canada. Included are award winners and box-office champions. These four Ottawa premieres are examples of the quality and vitality of film production in Spain today.

From October 8-31, 2019, Ottawa, Toronto with the addition of Calgary this year for the first time, will host thoughtful, funny and provocative movies –all of them premiering in the cities where they will be screened.

In this edition, El reino (The Realm) – the first of many highlights – is a film that was featured at TIFF 2018. This thriller about political corruption was one of the stars at the 2019 Spanish Film Academy Goya Awards. Campeones (Champions) was one of the biggest box-office successes in Spain last year, and winner of the Goya for Best Film. Audiences will also have the opportunity to enjoy the self-consciousness of growing up when watching La banda (Love Beats) and Viaje al cuarto de una madre (Journey to a Mother’s Room). Besides, the comedies ¿Qué te juegas? (Get Her… If You Can) and Yo, mi mujer y mi mujer muerta (Me, Myself and My Dead Wife) might just make you smile or even laugh out loud.

Champions (Campeones)

• On Wednesday, October 9 at 6:45 pm.
• Directed by Javier Fesser, Spain, 2018, 124 minutes.
• In Spanish with English subtitles. Comedy / Drama. Watch trailer.
• Winner of 3 Goya Awards: Best Film, Original Song and New Actor.

Marco is an assistant coach in Spain’s top basketball league. One day, after getting drunk, his frustration and bad attitude get him involved in a traffic accident that lands him in court. He loses his job and his girlfriend and is sentenced to the worst possible punishment for his ego: coaching a group of intellectually-disabled players that have never touched a ball before. Through their innocence, tenderness and plenty of good humor, they will teach Marco about the things that really matter. They are the true Champions of Life.

The Realm (El Reino)

• On Wednesday, October 16 at 6:45 pm.
• Directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Spain / France, 2018, 131 minutes.
• In Spanish with English subtitles. Thriller. Watch trailer.
• Winner of 7 Goya Awards, including Best Director, Screenplay & Actor.

Manuel López-Vidal is a beloved politician in his region: he enjoys a good social position, has a loving family, friends everywhere and plenty of natural charisma. He is also a corrupt man who has been enriching himself with public funds for years. After attempting to cover up for an associate, Manuel is left exposed. To his surprise, the Party’s members seek to place the blame for the entire plot on his shoulders. But he will not surrender. How far is a person willing to go in order to hold on to power?

Journey to a Mother’s Room (Viaje al cuarto de una madre)

• On Wednesday, October 23 at 6:45 pm.
• Directed by Celia Rico, 2018, 90 minutes.
• In Spanish with English subtitles. Drama. Watch trailer.
• 4 Nominations at the 2019 Goya Awards.

Leonor wants to leave home but she doesn’t dare tell her mother. Estrella doesn’t want her daughter to go, but she isn’t able to keep her by her side. Mother and daughter will have to face a new time in their lives in which the world they share is wavering.

Love Beats (La Banda)

• On Wednesday, October 30 at 6:45 pm.
• Directed by Roberto Bueso, 2019, 87 minutes.
• In Spanish and Catalan with English subtitles. Drama. Watch trailer.
• Official Selection at the Malaga Spanish Film Festival.

Edu is a young musician who will have to temporarily abandon his monotonous life in dreary London to return to his hometown in Spain for his brother’s wedding. After years away, a sense of strangeness and nostalgia leave him feeling like he’s on the outside looking in until, gradually, the reunion with friends, family and especially, Alicia, his secret crush and his best friend’s girlfriend, bring out feelings that he thought he had gotten over.